The Halloween Spooktacular

This year I found out that the WF Parks and Recreation Department throws a free Halloween party every year for anyone who can come. Woohoo! So we definitely went to their "Halloween Spooktacular" last Thursday and had a great time! I didn't want to put Charlie in his costume, so I bought a shirt that said "Mummy's Boy" and had a picture of a mummy on it for him to wear. It was cute!

Of course he wanted to play with the decorations!

I was a little overwhelmed at first, having both kids there by myself since Jimmy was in class. But we figured out a system and did just fine. It was Charlie's first little carnival, and he seemed to enjoy it! 

Charlie played the duck game first, where you pick up a duck and get the prize of the number on the bottom of it. Well Charlie got a duck out, and we got him a prize, but he went right back over to the bucket and kept getting ducks! He didn't care about the prize, he just had fun fishing them out! : )

He also got to spin a wheel for a prize, play Pumpkin Plinko, and play the ball toss. I would've taken pictures if I had more than two arms... but I was trying to help him play the games and make sure he didn't run off! I think one of his favorite games was their version of "Bobbing for Apples." They put apples on a string and then tied the string to a pole. The guy would hold the pole with the apple dangling, and the person "bobbing" would have to catch it with his mouth. Charlie watched the girl in front of him in amazement, and he was so excited to try! He went right up when it was his turn and knew what to do! He used his hands too, but after all, he is only 1! Charlie loved that game.

Munching on his apple and holding one of his prizes.

Wide-eyed!

I know I'm partial, but I really love those curls. : )

After we finished the games we went to the snack room for "Witch's Brew" (grape juice) and some pretzels. Charlie liked looking at the decorations, dancing to the little musical figurines below, and was fascinated with the drink machine (especially when someone bought a drink and it came out!). 

It's the small things in life, people.

Dancing to the pumpkin man! And behind him is the fascinating drink machine.

He enjoyed his pretzels and a small bag of Reese's candies! That purple bucket is his Halloween bucket... he liked the black cats on it. He didn't want a pumpkin bucket when we took him shopping! All of the prizes for the games were cute little stuffed animals (as you can see in his bucket) or other non-edible things, but each kid was also given a bag of goodies at the beginning as well.

In the art room Charlie got to make some spin art, and I really wanted to get my face painted by a local artist (Mary Benejam- I've really enjoyed the art of hers I've seen around town!). But, that will have to wait for another year.

They had a maze across the hall with some fun Halloween decorations and music, so I took Charlie in and pushed our huge, cumbersome stroller through and miraculously did not rip the trash bag walls down with my terrible steering. Charlie got a little scared during this and held on to my neck tight! The last room we visited had some icky things to feel, but I told the lady that if Charlie felt grapes and realized they were grapes, he would just eat them. So we enjoyed the fun lighting in that room instead. 

And finally.... we headed outside for our free pumpkin! Charlie picked a nice big one, and he also got a small gourd which he tried to throw like a ball.

Just one example of the fun decor outside

We had to park in overflow parking on the other side of Flaherty Park since so many people came. So to get back to our car after the party we had to walk on this little path through the woods in the dark! Ha! That was the spookiest part of our "Spooktacular" night!

(Thankfully, there were people and lights at different points... I'm a bit of a scaredy cat, what can I say?!)

The loot. I took a picture because I was looking for my keys in the dark parking lot and needed to see what I was looking at. As you can see, no keys there. They were in the stroller. : )

Thank you Parks and Rec for a fun party!!

**For the record, Henry WAS there. I forgot to take a picture of him, but he strolled around like a good baby and seemed to enjoy himself!