Haunted Pirate Cave Halloween

Posting anything after Monkeyman's phenomenal Peter Pan Halloween is almost an exercise in futility, but here I humbly present our Haunted Pirate Cave, otherwise known as the sidewalk in front of our house.

It took only a weekend and a few evenings to create with a little help from my friend, Todd. I mixed up a suitably scary pirate/ocean themed sountrack that played through hidden speakers. The kids seemed to alternately love it/be confounded by it, while the adults really dug it. One little girl argued that she had seen our block many times and swore that there was no cave located on it! We begged to differ.

Sunday the 26th: This is the completed cave structure I stapled the rock/paper to, looking out from the porch. Neighbors were worried we were tenting the house for bugs or doing a really shoddy room addition.

After a warm & balmy beginning to the week, it turned cold and on Halloween morning it hailed like a mutha! This is the backyard deck. The cave got a bit wet, but the skies cleared and my portable propane heater dried the paper out quickly.

The completed cave. Not much to look at in the daylight.

But at night it was pretty damn cool. Mrs. Pineapple sports her pirate duds by the cursed pirate treasure.

It's hard to capture the moody pools of red lighting with a digital camera, but this is the best I could get of the treasure/dead pirate, which was the main display in the cave.

All our pirate guests gather for a shot.

The Pine-Arrrr-ples after much Trader Vic's Punch from the Grog Log.

We had a blast putting this on and look forward to doing something bigger and better next year. Ahoy!

Very cool. I really like the authentic pirate touch (bones, treasure, etc). The paper cave really provided a great effect.

Remember, this is not a competition. Everyone should participate at a level that fits their interest, time, budget etc. The point is to participate.

Great job.

Awesome job! I'd be thrilled to show up at a party and see how all-out the hosts went to create atmosphere!

All our pirate guests gather for a shot.

A shot of what!?!?

That punch was mighty!

Great Cave,
can we have a showing of all the priates out there next year?
I have an extra, full costume for anyone who is too lame to actually own pirate stuff. I also have a couple extra shirts and some paper Pirate hats so between the Pineapples and myself we could outfit half a dozen pirates already. Pirate Halloween 2004!!!

I am officially a lame ass for not going. We were going to and then...well...then...we...sorta got really drunk. There was no driving to the east bay after that. Looks brilliant- I wish we'd gone.

We went out to a midnight movie as drunk shriners. Talk about the easy way out!

Thanks, MM & Pup.
And you're right, Otto, I meant to say "a few gallons"...
Martin, you missed a great time. Thanks for the punch tips, though. One important lesson we learned about punch prep is to not let the drunkest person mix up the 2nd bowl!
:)

That paper cave idea is brilliant! I'll be appropriating it in the future, I'm sure.

We went out to a midnight movie as drunk shriners. Talk about the easy way out!

...Wow. My boyfriend and I do that every Thursday. Do you think we may have a problem?

Thanks, Pine-arrrples, for a fabulous time!

It look to me as if you really know how to throw a shin-dig. Lots of great details. I am sure it was enjoyed by everyone.

Whoa Tiki-bot! You shoulda been an Imagineer!

On 2003-11-04 11:38, Tangaroa wrote:
You shoulda been an Imagineer!

That's just what my friend at Imagineering said! Actually, the fun for me is in just slapping together a half-baked idea and not finessing it at all, which I rarely get to do. No drawings, no measuring tapes, nothing. It's kinda like sculpting, just sort of following the vision in your mind of how you want it to look. It's loads of fun to build this way.

Oh, and welcome to TC, Miss Kitty! :wink:

yes, DON'T let the drunkest pineapple mix the second round of punch. That would've been me :) It was, once again, alcohol fueled mayhem!

a good time was had by all, and YES we do have extra pirate gear, we had a bunch of puffy shirts, and eye patches, etc, it was great fun thrifting the costumes! (did I mention I got a 100% cashmere dress coat for $16, whilst thrifting for pirate gear! SCORE!)

Anyway - don't let mr. pineapple fool you into thinking he DIDN'T sweat the details... please, he sweated every detail, and it was magnificent! the kids thought it was cool, and the parents were blown away.

The best comments came from our nephew's friends, Jordan is 7 years old, and his comments were "wow, this was a LOT of work!" He also said, when he saw the inside of our Tiki filled home, "I LOVE this house, you guys should never move..." He also walked around with Rich, commenting on all the tikis and mugs. He's pretty adorable!

I'm glad everyone had fun, I was a little nervous that I was an obnoxious drunken hostess, but apparently no one cared! cool....
xoxo
mrs. p

Excelent excelent work. It is a shame we're moving away, Bot - we could have thrown one hell of a party together.

Love the pirate cave! Hubby and I went as pirates last year and the outfits made him amorous ... imagine how much fun I would have had if we'd only had the cave!