Hallow-Palooza

Our park district hosts a "Hallow-Palooza" event for kids the Friday before Halloween.  I took Malcolm last year and he had a blast, so this year I signed up both kids.  They have games where the kids win candy or prizes, story time, and crafts.  There is also a "Spooky Walk" (haunted house), which we skipped.  I tried it with Malcolm last year during the "lights on" version and we had to bale out part way through.  He remembered it, and said he didn't want to do it this year.

Dorothy was a little nervous when she had to walk by an inflatable decoration that was the Grim Reaper, driving a pumpkin carriage.  I convinced her that it was OK, and the fun was just the other side of it.  We headed for the gym where the games were and on the way in I saw a guy dressed as the Culver's frozen custard cone.  She loves Culver's, so I thought she would think it was great.  I was wrong.  She was terrified, practically climbed me, and clung on for her life.  I could not convince her to get anywhere close to him, even when I pointed out that the lady with him was handing out tickets for free ice cream.  She was not fooled in the least and wanted nothing to do with the giant, moving ice cream cone, so we moved on to a more quiet activity.

She really liked the craft area.  I was much more quiet, and the craft was using stickers to make a face on their pumpkin.  Right up her alley.

She concentrated very hard and was very serious about her pumpkin face.  Once she was done, she was ready to head back to the gym and meet up with Malcolm and Kevin and play some games.

Malcolm plays the ping pong ball game.  It is very similar to a board Kevin made for the kids to do with coins.  They love watching them bounce their way to the bottom.

Dorothy also had a turn.  They were supposed to guess the number at the bottom they thought the ball would land in.  If they were right, they got to choose their prize, if they were wrong the helper running the game chose for them.  All of the games were set up so that they always won a prize.

Dorothy takes her prize.  When given the option, she chose lollipops or Starbursts, while Malcolm went for the little crappy toys.

For this game, they tossed little plastic skulls into the pumpkins.  She has quite an arm on her and was slamming them in as hard as she could.

She takes her game play very seriously.  I don't think they were paying the helpers enough.  Dorothy managed to beam one of them in the head during the ring toss.

Both kids waiting to do the lollipop tower.  This one was Dorothy's choice, but Malcolm wasn't willing to wait and not play.

Waiting in line near the giant inflatable slide.  I tried to get a photo of both of them, but they were not very cooperative and there was too much going on around us.

This was Malcolm's favorite game last year and he was so excited to do it again this year.  The kid knocks on the coffin, and a hand reaches up and gives them a prize.  Sometimes the hand reaches up without a prize and waves, or touches the kids' hand if they have it resting on the coffin.

I'm glad she didn't jump off of the stool.  The hand reached out and touched her hand and thought she was going to run away.  She felt better once it handed her the candy.

It was a little intense for Dorothy a few times, but overall I think both kids had a good time.