We had a blast scaring the crap out of trick-or-treaters last night. Not that we got too many, but the ones we did get were very impressed with our efforts.

I got a few little kids who proudly announced, "I'm not scared, I was here LAST year!". So I think this needs to become an annual Halloween tradition.

Our decorations were decidedly low-tech. I had a bunch of candles burning in the front yard, one lone pumpkin (that Dan carved in about 30 seconds...note that it has three triangles and that's about it for a face), a ghost made out of a white sheet tied over a balloon, and scary sound effects playing on my laptop speakers.

The sound effects really made it though. Since everything was pretty low-key and not store-bought, I think it made it even spookier for the kids. By the time they walked up to the door and I jumped out with the chain saw (actually an electric hedge trimmer), they were crapping in their pants.

Unfortunately, Julian was scared as well. The combo if scary sound effects and seeing Mama in her undead costume and makeup just freaked him out. Last year he wasn't bothered by it at all, he helped me scare the kids by jumping out at them after my initial blast. But this year he couldn't hang at all. He watched Thomas the Train cartoons on Dan's lap in the office most of the time. In between he would come out and beg me to "wash Mommy's EYES! Take off your hair!"

I finally shut up shop at 8:30pm so that he could go to bed with the sight of Mommy all cleaned up. He was very glad to see me back to my normal, non-scary self.