My Son Loves Halloween...5/5 3 updates! Main Street, castle, statue photos

[kathleen27]

I have a penny question. I started to get together some change today and remmebered only to use pre 1982 right? What if they're not shiney? Are those the ones that I can make pretty with ketsup?

Hi just checkin in on the planning!

I'm so lost. We are doing the penny thing too. Why do I need to get pre-1982 pennies? We bought a roll of 2008 but I'll search for earlier ones if its better. How do I shine them up? I'm so glad I read on here about the M&M thing because that is on my to do list in my head but I had forgotten about it!

How are the costumes coming?

From 1962-1982 pennies were 95% copper and 5% zinc
In 1982 they switched to 99.2% zinc and 0.8% copper with an outer coating of copper.
so when you press a new penny sometimes you can see silver colored streaks. (I'll try to come back and post a picture. - since I have some of these). This is the zinc, and a lot of people don't like it.

This is pretty much from the pennycollector tips section.
pennycollector

They have a list of cleaning tips too:
http://www.pennycollector.com/tips_clean.html

The ketchup worked great on the copper (pre1982 pennies) but it made the zinc pennies look worse!!! They looked tarnished.
It cleans them, then you still need to "shine" them, I used a baking soda and water paste.

If you want to try out a cleaning technique, I would test it out on a regular penny not a pressed one.

 

[kathleen27]

I ordered plain shirts for myself from jiffyshirts to tie dye and use for iron ons, and they arrived today!!!

Jacob chose tie dye colors and ordered supplies.
They are scheduled to arrive on Tuesday.

There was a long list of colors and I couldn't see them on the same page, and couldn't tell if they would go together.
I tried copy and paste into word to see them next to each other and it wouldn't work.
So Jacob did some fancy stuff and pulled the page views into photoshop and used the eyedropper to put our colors in a sample design.

Here are Deep Yellow, Avocado, Peacock Blue, and Safari Gray.
The shirt will be for Animal Kingdom, so that's why he chose those colors.

 

[AshleyMWC]

I have been reading along on your PTR and I love it! You guys are going to have so much fun at MNSSHP!!! My mom and I went for the first time last year and we LOVED it soooo much!

I also loved seeing your pressed pennies! I had never really given them a second thought, but I think I need some of these. DBF and I thought it might be neat to get a bunch of them and matt and frame them for our Disney room!

I can't wait to hear more about your trip!!

 

[AZMickeyfans]

Those shirts will turn out fabulous!

Thanks for explaining the penny situation. Dh manages a restaurant so he can be on the lookout for pre 1982 pennies! I just thought we would get the year we went even though they would be squished. I'm so glad I caught that because I would have been disappointed with streaky pennies!!!

 

[DisneyTiger]

I ordered plain shirts for myself from jiffyshirts to tie dye and use for iron ons, and they arrived today!!!

Jacob chose tie dye colors and ordered supplies.
They are scheduled to arrive on Tuesday.

There was a long list of colors and I couldn't see them on the same page, and couldn't tell if they would go together.
I tried copy and paste into word to see them next to each other and it wouldn't work.
So Jacob did some fancy stuff and pulled the page views into photoshop and used the eyedropper to put our colors in a sample design.

Here are Deep Yellow, Avocado, Peacock Blue, and Safari Gray.
The shirt will be for Animal Kingdom, so that's why he chose those colors.

I think these colors look great together, and perfect for AK. How creative of your DS to get them all together! I am so anxious to see how the tie dye turns out! I did it once in grade school and it was pretty easy.

Oh, also... I collected some pre 82 pennies today and they were all brown. I tried the ketsup thing but it didn't seem to work for me. I ended up soaking them in vinegar. As soon as I put them in the vinegar, they started to get clean! It was so cool. I barely had to scrub them. I recommend this method too! Here are before and after pics...

They came out great!

 

[kathleen27]

I have been reading along on your PTR and I love it! You guys are going to have so much fun at MNSSHP!!! My mom and I went for the first time last year and we LOVED it soooo much!

I also loved seeing your pressed pennies! I had never really given them a second thought, but I think I need some of these. DBF and I thought it might be neat to get a bunch of them and matt and frame them for our Disney room!

I can't wait to hear more about your trip!!

Thanks!
We are so excited about the party! I saw photos of the Halloween decorations which are already up in the MK!!!!

That's a great idea for displaying the pennies!
I love seeing everyones creative displays of their different collections!

Those shirts will turn out fabulous!

Thanks for explaining the penny situation. Dh manages a restaurant so he can be on the lookout for pre 1982 pennies! I just thought we would get the year we went even though they would be squished. I'm so glad I caught that because I would have been disappointed with streaky pennies!!!

Here are some "streaky" pennies. The manatee one has a lot of zinc showing but the Boston one barely has any.

We have 85 pennies from different places, and a lot of them have streaks. (some are duplicates).

My husband "saves" all his change. He says he's saving it, but really he's too lazy to do anything with it. It comes in handy when the kids need 50 cents for popcorn day at school. And for finding old pennies.
Every so often I deal with it, I haven't done it in a few years. Guess I am lazy too. But I recently learned coinstar is free if you get a gift card instead of cash. So I don't have to roll them and I can spend them at Disney shopping or Amazon.

