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Family turns home into haunted house for neighborhood children

(WISH photo)

BEECH GROVE, Ind. (WISH) — It is Halloween and for a Beech Grove family, it is one of the nights they live for. There is a big tradition that goes on within the family.

For the last 30 something years, the Kidwell family has transformed their Fifth Avenue home into a haunted house and their front yard into a graveyard.

“The kids keep us going. We just enjoy it, we have a lot of fun with the kids and watching everyone come through and their reactions. The ones who have been before come back every year,” said Paula Kidwell who is Bus Driver for Beech Grove City Schools.

Each year the family strives to make it bigger and better than the year before.

“All the family gets involved and my kids know when it gets this time of year, I’ll be calling them. This house had 10 kids growing up in it and it’s always been a gathering place,” she added.

All month long they decorate and live inside their newly transformed haunted house.

“We kind of live like this all month. I think I have just as much fun as Christmas with this Halloween,” she said.

Now that their children are grown up and have their own children, everyone gets involved.

“I just didn’t know what to think of them growing up, when it was Halloween time,” said Daughter Rebecca Yan.

“It’s one of my favorite holidays. I love hearing the kids scream and get scared,” said Angie Kidwell who is another daughter who helps with the house.

The Kidwell home will be open Halloween night. They expect at least a couple hundred children to come through.