Nightmare at 823

What a night! Nightmare at 823 couldn't have been a better name really - maybe I jinxed it by naming it that. It was, well, both good and bad in many ways I must say.

The night got off to a late start, so the people in line were getting anxious. We had to rush to get things ready, and I hate rushing. We had a guy named Scott and his wife Jessica come do all of our makeup. He does proffessional looking makeup and I was excited to see what he could do. I can't believe how well it turned out! I was a mad scientist, Victor Frankenstein, but I think I ended up looking more like Beetle Juice~! Audrey was a green faced witch with a prosthetic nose, Mark was Frankenstein with the giant eyebrow, Julie was in the polka dot room with a polkadot costume, Jessica was a zombie in the graveyard, Scott was the Chainsaw guy outside, Heather was the hostess at the door, Jamie came over and wore one of Nick's masks, and Nick wore his pin head mask! We had quite the cast! Thanks for everyone who came to help!

I do have to say I think this year there was too much going on. Maybe because we added another room, maybe because we were rushed but it didn't have the same flow that last year had, and that bummed me out a little because I put so much effort into this year. We did have a tunnel that went down the hallway with a fog machine and lazer in it, and that was super cool, and my lab would have been awesome if the walls wouldn't have kept falling down, or the ceiling! Half the time I was trying to put it back together and it was a major pain in the butt!

Now, for the grand finale! Picture this. I'm up in my laboratory about to bring Frankenstein to life with my jumper cables, when all of a sudden I hear Audrey running up the stairs yelling "FIRE FIRE - HELP!!" So I drop my cables and book it out to the garage. Of course I have to say that it is mostly my fault and all, because last year we had put a tee candle in front of every grave stone to illuminate them because the fog and strobe lights didn't give it the effect I wanted. Then, to top it off, I covered the graveyard (garage) with dry leaves, because it looked so real and was awesome! Well, someone jumped out to scare the kids, pushing a couple leaves into one of the candles, and then next thing we know one of the fake trees in the garage is completely engulfed in flames!

I ran upstairs to get pitchers of water and others were stomping on the tree trying to get the fire out. We were making progress on the tree, and I came down to put more water on the fire and someone had lifted up the garage door by hand to throw the tree out! I am sure it was better so nothing else caught on fire, but in the midst of the rush, they bent the crap out of the garage door frame and it was completely broken and off the track! After the fire was out, the mood was over!

That was the end of Nightmare at 823. Sad story yes. The worst part about that is that there was just one or two more groups of kids still waiting to go through, at the end of the line. They had been out there for quite a while. We decided to let them walk through it just to see it and come to find ALL of my kids were out there, and it just ended on a really bad note! I didn't even get to take 1 picture! Luckily some others did, so I will have to get copies to post. So needless to say, IF we decide to do this again next year....we will be making it a lot simpler, starting earlier, and not lighting any candles. :)

Oh, and with a little work my neighbor was able to fix the garage door. We were worried how that would turn out if we had to have someone come and fix it. There was no smoke or fire damage, just a few burnt items, and one very very fried tree! No harm done. Just a lot of lost time and effort. :(