I think these colors look great together, and perfect for AK. How creative of your DS to get them all together! I am so anxious to see how the tie dye turns out! I did it once in grade school and it was pretty easy.

Oh, also... I collected some pre 82 pennies today and they were all brown. I tried the ketsup thing but it didn't seem to work for me. I ended up soaking them in vinegar. As soon as I put them in the vinegar, they started to get clean! It was so cool. I barely had to scrub them. I recommend this method too! Here are before and after pics...

They came out great!

What a difference! I think I will definately try the vinegar. The ketchup was a lot of work.

Glad to hear tie dye was easy. My kids have done it at half day nature camps. We have to decide if we want a spiral pattern or for the colors to go out in layers around the mickey head shape.

 

[kathleen27]

I am excited to see all the party decorations!!!

In the meantime here are some jack-o-lantern photos....

For a while there was a Jack-O-Lantern spectacular held at the Roger Williams Park Zoo. At some point the zoo stopped holding it and they moved it to McCoy stadium, home of the Pawtucket Red Sox. We attended at the zoo in 2004 and at McCoy in 2006.

At the zoo, the Jack-O-Lanterns were set up on a system of trails in their own area. They were open after hours only, with separate admission. We waited over 90 minutes to see them, but once we got in it was worth it. Actually it wasn't too bad, the weather was very nice and there was a huge TV screen playing a post season baseball game between the Red Sox and the Yankees.

Now, those might be lights hanging in the tree , but the rest are actual pumpkins. They are amazing!!! A combination of scraping areas so thin light shines through and paint. They had all different areas set up with different themes, different music, and fog. My husband took these pictures with whatever camera we had back in 2004 .

I'll post some 2006 photos another day including some Disney pumpkins they had!

 

[DisneyTiger]

Those are absolutely AMAZING!!! I will have to show them to my DD. She will love them!

 

[DisneyTiger]

Those are absolutely AMAZING!!! I will have to show them to my DD. She will love them!

 

[Dr_Finkelstein]

Those are fantastic!!!!
Last year was the first time we did a pumpkin for the house - good fun! In the UK we do Halloween but tend not to do all the decorations, though it is becoming more common - nothing like that though!
In Scotland the kids traditionally go out 'guising', but it's becoming more common to hear them say 'trick or treat'!

Di x

 

[AZMickeyfans]

Thanks for the penny example. Dh thought I was crazy when we have a perfectly good shiny penny roll waiting to go with us. Now he sees the light.....


I've never seen anything so incredible. How talented those pumpkin artists must be. Thats insane, and I mean the good kind of insane!

WOW! I bet Jacob was just going nuts over those. My kids were freaking out asking if we get to go.

 

[wdwgirl03]

Those pumpkins are sooooo cool! Our town has a pumpkin display each year but it doesn't sound nearly as big as the one you went to. Awesome pictures, thanks for sharing!

 

[the_princess]

Hi
Just found your report. I'm off to WDW for Halloween as well so reading yours is putting me in the mood.
Lovely pics you've put on.

 

[earthfaries]

Wow! Those jack o lanterns are incredible! Thanks so much for sharing them with us Amazing!

 

[irky416]

Wow! Those are awesome! I would love to see that.

 

[kathleen27]

Those are absolutely AMAZING!!! I will have to show them to my DD. She will love them!

Thanks! More coming up with some characters she'll recognize.

Those are fantastic!!!!
Last year was the first time we did a pumpkin for the house - good fun! In the UK we do Halloween but tend not to do all the decorations, though it is becoming more common - nothing like that though!
In Scotland the kids traditionally go out 'guising', but it's becoming more common to hear them say 'trick or treat'!

Di x

Thanks!
The first time I carved a pumpkin I was amazed at how much I liked it. There are so many unending tasks that sometimes to see a finished product that is really fun is such a good feeling.

I don't remember anyone decorating as a kid, but the last ten years It is more common, at least in the neighborhoods we have lived in.

But then I have a neighbor with light up flashing St. Patricks day decorations. And anotherr neighbor who has so many Christmas decorations we refer to his house as "candy cane lane". He also has lots of Halloween decorations. Including huge inflatables for both holidays. Once he dressed as santa for Halloween.

I've never heard of "guising". Is it basically the same concept or different? I'd love to hear about Halloween in other places.

Thanks for the penny example. Dh thought I was crazy when we have a perfectly good shiny penny roll waiting to go with us. Now he sees the light.....

I've never seen anything so incredible. How talented those pumpkin artists must be. Thats insane, and I mean the good kind of insane!

WOW! I bet Jacob was just going nuts over those. My kids were freaking out asking if we get to go.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

The displays are amazing. Its really impressive. We kept saying how did they do that. Then when we figured it out we were even more impressed.

Those pumpkins are sooooo cool! Our town has a pumpkin display each year but it doesn't sound nearly as big as the one you went to. Awesome pictures, thanks for sharing!

Thanks! One of the local schools has some sort of display now, we haven't made it to that yet.

