The literally turned their house into a haunted house of horror for about 4 weeks prior to the night. So much planning and thought went into the organization for this one night, they made statues, a graveyard and ghosts and turned each room of their house into a themed haunted room.
So much detail, all white light was taken out and replaced with red light bulbs downstairs and in the kitchen and green in the lounge area.Even the family photos were covered with scary pictures for the night and a bunch of bananas hanging on the veranda became a floating ghostie veiled bride.
Kim brought back matching costumes from NZ for Teddy, Sienna and Liam.
Even with all of the hard work that went into decorating pre Halloween, it didn't stop there.
3 special friends, Mal, Rae(who usually has trick or treat at her house) & Brett helped out all night to scare the kids when they were given the 'Haunted house tour'. 
Kim worked all night giving each group of children a special tour of the house, complete with all the special effects, Ghost on a flying fox, 'Mummy' Brett jumping out of a coffin in the graveyard, Dracula Mal sitting up in the bed as each group passed the shed doors opening and closing by themselves.
Kim dramatically showed the groups through to the next room where they were encouraged to eat popcorn from a bowl that might grab you, reach inside boxes and feel intestines (cooked thin rice noodles) brains (jelly) and eyeballs (lychee's in oil) then going through to the next part of the house past more special sound effects and bodies and disembodies in beds & under stairs, Raewynne screamed at them if they dared to open the laundry door, the opening of the bathroom door raised a hangman and the next bedroom 'Dracula's den' had a Dracula dummy sit up via pulley when the door was opened.
Kim would finish one group, they would head up the stairs with exclamations from both parents and kids "that was so cool", "Amazing" and most saying were coming back & can't wait til next year, then there would be another group waiting for their 'tour' at the bottom of the driveway.
The groups started arriving at about 6:15 and were a constant stream until 9:15pm.
We made about 80 lolly bags as well as Mary's homemade toffees and towards the end, Bec and I started making up more lolly bags as it didn't look like the stream of children would end.
Mary commented that she didn't think there were that many children at the school, but there would have been close to 120, average age of 4 to 12 all dressed up and travelling around the island in groups, even cars were dressed for the occasion.
Teddy loved the tour so much that he tagged along about 5 times and has mentioned it to Kim each time he has seen her since.
Sienna and Liam weren't so sure, Sienna didn't venture off the corner of the lounge until the screams coming from downstairs became too much and she moved to the armchair opposite.
The scarers deserved a well earned rest at the end of the night as they rarely had a break all night. Poor Brett didn't get much of a chance between groups to even hop out of his coffin to grab a beer.
It was lots of fun..............
Now what will they do next year to top it?
See more on Mary's blog http://devonhouse.blogspot.com/
