Halloween without a storm, what will we do!!

Last year their was the super storm, I think it was called Sandy which knocked down trees and flooded homes and some are still feeling it a year later. The year before there was snow on Halloween. This year they are predicting rain. The poor Girls haven't had a regular Halloween in three years and I think it rained on that one or at least rained when we went to the Nyack Halloween parade. Maybe that was the first year.
 

This past weekend we went to Vernon N.J. to a farm that had all kinds of things to do. The place was Hungry heart or something like that, I really don't remember. We got there about one-thirty. When we left the house I thought a jacket would be too much. I forgot Vernon N.J. is up in the hills enough that it is cooler and when the wind kicks up it can be cold even if it is nice back home which is what it was.
   The first thing we do when we get there is have something to eat. I wasn't hungry, but when I smelled the French fries and noticed the hot dogs, well ten dollars or so later I had a nice little lunch.

It was windy and the wind was cool that French fries that were to hot to eat at the beginning were cold by the end. They were still good. The brand was or-I-da frozen French fries, a good brand. We then went to get our tickets for the rest of the place. That included a haunted house, some kiddie rides, a game where you got to shot tennis balls from a giant sling shot into a net. There were some animals to look at like pigs and rabbits and Little chicks, and there was the corn maze. We stood through an introduction of what it was all about. The guy said it could take anywhere from a half hour to an hour. We went in with Elena being the navigator and having the map.

We went up a hill and around several bends and it got to wearing thin very quickly. We hit three of the, oh I don't know maybe six or eight stations when we stumble on the entrance. We decide to continue on. but a little while later it starts to get a little colder and it is after all almost four in the afternoon by now and we had not taken the hay ride. Nancy had noticed the green tape was the tape that was at the exit so when we found it we found our way out and we then went over to the hay ride.

It was a short bumpy ride to a field full of pumpkins you could buy, which we told the girls we couldn't. We really didn't want to spend the money. On the walk back to the tractor and the trailer Elena kept trying to get me to race her and I would say ready, set, go she would run and I wouldn't. The driver of the tractor saw this and invited her to ride up in the cab with him. I then invited Nastia to join her. They each got a chance to drive the tractor and it was the highlight of the day for them I think. I couldn't get a video (oh, how 20th century of me) of the girls because of the bumps in the road I tried but got nothing good.

  After that we went home and had dinner. The girls were hoping to go to a free haunted house in Stony Point but I was too tired to go. A Guy was handing out flyer's at the Nyack Halloween parade, which to me has become one of those traditions that you do only because you once did it and it was fun. You don't know why you do it now. I know You are dieing for me to explain.
 
The parade has become overly crowded. The Police don't keep the crowds from moving out onto the street. If You start the night by getting there over an hour early and setting up a front row seat, by parade time you are four rows back if you are lucky. Last year they handed out candy. A person put a piece of candy in Nastia's hand, a fat load of rolly polly s... of a girl about ten or so grabbed it out of her hand. It's not like it was this huge candy bar, it was what they call 'bite size', about as small as you can get and still be considered a piece of candy. It was so small that neither Teri or I could fight for it. Now I wish we had, because it is a year later and it galls to think we did not stand up for our daughter. At the time we figured the little monster had far worse problems then a sever lack of manors and most likely friends or parent who knew how to raise a child that is fit to wander off her leash. At this years parade we got there about ten minutes before it was supposed to start stood in an open spot, found Jim and Phyllis and talked to them until the parade started and then watched it from afar. The inventive costumes and great marching bands were few and far between. There was a Chinese dragon which with a little effort from the people manning it could of been fun. There were a few tall costumes on sticks which were fun and then there was the roller derby skaters I enjoyed. The best had to be the Trojan horse, all hand made it looked like. What was a big turn off were the large groups of people with little or no make up and costume on and the large breaks between sections. The parade needs to be smoother and better organized. Yes I could do it but everyone would be jealous of me...