Avast there, ye mateys!
In 2003, I
was finally free to do something more elaborate. I chose a pirate theme
and planned the haunt for 2 rooms.
In the first room,
I created an underwater grotto. I hung fish (including a shark) made
out of cardstock from the ceiling with thread and dressed one of my
daughter's dolls as a mermaid. In one corner I used an old chest I
had in the
attic and lumped a spare piece of green fabric over it with eyes pinned
on to look like an octopus. Large pieces of fabric marked the path
for visitors to follow, and I taped black paper over the window so
I could use blue and green light bulbs. I recorded underwater whale
sounds to play.
|
|
|
In
the second room--our garage--I blew up my daughter's swimming pool
and filled it with balloons. Under the balloons, I had halloween goodies
like pumpkin-shaped
frisbees, treasure chests full of candy, skull rings, etc. A large house
plant and stuffed parrot completed the look. The carpet on the floor
was an old carpet that had been ruined when our house flooded earlier
that year: it looked kind-of like sand.
|
When
guests arrived, pirate
music was playing from the open window of the garage as they walked
up the sidewalk. (This included songs like "I am a Pirate King" from
The Pirates
of Penzance--and any other pirate song I could find.) A small plastic
skeleton with gold earring and bandana
perched on a pumpkin near the front door. I greeted
guests dressed as a pirate, complete with
accent. I handed each child a map printed from my computer on tan
paper--and
crumpled,
torn, and tied with rough rope to look authentic. They were to use
the map to find Captain D'arc's lost treasure.
I then led guests
to the underwater grotto and told them not to try to get the treasure
in the chest, since the octopus was particularly nasty. After that, we
went down the darkened hall, passing a room with a cloth over the door
and a red light behind it. In the room, I'd set up a CD player to play
native drum and chant type sounds, so I warned visitors of the cannibals
on the island. |
|
 |
Then we entered the
garage where I encouraged the kids to "dive" into the pool and find the
treasure. When I was sure everybody had something, I warned that I
heard the ghost of Captain D'arc coming, and they should all flee before
he arrived to seek vengeance. I let them out by the garage's side door.
The kids all loved to dive for the treasure in the swimming pool. The only problem I had was with kids taking too much treasure. I had to tell them, in character, that they could only have 1 treasure chest. But I had plenty of other toys left over from past years, so I let them take what they wanted of those. |
|
