The Haunted Mansion

As promised, here are the pics of yesterday's DIY project.  I managed to actually accept the fact that this is for the kids, not their perfectionist mom.  I even prepped myself beforehand.  "This will get messy, broken, and probably pretty gross overall.  Don't go all Matchstick Men on them."  So me and my inner Nicholas Cage prepped and shuffled to the background to be audience members instead of center stage with a wet paper towel.   

And the kids?  They did amazingly well.  They didn't bicker over candy balls.  Abby took direction from her brother as to where exactly the gumdrops should go.  Grayson took direction from me when I reminded him gumdrops weigh less when cut in half.


OK, here's what the Haunted Mansion was to look like:

This is what ours shaped up to be in stages:

(What?  You thought she actually had pants on?  Never.)

Some pumpkins and a rubber rat for effect....

Exactly like the first picture, right?

Not exactly, but I like our version better.  

My favorite part?  The arrows (not pictured, my computer is taking 30 min. to upload these images so I aborted the last one since I should probably get dressed some time today) that Grayson spent a good long time on.  I love the way they add a little creep factor.  Just a little though, the house, to me at least, is still pretty adorable.  It will sting a bit when the kids decide it's time to eat it.

Not that Abby is waiting for that invitation.