Haunted Halloween

(click on any picture to enlarge)

Welcome, guys and ghouls, to the great Halloween party known as the Gillespie House of Horror!! In collaboration with my mom and dad, Becky and I set up a party for our many nieces and nephews.



It was a great turn out with 10 adults and 13 kids...even some celebrities showed up!!


(Becky's brother Albert as Joe Dirt)


(Me as Napoleon Dynamite...take a good look, this may be the only time you see me in jeans or a white shirt!! Becky was Deb...I don't have a picture of her, but I'll get one.)

We started with a Kid's Fear Factor.


(Ralph, the Fear Factor Mascot)

After breaking the kids into teams, we began our first event where the teams would have to pick one member to eat each of three foods we deemed gross...Prunes, Plain Vanilla yogurt, and Spinach Lasagna Baby Food.


(Me and a cast of thousands begin the first competetion.)


(Natasha's face says it all, as she downs some delicious Spinach Lasagna Baby food...which I tried, and it's disgusting!)

Since each of the teams had one contestant finish first, we went to the tie breaker...Sardines!! Luckily for the contestants, it was California Girl Sardines, cause we all know the Boy Sardines are nasty!!

The next event had the contestants one by one stick their arms into a container and pull out objects...the highest team total after each kid got their 30 second turn was the winner. Oh, yeah, and the container contained 50 LIVE CRICKETS!!


(Xander arm deep in crickets.)

The third event was the egg relay. The teams lined up and the first kid would crack an egg into their hand, and would have to pass it to the next teammate, who would pass it to the last teammate, who would place it in a cup. Each team had to crack and relay 10 eggs, the most eggs won.


(Kelsi - pink hair - and Natasha race to fill their cups.)

The last event was the most disgusting. Each team would roll the dice once to get one liquid (either water, milk, or fruit punch) and roll the dice two more times to get two foods (candy bar, grapes, green beans, or hot dog). The teammates would each drink a cup full of the blended drink. What we didn't tell them was the fastest on each team would have to drink again to determine a team winner!


(Chandler, Xander, Paige and Logan drinking a very un-tasty Milk, candy bar and Green Bean mixture. "It's just like chocolate milk...with green beans in it" someone remarked.)


(The final face off pitted Kelsi, Aaron and Logan...Kelsi took one drink of the water, green bean hot dog mix before it came back up on her Panda purse...Logan spit a bit helping on the table. Aaron masterfully chugged the whole mix down, to win the event. I drank a cup of this, and it was straight nasty!!)

In the end, the team of Aaron, Natasha and Shelly won the Fear Factor, and Aaron won the Top individual performer.


(Aaron, obviously Fear is not a factor for you!)

After we ate, we took vote for the Best Costume Adult and Kid. The winners were...


(My dad as a Leather Face inspired monster. Or, "the Bloody Chef" as Chandler called him. Big ups to my mom for the execution of Dad's costume plan...dad had the idea, mom made it. Love that Leather mask, which mom actually made. He also had light up red eyes that were triggered by a switch in his glove that he actually made, and raised shoes that made him 3 inches taller...it was really cool.)


(Hailee...Becky's younger brother's daughter...isn't she so cute!!)

Next, Becky and I set up for the Haunted House. The kids split into smaller groups, and began in the first room, the Haunted Parlour.


(Haunted Parlour...at night, with the lights out and candles all around, it was more scary. Note the hanging goblet to the scary man's left.


(The Haunted Parlour also had a hanging vase of black roses.)

I think all the groups made it through this room fairly well, and Becky and I expected the first three rooms would be fairly tame...even maybe lame to the kids, with the basement providing the "action" because we were hiding downstairs...well, when the first group stepped into the next room, the ER Gone Wrong, all bets were off. Immediately, Paige (my brother's oldest, 10) began crying hysterically, and her brother Xander soon followed suit. I guess Dr Hack-Em-Up was too much for their young brains to handle.


(ER Gone Wrong. We had the lights out and a blue revolving light flashing on the scene. Little candle lights lined the bed, and for the Haunted House, the plastic container had chicken liver in it. Creepy laughs filled the room.)


(Close up of Dr Hack-Em-Up)


(Patient X's headless body.)

After much calming from my brother and my dad (and some pushing to get Chandler...my brother's 5 year old...to actually even enter the room) the kids composed themselves and entered the Graveyard of Terror.


(Graveyard of Terror. The pumpkins on the left were lit up, and the coffin in the middle had blue lights illuminating the skeletal remains of a killer. It was pretty creepy. Note the excellent tree, made by my dad with a cat stand, brown craft paper and some vines. Graveyard sounds, screaming, chainsaw noises, etc, filled the room.)

At this point, Becky and I feared the kids wouldn't even come to the basement, as we had scared them half to death with the upstairs stuff. But my brother managed to get them down, where immediately they had to crawl through a pitch black tunnel. It took coaching with every kid, but they all (except for a few) went through...some with an adult in tow to protect them. Once they exited the tunnel, a row of streamers lined a path to a few other site scares...


(Scary baby...lit only by a candle. It was creepy, trust me.)

We also had a caged guy that shook and rattled for them to look at before seeing what appeared to be the HEAD OF PATIENT X!! When the kids got closer, Becky (who was completely covered to look like it was just a head) would scream and scare them. At that point it was my turn. I was lying on the floor behind some chairs, and I had this fellow rigged to fall from the ceiling with the pull of a string.


(Yes, it's Chucky from the Rugrats...yes, the kids commented on that.)

Upon passing "Chucky," the kids entered a dark room where we had one of those static balls set up, where you can touch it and it'll send a beam of light to your finger...anyway, after a second in this dark room, I turned the "Fire Ghost" on...


(Fire Ghost)

After a 3 count, I killed all the lights in that room and Becky hit the tape recorded message telling the kids to get out, something went wrong...When they made their way to the exit, I would reach out and grab at their feet as the scurried away.

Surprisingly, after the tunnel, it was smooth sailing for the kids...remember that first group who cried in the ER? When I reached out for their feet, they actually laughed and said "Hi, Uncle Tony!!" Can't scare em all I guess.

After all the groups went through, I turned the lights on and took the kids through to show them nothing was scary in the light. A few of the kids were terrified and would only go through with the lights on if I held them! I guess the Haunted House was scarier than I thought!! We talked about their favorite parts while they played in the tunnel, and dropped Chucky from the ceiling with my pull rope. At the end of the day, it was a great success, everyone had a few laughs, a few screams, and a great time!!