Halloween Nights

Every year since the first one twelve autumns ago we have taken our family to “Halloween Nights” put on by Hamilton County Parks at Parky’s Farm near our home.  Cheaper than a movie ticket and up to five hours of fun, we make sure to budget our money for this family fun night once a year.  This event is loved by us all.  Once inside the park almost everything is free (except pony rides and food) and you can do things as many times as you want.  

Many pretty lights don the entrance to the farm.

My kids climbed out of the van and ran over to the fence to greet the horses as soon as we got there.  Lindsay is sure she can see Domino, her horse from summer camp, out in the pasture.  She and Tristan yell “Hiiiiiiiiiii Dominoooo” and from a distance he does look up at them.

 

We wait in line to speak to the “Mirror on the Wall”; a floating face in the mirror who speaks to the kids and then drops them a tootsie roll.  Haley got in line next to us under the gargoyle to speak to Madame Claire Voyant the Fortune Teller.  She was freaked out and totally thought “she” was a “man” but indicated that there was some credit to what “she” said.

Our three oldest got in line for this obstacle course.  Kaitlyn steered clear of the moon bounce this year so as to better protect her recent injury.

The Queen of Hearts (a farm worker) introduced the magic show this year.  The get-up was great.  The magic show is worth the price of admission all by itself.  It is absolutely fabulous and totally amazing!!!  The magician actually met his wife his first year here doing the magic show for Halloween Nights.  She was the usher for the show.  She has since become his beautiful assistant and their three children, one by one, have become helpers for the show.  He comes back to do this show every year, probably due to the nostalgia of it all.

Tristan saw this magician, Phil Dalton, at McDonalds a couple months ago and went right up to talk to him.  A totally nice guy, he and his wife showed them a trick to do with his and Lindsay’s “silly bands”.  Phil and Tristan spoke after the show the other night and lamented that our favorite McDonalds burned to the ground, almost, last Wednesday. 

Phil picked Tristan to be his volunteer at the magic show on Friday night.  Tristan had fun and did a great job.  None of us can ever figure how this guy does any of his tricks.  He made Tristan’s “stinky” sneaker disappear into thin air.  We are clueless!  Eventually the shoe showed up again inside of a balloon which popped.  This show has disappearing people, people levitated, people sawed in half, people switching identities and reappearing,  music, fire, snakes, and humor too.  If we didn’t go for any other reason, we would go for this show.

 

Here is Tristan after the show after he handed Phil a gold coin he found on the floor.  Phil tossed it into the air right in front of us and it disappeared before our eyes.  Yes, Phil wears purple hair all of the time.  It’s his favorite color.

By the time the Magic Show is done it is very dark outside.  The pumpkins and lights are magical in and of themselves and it is time for a haunted hayride.

Friday night the lines are a bit long.  There are fun sights to see during the wait and there are four tractors running so the wait doesn’t seem too terrible.

A display of marvelously carved jack-o-lanterns; the kids like Blue’s Clues.

 

A fire juggler wanders through the night entertaining those of us standing in line.  This guy was good too.

The hayride through the dark woods and the ghost town was so much fun.  Going through the “Hardly Haunted Barn” was spooky, with fog and skeletons and lights and big spiders and...

The playbarn was open and free with admission as well.  Nathan liked climbing through the spider web and Kaitlyn loved the ball pit.  Both loved the smaller slide and the older ones made it in for some adventures through the rest of this barn full of hideouts and mazes.

A half moon smiled down on us as we left and made our way through the dark night back to our car.  Home-made s’mores awaited us at home.  

Good, clean, old-fashioned Halloween Fun!