Harvest Valley Halloween Bash!

About a week ago I was talking to a couple of friends from our neighborhood, and I asked why no one around here goes Trick-or-Treating. They all gather somewhere for "Trunk-or-Treating" but for me and my kids, it's just not the same thing. There are a lot of good families in our neighborhood with kids but each year no one ever gets more than a hand full of kids that come by for candy, so a lot of families have just stopped turning on that porch light. It's just sad if you ask me. Well, as we were talking we figured that the reason why no one Trick-or-treats around here is because the houses out here are so far apart that it would take a couple hours just get around the "block".
That's when I came up with the idea of a "Trick-or-Treat Hayride". Adam could pull a trailer with the Ranger, and the kids could ride it around the neighborhood. They could all hop off when we got to a welcoming home, then hop back on and ride to the next house.
My friends loved the Idea. One of them donated some straw bales, another one offered to make a few fliers to spread the word that this year there would be Trick or treating in Harvest Valley. (Harvest Valley is the name of our sub division.) We decided that we'd meet at my house for a chili and corn bread pot luck, then we'd have the hay ride.
I was really looking foreword to our "little gathering". Having a Few families over for Halloween would be fun. By midweek however, Adam and I realized that there might be more people coming than we originally thought. In fact, it seemed that everywhere we went ( post office, grocery shopping, the kids school, church, etc...) people were stopping us to tell us how excited they were for the party, and asking what they could bring. In fact there were so many people planning on coming that we had to recruit more hay ride drivers. We started telling people to bring extra candy to give to home owners who normally see a "handful of Trick-or-treaters'".
What started out as a little gathering with a few families, turned out to be a huge gathering with over 80 people and 14 families ! And you know what? It was a blast! One family brought enough hot chocolate for everyone, another made homemade root beer.("witches brew") Every one brought candy, corn bread, chili, bowls, or cups. It was like the "loaves and the fishes" the way we were able to feed every one.
We had THREE hayride trailers FULL of Kids and there were more porch lights on in the neighborhood than there's ever been.
The party was such a success that everyone is already talking about next years party.
I was so busy hosting the party that I really wasn't able to get many good pictures but I did manage to take a few. ( I really need to take some lessons on photography) It was too dark on the hayride to get any good pictures. You'll just have to believe me when I say there were lots of smiles, and a good time had by all.