Tuesday night I went with two friends and their children to the Story Book Forest Trail at one of our local lakes. The idea was actually very cute, the kids went down the forest trail and each stop was a scene from a children's tale, The Three Little Pigs, Little Miss Muffet, Sleeping Beauty, ect. Obviously it was aimed at the young set :), but after that was an area with games, a hayride and then we finished up with roasting marshmallows and/or hotdogs over a fire. We really enjoyed it. This was the third hayride of the season :) We took the kids a couple of weeks ago to the local Pumpkin Patch, which is actually more of a carnival on a horse farm, complete with a petting zoo, kettle corn, horse rides, bumper cars, a hayride and an actual pumpkin patch! Our second hayride was at a friend's house. The family puts together a hayride/hot dog roast for the 3rd -6th graders at our church, and the rest of us tag along and pretend we are that age. :) When I was growing up we lived out in the country. The houses were too far apart for our parents to let us walk from house to house, so our local dairy farmer would put together a hayride and take us from house to house. Unfortunately in Colorado, Halloween seems to be a perfect day for snow, so I don't remember actually getting to go very many times :) But I DO remember the matching clown outfits my mother made for my sister and I when I was a little tot. They were very cute, and I wore them for a long time since my sister was five years older! :) Lisa

I will come to your party Teacats! We are very hit and miss at our house. The layout of our street is odd...we are on the long end of the road, that has multiple connectors or cul de sacs, so on our section, there are just 3 houses that face the street. All the other houses on our section are corner lots, except for us and our next door neighbor, and both his houses are dark. So kids would have to cross the road to come to our place, and it's just not that feasible. And this year I didn't do any decorating, so I think we'll have a dark house too. Plus, there are so many events going on this weekend, that I just can't see too many parents dressing up the kids on a school night.

we had one very cute little boy and that has been it so far and now we turned off the lights. We did however have a big fat possum at the back door eating the food I put out for the kittens I saw out in the yard last night.

It was an okay Halloween for us. In terms of the truly scary, we only had one scary-as-hell adult and one adolescent thug show up at our door. We also had about 60 kids, most of whom were bused in from the 'hood about 1/2 mile away. They parked right in front of our house (four minivans with 10+ people per van) and then stopped at our house coming and going. Yeah - twice. Next year, I'm opting out. It's just not what it used to be.