Pumpkins, Posses, and Poses

Usually I am the one who gets to ask Tammy and her crew out on group playdates, but this past weekend she invited me to be one of her guests (1 of 10!) to go to the Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze hosted by one of many Historic Hudson Valley estates, Van Cortlandt Manor.

Thanks to her connections, she got to bring a group and bypass the regular line. (It's good to have connections. VIP all the way.) I was her "friend," and each of her kids got to bring friends, who in turn, brought their parents. You would think that 4 adults would be able to keep up and wrangle 6 kids, but .... what do I know? I don't have kids.

Even with the assistance of 4 pizzas, 2 salads, copious amounts of soda, bread, and few miscellaneous slices,there was no carb coma, so it was controlled mayhem. Even with this evidence to the contrary (below left), Tammy says this was a good outing! I can't believe how big J&J her kids are, how funny their friends are, and the insanity of middle school? It's not changed. God bless Tammy. HONESTLY. I don't know how she does it. Kids are funny. Add in a maze designed to hit various age scare points and oh-so-stragetic pit stops at mechandise sites, they held up pretty well.

As for me, these are only few shots out of 100+ that came out. Shooting at night is tricky when you don't want a flash to wash out the ambiance. I got a LOT of fuzzy pictures because I didn't bring a tripod, nor was it even feasible. You'll get the idea though.  

Rather than have over 30,000 people tromp through this historic property building, they had a light show on the exterior and routed us around the various spooky paths to see vignettes like these.

As I was listening to the clock, looking at the witches, and prepping to go into the pumpkin tunnel, I heard one parent say to  a kid,  "Oh, they are just making religious pumpkin soup!"

And, apparently, the reason why dinosaurs went extinct is because they didn't eat their vegetables! Eat your vegetables and pumpkins, do you hear, kids?!

If you aren't scared by the end, these 3 monsters will beat it into your head to buy something in the shop ... or shops, as the case may be.

The final tent was FULL of baked sale goods. It's hard to resist cider and popcorn on a chilly fall night, but "HAY," we did! Good for us being full of pizza.

For all that we should have marveled at the amount of work that went into carving and displaying 5,000 pumpkins and lots of lights and electrics, and dealing with 30,000 visitors in a month, OF course the kids of the group were fascinated by this final artwork of the night. 

From the side it looked like this.

From the back In the shadows? Yep....So of course, the kids had to pose for photos JUST like it.

Thanks Tammy, J&J, and funny Brody of the bottomless pit of a stomach. Tammy, next time, girls adult time with me in the City, so we can really have a chance to talk! Just clear some time in your schedule ... some time in the next 6 months!