FAMILY TURNS YARD INTO HALLOWEEN FRIGHT; PARENTS GET A BIT WEIRD, SAYS SON

Most days of the year, the house at 560 N. West End Boulevard looks like any other. But around Halloween, Joe Livingston said his parents turn weird.

For the past three years, Livingston's parents, Jewell and Brad Estes, have made it a point to have the scariest yard in Cape Girardeau. They spend about three Sundays before Halloween decorating it.

"My parents are weird," 16-year-old Livingston said. "They decorate more for Halloween than they do Christmas."

"When we're done, our house looks like the Addams family lives here," said Jewell Estes.

And when they're finished, the sight is ... well, a scream.

Five eerie graves sit in their front yard at 560 N. West End Blvd., a hand emerging from the ground in front of one of them, desperate for freedom and certain revenge.

A scarecrow with a pumpkin sits silently in the yard, watching and waiting, but for what? Only he could answer but he never will.

In the birdbath, a woman's bleeding, severed head sits in the ruby red water, eyes open wide, obviously a victim who met a shocking end.

Two ghouls exchange ghostly glances on the porch, sitting at the table, one sipping somberly on a beer. One can't help but wonder what they have to talk about. Maybe it's better that we don't know.

Brad Estes said his favorite occasion is Halloween and he loves decorating his yard every year, if just to watch the traffic stop.

"We love doing it," he said. "We have fun getting it together and it's a nice family project. And kids around here really seem to enjoy it."

He said the family all gets together and throws in their scariest ideas. They try never to repeat themselves, he said, so as to surprise people.

"It looks different every year," he said.

This year, the Esteses put lights on the graves in the yard. The gravestones bear the names of real-life friends of theirs, all of which are still alive.

"I've had friends say, 'Hey, how come you don't have a grave for us,'" Brad Estes said. "They seemed disappointed; that's very weird."

They also plan to set speakers out in their yard tonight to play horrifying tapes with sounds of screams, glass breaking and other spooky sounds, he said.

Pumpkins, bales of hay and corn stalks also sit in the yard to add to the effect, he said.

"We're going to have trouble outdoing ourselves next year," Brad Estes said.

Their daughter, Kelli Foeste, 7, said she likes the way the yard looks because it looks good when people drive by.

"I don't get scared of it except for sometimes," she said.