Ghouls at Grassmere (with BeBe and PopPop)

We love celebrating at the Nashville Zoo every October. They have a great fundraiser that goes on the three weekends prior to Halloween called Ghouls at Grassmere, and this is our third year to attend (although apparently, I've never blogged about it before). There are trick or treating booths set up, a hayride, a "scary-go-round", and lots of other fun carnival activities. This year my parents joined us for the weekend.

Getting ready...

Every other year, we've arrived as soon as they open at 5, while it is still light outside. This year, we were busy trying to cram other things into our weekend with my parents, so we didn't get to the zoo until after dark (like 6:30 - crazy!). As soon as we arrived, Meg started saying, "I want to go home!" We tried to convince her to do something fun - like ride the merry-go-round - which she normally LOVES. It isn't included in our normal zoo membership, so it's a special treat. We stood in line to get on, but they kept turning the lights on and off and the man giving instructions at the end of the previous ride used a spooky voice, and Meg got scared. She started crying and saying, "I want to go home!" again. I thought we might have wasted a lot of money this year, but we managed to engage her with the bounce house! She had a great time bouncing and sliding down, and then she was ready for more fun.

And she did a really great job all night - except for a minor freak out at the beginning of the hayride because it was dark, but Bill managed to calm her down. She wasn't scared of the "displays" just the dark. We laughed to ourselves later at how ridiculous we were trying to talk her out of being scared: "Look at those silly skeletons! They're so silly! Look at that ghost! He's smiling at us!" But Meg didn't seem bothered by those things at all (they weren't really that scary). In fact, part of the hayride went through a tunnel of black lights and glow in the dark bubbles - a BIG hit with Meg!

My mom and me in costume

Micah was happy the whole time

The bounce house makes everybody happy!

Waiting in line for the hayride

Ready for the hayride!

It was a fun night. We love this Nashville family tradition!