Halloween approaches

It looks like one way or the other Halloween is on this year. We didn't get to decorate for the kids last year... and well... those of you with kids understand that you just feel like you have to go all out to make up for a missed year of something like this. Therefore, I've started decorating in earnest now.

If this thing looked this scary in real life - I don't think it would be in the house.

The bright side of a post-Katrina Halloween is that it doesn't take a whole lot of work to make your house look truly 'haunted'. We already have the mildew and rotting porch columns working in our favor outside... And the dust, scarred floors, and damaged walls add to the ambience inside.

Our traditional ghost and pumpkin friends have taken their place in the garden.

We'll be adding more cobwebs... lots of cobwebs.... some blacklights... a fog machine... and some music this year just to make things more interesting. The kids and I are planning a few crafty projects other than the pumpkin carving alone -- but we'll see how those turn out before I start talking about them here.

This year - back by popular demand (by the kids!) -- cobwebs.

I'll be blogging decorating progress as it happens as this is an important event for us. We're trying to make each of our holidays a little closer to normal than last year -- and this is the first major kid-decorating holiday to come around so far. Boo!