This is Not My Mother's Halloween

Celebrating Halloween was something my family did off and on growing up. Mostly we went trick-r-treating and/or went to a church function of some sort.  But it wasn't a "deal," there were no decorations, no parties, no hoopla. My mom seemed rather indifferent to it one way or the other.
My kids are having the exact opposite experience, and it kinda all happened by accident.

When Sweet Man and I moved into our current house our very first party was for Halloween. We have a great neighborhood for trick-r-treating  and we invited all of our friends over to go with us. In 9 years we have only missed one Halloween. The party has grown into a well loved tradition, and each year is different  depending on who can come, what the weather is like and what day of the week it falls. But one thing never changes- it is always a night to remember.

Another influence was the little one-room shoppe that I shared with my friend Jeanetta. The theme of our shoppe (filled with a mix of handmade and thrifted items) was always centered whatever holiday was coming up.  Halloween seemed to be the one that we had the most fun with and got the most love from customers. I think it was because we always more playful than we were scary. We struck a nice balance between ghoulish and garish, which then sorda spilled over into our home and our party as well.

Halloween also means Mummy Dogs around our place.

Take a hot dog, wrap crescent roll dough around it and pop in some capers for "eyes,"  bake at 350 until golden and Voila! Mummy Dogs for all! Add a little blood (ketchup,) bile (mustard) or toe jam (relish) and you are good to go.

We can never make enough of these for our party - kids and adults alike gobble them up.

Speaking of Mummy's....
My boys usually have two each year - one for the school carnival and one for Halloween itself. Also, most of the customs are decided on the day before ( or even the day of) the big event, made from whatever we have on hand or what we can scrounge up quickly at the thrift store around the corner.

Spiders! Oh I love all honeycomb decorations. They are so old school and vintage in feel. I have started adding my own little flourishes to these $1 items by way of glue, glitter and ribbon. So easy, and so fun.

What is more Halloween than Harry Potter? We have to give props to our friends the Chino's for lending Miles almost this entire outfit.  The glasses however were his own.

Most of the time I don't miss the shoppe so much. But then I get to looking at all these old pictures and I start waxing nostalgic for the good old days. This right here is one of the reasons that I blog. This blog is a record of our life over the past seven years. I love going through the archives and finding all the photos that I have shown here today. I can't help but smile. What a wonderful life we have, truly.

Also, where else are you going to find Little Bo Peep and a Pregnant Nun hanging out but around these parts?

Or the Ghost of Mr. McGhoo?

And let's not even get into what is going on in this picture.

Yes, this is not my mother's Halloween. And all this hoopla is not for everyone ( not everyone wants to go Trick-r-Treating in groups of 30!)
But it is my Halloween and my little families and all our friends who join in.
And that is what makes it so much fun.

This post is part of the AWB BLOGtober Fest. To see more AWB post about Halloween memories click the image above.