Cemetery Tours, Bees, and Neighborhood Pirates

Experience Writing Halloween Photo Prompt: Take a picture of your celebration.

Halloween is a very special time for me, and the years I took my granddaughters to explore their first cemetery is a VERY BIG deal to me.

This year, my grandbaby Luna (she’s dressed as a bee, and my older granddaughter is a zombie cheerleader) took her first cemetery tour on a haunted hayride.

It was during the day, but it was fun.

One of the other passengers had family buried at the cemetery we toured that go back to the early 1900s, so I consider the stories he told a bonus.

Like he’d point out a gravestone and say that was his great-grandparent or distant cousin who passed away young. He had a lot of family to point out who passed from the 1900s all the way up to about 10 years ago.

Photo A.M. Moscoso
Spooktacular
Fox Lake WI
2026

Photo A.M. Moscoso
Spooktacular
Fox Lake WI
2026

Photo A.M. Moscoso
Spooktacular
Fox Lake WI
2026

My son has a picture of him and Jemma at her first Spooktacular. She was dressed as a ladybug, and she was throwing a fit.

Julio had the picture taken despite her strong feelings about the moment because he said this was his memory of him and Jemma’s first Halloween event, and he wanted it saved.

I’m glad to say that the girls and their cousin Jayde were in higher spirits than Jemma was 7 years ago.

Photo A.M. Moscoso
Spooktacular
Fox Lake WI
2026

Normally Julio, my son, dresses up, but this time he couldn’t find his mask. Lucky for him, one of his neighbors is a pirate and loaned Julio a prop to pose with. At least I think it was a prop gun. Hard to say—this gentleman dresses like this every day.