Police Stations & Pumpkin Clementines

I know Thanksgiving is around the corner, but I can’t let our fall house festivities pass by without taking note! Bri and I got all decked out and spent the day making pumpkin clementines, yogurt banana ghostcicles, and we even splurged and made M&M caramel apples. Her "WE CAN DO IT" motto really helped get us through.

Last year's Halloween at the house was pretty fantastic. This year, we did not want to disappoint.  

 

One of our residents has enjoyed taking her kiddos to the downtown police station the past couple years. We decided to make it a house event! Some residents still aren't so keen on cops, so they went around the hood and did things the old fashioned way. I get it. Cops make me nervous when I'm speeding driving. We walked, so I breathed easier.

The local police station apparently goes all out for the neighborhood. They transform their entire building into a haunted house! The hallways were spooky-ish and the offices become hideaways where volunteers and officers hand out candy.

The officers I spoke with while the kiddos were getting fingerprinted said it was a small group of vehicles tonight because they kept getting calls. Shocking.

The parking lot is an open house of sorts to check out all the swanky vehicles they use for various reasons. Every TV crime show came to mind as we toured the Incident Command semi.

I headed home fully anticipating to cancel our planned party because the mommas and kiddos were wiped. WHAT was I THINKING!? There I lounged on the couch eating ghostcicles with some of the adults, counting the minutes until bedtime and the doors BURST open with kiddos wanting to play games and PARTYYYYYYYY.

I rallied. 

We had games galore! Pumpkin races, straw blowing spider races, spiderweb spider toss, and a ghost tower toss. 

Our in-house super heroes crushing the ghost tower toss.

Straw blowing spider races. Videos are FAR better than the pics.

My favorite part was taking this life-giving picture of redemption. This beautiful woman has transformed in every way possible since coming to Joy House! I quote: “How crazy is this?! Instead of running from the cops I’m asking you to take a picture of me with my kid BY them!!” Amen sister. Amen.

God is so good!!

Okay, okay...I would be remiss if I didn’t say this was definitely another memorable moment!! I know I've shared it with you in my last post, but it was just so COOL!

I felt like I was on Chicago P.D. as an eclectic unicorn woman....one can ONLY dream.