Are you doing anything special for Halloween? We already visited our local pumpkin patch and got ourselves some nice cheap pumpkins. By checking Yelp, we found a patch that sells pumpkins for half the price its next door neighbors sell them for. Part of our family tradition is to visit these pumpkin farms where they have all sorts of fun events for the kids, including pony rides (cute!), a spooky haunted barn (actually funny), a petting zoo, plus a choo choo train.
Halloween Activities: Pumpkins, A Hay Maze and Family Traditions
This year, we found a place that offered a cool hay maze, which I admired for the architecture. 😉 The thing was nicely labyrinthine, an enclosure with stacks and stacks of hay; good thing we don’t have hay fever!
Here’s the hay labyrinth we enjoyed for hide and seek play.
Complete with minotaur sentinel to add to the atmosphere. I enjoy these home spun, back road attractions right in your neighborhood which you can take in on a relaxing, casual, fun family day out.
On Cheap Halloween Costumes
The kids are going to be Buzz Lightyear and Dracula this year. If you’re thinking of dressing up this year and haven’t figured out what to do yet, how about checking out these DIY cheap halloween costumes? Personally, I think the best costumes are the ones you make from scratch. I’ve tried shopping for costumes at the usual places you find them, but have always thought them to be expensive for the one time (or once a year) use; on top of it, the outfits are usually pretty flimsy. And for $30? Way off the budget! I found some friendly reminders about how to save on Halloween from Money Talks News, a neat financial site I newly discovered (and who shares well produced embedded videos like this):
Their advice? Make your own graveyard signs with cardboard. Do costume swaps and hand me downs. Use cotton for your cobwebs. Be creative.
One thing I won’t do anymore though: I used to go to Craigslist to try to pick up ultra cheap costumes from people who wanted to unload their old, used costumes online. One time, I drove 30 miles to pick up a $5 outfit for one of my kids. It turned out to be way too old, too small and too worn out to be useful. I was too embarrassed to make the trip and not buy the thing for $5, so I ended up making the transaction. I basically wasted my money, time and gas just to try to save a few bucks. My tip here? Be prepared to face any kind of consequence when you buy stuff online.
Have a great Halloween!
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{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
I think I’m going to dress up as Jon, and my wife as Kate + 8 this Friday! haha 🙂
Need to grow a gut, wear some shades, and bald my top a little.
That would be quite creative, I’ll have to say. Running around as “Jon” right now would be as bad as wearing a George Bush mask last year. Then again, each year, we need to have some kind of villain to play during Halloween, I suppose! I think that a Madoff get up might be an interesting idea, but Madoff is less recognizable (I only know him by name) and people would just wonder — “who’s that old guy in the jumpsuit?”
30 miles…wow 🙂
I haven’t worn a costume since Alf was popular! LOL
I would love to do that with my son when he is older! The maze looks like so much fun and OMG did you say pony ride?! So cute!
@Eric,
Haha! Sounds irrational and maybe it was, but I guess you can’t underestimate the intense urge and determination of someone who *really* wanted to save a buck (obviously, I was pretty myopic about this money saving exercise since I didn’t factor in other costs involved). Anyway, I didn’t realize I’d pay the price for going overboard…. lesson learned! Oh and that costume was supposedly one of a kind…. 😉
@Cassie, the maze was really awesome, especially since the one we entered was tall and huge. It took us 30 minutes to get out of it… 🙂
How times flies. The last time i celebrated Halloween was at University. It was a cheerful time when we would all dress up in vibrant costumes. Now i am too busy working and unfortunately, have no plans to participate this year. With just a few days left till Halloween, I’m just going to take it easy on that day and relax. 🙂
Wish we had hay mazes in Sweden… but we don’t 🙁 We only have the annoying kids that go around and trick or treat on Halloween :'(
Yes, that time is coming up again. Time to start working something out.
Great Halloween pictures, especially the hay maze! That gets me in the mood for some candy corns!
John DeFlumeri Jr
I didn’t get a chance to put this up in the post, but here’s a pic of what it’s like traipsing through that hay maze. What’s great about this one was how highly stacked the bales were so that the walls were maybe 8 ft tall (at least?). You really don’t know where you are in there. And it covered a lot of ground, so it was super cool. It’s actually at Arata Pumpkin Farm, in case you ever swing by the area… 🙂
Cheap costumes are the way to go. No reason to spend a lot of money on a costume to wear one day and you can be more creative and fun for less.
We have a pumpkin patch here in Bismarck, ND. It is a great cheap place to go and has the hay forts also. I think I enjoy it more as an adult than the kids do.
Halloween is one of my favorite times of the year. It’s inexpensive and always a good time. And who doesn’t enjoy getting dressed up in costume?
this is awesome, love it. is it just me, or was halloween HUGE this year?
I start early every year trying to get ideas for my annual Halloween party. I love the hay labyrinth truly amazing idea. Don’t think the wife would appreciate me filling the garden with hay though 🙂
I’ve been flying from one blog to another checking on Halloween ideas and yours are great!
Some of the best things one can do on Halloween are home made. I always look for new Halloween ideas, I must say that hay labyrinth looks like it could be a lot of fun.
I went to a corn maze once and that was fun. 🙂
I really enjoyed your post about cheap Halloween Costumes. That hay maze looks awesome! We have some corn mazes around here that are fun too. I also like to save dollars where I can, so on Halloween, I don’t carve all my pumpkins, I save some and just paint them. After Halloween is over, I wash them and turn them into puree which can be put in so many food dishes as well as skin care masks. Seriously!
We visited the three halloween mazes here in san diego in one night. I really loved the trail the most.