Pink Slippers

We did it! After returning home from Bible conference and going immediately to a game, we were able to pull it off. Our front yard Halloween outreach was a screaming success! The cupcakes looked terrific in their non-terrifying costumes and our 9 year old vampire did a great job scaring trick or treaters as they reached into his coffin to grab some candy. Although you can't really tell in the pictures, with the fog machine puffing and the strobe light flashing, it was difficult to tell whether or not the "vampire" was real or not. Believe it or not, some people were so scared they refused to even reach in for their candy and just left without it. At a few points in the evening there were as many as 20 people around the coffin daring each other to go first... This was actually part of the strategy because while the kids were busy doing that, my husband was inviting all their parents to church. He used it as an opportunity to witness to them about the love of Jesus Christ. He'd tell them, "I've got something for you better than candy. This is no trick or treat." And then he'd go on to tell them the good news of the Gospel.
After about two hours of this, Parker had had it with laying in the coffin and so we wrapped it up around 9pm. After giving out three to four hundred pieces of candy and over a hundred tracts, we felt like it had been a success. On top of that, our kids had a blast.
On a side note: while all this activity was occurring outside, our little Mr. Incredible quietly snuck inside. I thought he was having some personal time sneaking a little halloween candy, but no-- he was developing his artistic side by painting his own face. After looking in the mirror, he realized it hadn't turned out too well!