Zombie Crawl

The news is out. This year's Zombie Crawl in Denver broke the record yet again with 45,000+ attendees. They collected hundreds of pounds of food for the local food bank. I'm proud to say that my family was there.

We were all dressed up as gross, grey zombies. I found this awesome tutorial on instructables for applying some fancy zombie makeup with normal household stuff. I will admit that I had to buy some colors of eye shadow that I don't normally own. Then, I found this helpful list of ways to make fake blood. We used the first recipe. Cub thought it was delicious.

We tore up our clothes and glued stuff to our faces and put eye shadow in places I'd normally never allow. That is, except for Cub. He did not want makeup on him at all. The whole process was unusual and loads of fun.

We got the clothes from the thrift store and the pile of stuff were were already going to throw out. So the kids got to go crazy, stomping things into the mud and cutting/ripping holes in things. The twins got to do some of their own makeup. We looked amazing, especially as a family.

The night before the crawl, I asked Cub what he wanted to wear. He specifically asked for a dress. So, Papa and I picked up a fluffy dress for him at the thrift store... something that would tear nicely. But, when we got it home, he fell in love with it and didn't want to ruin it. He wanted to wear it to bed. So, we picked a dress that had been retired to the play clothes box for him to soil instead.

When Papa took the twins to gymnastics the next day, some other parents were talking about the Zombie Crawl, saying they wish they could have gone. Papa said we went... and we took our kids. The other parents, a bit surprised, said they would definitely not take their kids. It would be too scary.

Our kids didn't enjoy that event, but not because it was scary. The costumes were fun and interesting. The problem was the lack of entertainment for them. 45,000+ people were there. We felt like we were being trampled more than half of the time. One end of the even was flooded with loud music and people, with nothing else of interest to be seen. We never made it to the other end of the event because of the crowd-induced chaos.

I emailed the even coordinators before we even floated the idea of attending. I asked if they thought that this would be the sort of event that kids would enjoy. Their website said there would be games, but wasn't clear about what that actually meant. I was assured that kids would love the Zombie Crawl, but probably not the "Organ Trail" scavenger hunt scheduled for earlier in the day.

We loved getting dressed up, getting dirty, getting messy, and putting crazy makeup on. The event itself was a huge flop for us. The kids only really enjoyed when we found a place to sit quietly and eat, away from the crowd. Cub probably had the least trouble with the crowd, because he was in a stroller and has no social fear. M, who tends to be much more shy, was overwhelmed but well-behaved. The twins just didn't have any fun because they couldn't go anywhere, do anything, or even see anything.

So, regardless of whether or not monster fear is an issue for your kids, I really wouldn't recommend the Zombie Crawl for children. Keep in mind that mind are 8 (S), 8 (C), 6 (M), and 2 (Cub). I saw several other kids there. Most of the kids I saw having any fun at all were probably at least 12.