Lewisburg resident Richard Brown hopes to impress his new stepchildren with some elaborate decorations, wacky costumes, and “crazy antics” this upcoming Halloween. Brown, or “Ricky” as he prefers to be called, admits that he has had some trouble connecting with 12-year-old Olivia and 9-year-old Tyler since marrying their mother in April.

“The kids haven’t gotten to see me in my zone yet; they just know me as the Ricky that’s allergic to the dog, or the Ricky who made their mom change her name,” Brown said. “Just wait until they get to meet the Ricky who puts a smoke machine in the bushes, or the Ricky who pulls the old fake spiders in the food gag!”

Brown recently purchased $450 worth of decorations from Home Depot to set up around the house he moved into only 18 months after Tyler and Olivia’s father passed away from Parkinson’s disease. Along with the smoke machine, the haul included four plaster skeletons, ample amounts of fake-cobwebs, bails of hay to stuff into a dummy corpse for a full sized coffin that Brown plans to construct, a robotic motion-censored hand that reaches out to the sound of menacing old-man cackles, and a massive witch doll to display on the roof.

“Personally, I never liked Halloween,” Brown’s wife, Shannon, said. “I don’t see how Richard can put so much work into this holiday, but he can’t remember to pick the kids up from school some days,” Shannon said as she poured herself another glass of Chardonnay and watched her husband become tangled in cobwebs outside.

“I picked up some pretty spooky stuff, so the decorations are going to be kick-butt. But real question is whether to be Boba Fett or Austin Powers? You know, something to show the kids I get them and they can talk to me. I wanted to be Legolas and have the Ty-guy be Gimli, but I don’t think he was psyched about it. You know kids, probably embarrassed to dress up with the ol’ man, right?” Brown said.

“Richard kept telling me how ‘sweet’ the coffin was supposed to be, but he hurt himself so badly with the hammer that I had to finish it for him” Tyler said.

“Richard picked me up from school with a fake knife sticking out of his neck and fake blood all over his face. This was not his place,” Olivia said.

“Gosh, I can’t wait to see the look on those kids’ faces when I show them the trick-or-treat baskets I got them–they look like Jack-o’-Lanterns!” Brown said.

During press time, Olivia was researching various boarding schools online and Tyler was preparing a homemade “Hamlet” costume.