Seaworld San Antonios Howl-O-Scream 2013

This past Friday after school we followed our tradition of visiting Seaworld for Howl-O-Scream! If you know my family then you know we are major Halloween fans. My Munchkin is 4 and he loves monsters!  He loves scaring people, costumes and scary movies! So of course as soon as we knew Howl-O Scream was opening we knew we had to go! 

For everyone whose seen the commercials and follows Seaworld on social media there are probably lots of questions on the changes. Many of the questions I've seen all revolve on children attending. Well.... Yes we were warned that this year Seaworld was switching up there Howl-O-Scream style from the previous years and making it more for the older kids (13 and up) but I thought how will we know if its too spooky for him if we don't check it out? Every person and child has a different threshold for what they can handle. And my son had been through the Haunted forest every single yr before when some adults thought it too spooky and he happens to be very brave so why not give it a chance?

As soon as we got there we were greeted with this awesome display of pumpkins and the Howl-O-Scream banner that are prefect for pictures! So snap away! 

Every corner had fun skeletons and more pumpkins and stacks of hay to add festive touches to the park.

Since this was Friday after school mostly all kid friendly activities had already taken place sadly. But luckily there was a show on the schedule we knew for a fact was very kid appropriate. So we started off with a Clyde and Seamore Halloween Show.

As soon as the haunting hour {which is 7 clock and one hour later than the yr before} came we headed to the scare zones! There were clowns and vampires and more walking around scaring people, It was a lot of fun! They are very friendly to the smaller ones and will stop and pose for pictures but if you are an adult they will jump up behind you and have a blast trying to scare you. 

Near The Rio Loco area they created a Vampire Bar! Yep like out of True Bloods "fangtasia". There were vampires all over the area! 

We saw that the line for The Haunted forest was short so we got in line. As soon as we got there the staff was very friendly and reminded us of the changes to Howl-O-Scream this year and that if my son became too afraid and needed to get out immediately from the haunted forest that we should look for employees wearing a vampire cape and they would get us out! We thanked them kindly and off we entered.

{Thank you so much Seaworld for trusting a parents judgement and being friendly about it while at the same time offering to rescue us in case we made a horrible mistake. It means a lot to me as a parent that you have our backs}

Let me also mention that before entering and even before going to the park my Munchkin as always was reminded that the monsters he would see were all regular people in costumes with paint. That its pretend and that they cant touch him or hurt him. This is very reassuring for a child. A quick trip to a Halloween costume store can help them see how this is possible. 

Once inside the Haunted Forest I could definitely tell that Seaworld had stepped up there game in the creepy department. There were more monsters than ever jumping out at you and the scare was everywhere. I will admit my kiddo initially did not like it so we stopped and let people pass us. We had a quick talk and I told him he was very brave and if he wanted to get out he could. He chose to stay and finish and we did! He got out of the Haunted forest running away with his screaming aunt as a monster had jumped out at her and we laughed about it as we walked away. 

Will I take him through the Haunted Forest again on another visit? No! Not this year at least. Will I take him to Seaworlds Howl-O-Scream at night again? Yes! He loves wearing glow in the dark fun items and the spooky monsters walking around. He loved all the fun sweet treats and have I mentioned hes a night owl? They still have a fun Shamu show at night and our favorite Jack is Back show right after. He loves to dance and see them dancing so this is always a treat for us all. 

Overall we had a blast! We ended up going back again more times during October to go Trick or Treating and do some more fun events with friends!

Here are some more pictures of our visits to Howl-O-Scream this year:

We will be keeping our tradition of going to SeaWorld for Howl-O-Scream and giving everything a chance. Its all in good Halloween spooky fun anyway!

Coffins on Parade 2013

We love heading out to the Riverwalk, its so much fun and somethings always happening. On this night we went to check out an event we have been to many times! We went to see coffins On Parade! 

No dont worry there not real coffins and also this is a very family friendly event. Theres just fun music and lights and people dressed in fun costumes. Sometimes they throw candy and little trinkets like necklaces and Halloween themed items. Theres some dancing and plenty of glowing. The river barges go around the river walk route twice. Its a great way to spend an afternoon and major plus... Its FREE! 

Here are some photos from this years Coffins On Parade at The San Antonio Riverwalk: 

(I wish there was more photos but the barges are too much fun that you cant keep your camera up, plus when the clown from "IT" came out thats all I could stare at) Hope to see you out there next year! 

Our first Pumpkin Carving Adventure

This October was our first time carving pumpkins. Previous years my kiddo was too small so we would buy the baby pumpkins and just draw on them or use paint. But this year he started school and they talked about it and they even told us parents that pumpkin carving was going to happen in there class so now there were no excuses. I knew this was our year to try it all out together for the first time. 

Well... It was a blast! We literally spent hours outside playing with pumpkin goo and seeds and making designs on pumpkins and we didn't get bored. Here are some pictures from our adventure:

These are the first 3 pumpkins we did out of a total of 7 I believe we ended up doing over the month of October

Taking off the top of the pumpkin is very exciting. I dont know why but I expected it to be full all the way to the top off pumpkin goo. And major confession: I dont know how Pumpkin pies are made but I kept thinking you must need a bunch just to make one pie. I guess I need to go investigate on that. 

The seeds are huge! And man is everything sticky

Here's an inside view. Ps my son was watching and interacting the whole time. It was so exciting for him to see how the insides look and to help us clean them out. This is a great experience for the little ones but seriously prepare to get dirty. 

After all that cleaning and scraping of the pumpkin our bowls were full! 

Here is our empty pumpkin

And here is my kiddo playing with all the goop

Here is my carving progress

This was my finished pumpkin carving. Its a mummy since Im a mommy. Get it? Yeah... I know corny. But it was fun. 

Now dont forget to Hop on over to Alamo City moms blog to check out my post with Pumpkin Carving Tips for Beginners that came from this Pumpkin Carving Adventure! Hope to see you over there.