Hi
Just found your report. I'm off to WDW for Halloween as well so reading yours is putting me in the mood.
Lovely pics you've put on.

Thanks! and Welcome!
We had a lot of Halloween talk in our house today!
Guess we are starting early this year.

Wow! Those jack o lanterns are incredible! Thanks so much for sharing them with us Amazing!

Thanks! Its so impressive to see.

Wow! Those are awesome! I would love to see that.

Thanks! We really enjoyed it. During the long wait, we kept saying this isn't going to be worth it, but afterwards we said it really was. We loved it.

 

[kathleen27]

Yesterday Jacob asked if we could make muffins. When I pulled out the collection of muffin papers I found a package with pooh, tigger, and piglet on them. I didn't even remeber buying it till I saw it. I joked that we could pretend to have breakfast at CP.

This morning Jacob made a big breakfast for himself and his sister. He is good to her. He pretended it was CP. He made scrambled eggs, sausage, toaster waffles, and served grapes. His eggs were delicious.

We had a talk about costumes this morning. I still don't know what I will choose. Some of it will be based on availability and price.

Yesterday the Halloween edition of the oriental trading catalog came in the mail. Jacob has been anxiously checking the mailbox for its arrival, so he was really excited. Jacob's birthday is November 21st, and one year I asked him what theme he wanted for his birthday party and he said Halloween. I told him no, Halloween was over. Next year, same conversation. The following year, I asked if he would like to have a Halloween party in October instead of having a birthday party with his friends. He could still have a family party on his birthday.
He loved the idea.
And it works out well for me, because I don't have two parties within a week of each other. And he receives less gifts, (we have too many toys!!!)
He has had Halloween parties the last three years.

This year he said he just wanted to do something with a few friends near his birthday.
But one look at the catalog and he changed his mind.
He already has "new" decorations and favors picked out, and a guest list. He was looking for crafts and "halloween food" online today.
He really liked these cupcakes that he found of photo of:

Tonight Hannah and I watched Ariel's begining. It was cute, and it was nice to spend some girl time together. Hannah loved the movie. She also decided her first choice for a Halloween costume is Hannah Montana. The kids start school Tuesday and Hannah has her summer assignments done, her backpack ready, and her clothes picked out. I gave her a set of Hannah Montana erasers and she was very excited. She told me how cute she thought the cupcake papers were, and she had out her Disney charm bracelet asking if I would get her more charms. She has Marie (Aristocats), Dumbo, and Tinkerbell.

Yes, this is the same child that said I like Disney too much.

 

[kathleen27]

I would love to go back to the Jack-o-lantern spectacular this year, but I looked it up today, and the spectacular is moving to the Maritime Aquarium in Nowalk, CT this year. That’s a two and a half hour trip for me.

They are selling timed tickets in advance only. And it is only running a week and a half.
So we will have to see what happens. Maybe we will go the day after Halloween.
Here is the info if anyone is interested:

http://www.maritimeaquarium.org/special_events1.html

More photos from the 2006 Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular, at McCoy stadium. I will have to break it into multiple parts, cause I have a lot of photos.

In 2006, it was just the kids and I. My camera wasn’t working very well, so I borrowed Joe’s camera since it was better than mine, and Jacob used my camera. Three weeks later I ended up buying a new camera. I wasn’t familiar with the settings on Joe’s, and it was on a very high quality setting, so I filled the memory card quickly. I had to delete some blurry photos, and turn down the quality to take more. He could not believe it was possible to fill the memory with jack-o-lantern photos.

It was freezing cold!!!! We were wearing hats and gloves and some of us had on winter coats. I was taking pictures at night, mainly without a flash, while wearing gloves, and feeling numb from cold. So we got some great photos and a lot of blurry photos.

We entered the stadium hallway where they had this display. Jacob took a picture of his favorite team.

On the other side they had a different display, Hannah asked me to take this picture of her favorite team.

We were able to head into the stands for a sneak peak at the field.
Sorry they all came out blurry.
But it gives you an idea of the number of pumpkins.
A whole ball park full.
The field was covered in jack-o-lanterns.

We were able to walk around the edge of the field, there were art carved pumpkins along the edge as well as in the dugouts. The displays were amazing and we stayed quite a long time, despite the cold.

I love the huge pumpkin.
Jacob once made up a character he called the pumpkin king.
That was even his Halloween costume one year.
I think of this guy as the pumpkin king!

 

[mommaU4]

OMG, all those pumpkins are just spectacular!!!! WOW! I'd love to see something like that. Thanks for sharing.

I love the Oriental Trading Halloween items. So many to choose from. And those cupcakes you posted are too cute. I love finding new Halloween food ideas.

My b-day is 10/24 and my family, knowing what a huge Halloween fan I am, has bought me Halloween cakes in the past. LOL

I just wanted to say that not only does Jacob have the best taste in holidays , I think it's really sweet how he is so good to his sister, making her breakfast and all.

 

[kathleen27]

Here are some Disney pumpkins we saw throughout the night.

This guy reminds me of …… Mike Wasowski

Some characters that hang out at DHS:

More jack-o-lanterns: