Friday, November 1, 2013

Halloween


Last night was Halloween. We have moved house from our old neighbourhood, where it is the place to be for trick or treating, to a new neighbourhood just down the road, which apparently was the place to be years ago, but last night was a little quiet. It made me realise how neighbourhoods must go in cycles, for our road has all babies on it now, except for our family and one other whose kids are still all under 9. So perhaps in about 10 years, all the parents of those babies may be staying home and letting their kids roam the hood while we go through a big hoopla of decorating the gardens and doorsteps. I hope so! In the meantime, it was 4:30 when I suddenly noticed the time and we had a half hour to throw costumes together to go to dinner before trick or treating. Luckily my kids are so resourceful and just turn their regular clothes inside out. Indigo was a cat again for probably the 7th time (having turned 7 this summer!) so she was easy and she has her outfit down, albeit it a little short in the legs and belly area this year! We turn her hair into kitty ears and paint her face and presto, she is miaowing all night! Oslo went as the Lorax for Indigo's school Halloween Fair, and even won a prize for his resourcefullness and creativity. But of course he didn't want to wear the same thing twice and decided yesterday that he would be Zorro. I didn't even know he knew who Zorro was, but again, an inside out t-shirt, some pj bottoms and a duct taped Z and he was almost there. He had lost one of his cowboy boots out of the car door once (that'll teach him to look after his things better!) so he ended up having to wear four pairs of socks to fit into my size 9 ladies boots! They looked great though - he sort of looked like a puppy where you can see by the paws how big he will be one day! I tied a black sarong around his hair and a mask and mustache and he was unrecognisable.



Some friends had us over on the weekend for a pumpkin carving party which was fun. We emptied the pumpkins at home and have been living off pumpkin soup and pumpkin risotto all week, but we did the carving there which was fun. Of course, I was the only grown up amongst all the kids who was carving as well - I just can't help myself and love a little crafty fun! This pumpkin above is actually Indigo's. As you can see, she slipped with the knife and was in floods of tears after the eye turned into a face gash, but we just wiped off the original face design and moved it all down so his face wouldn't fall apart when we cut the other bits. I tried to do the lesson of that tc painter teacher from the 70s who would say things like turn mistakes into clouds or birds or the like but not totally sure Indigo was on board since this kitty face had no place for birds or clouds. I think he is sort of cool - like Scar Face Claw from the Hairy McLeary books! I helped her after that realising that leaving a seven year old on her own with a knife and a giant pumpkin not necessarily the best combo so we worked together from there on. This one below was mine which was a very unsuccessful cat on a moon - the missing leg is a little weird and his tail looks more like the leaning tower of Pisa but still fun. I also did some of those cool surface designs around the sides which I had never tried before so all fun. But everyone said they weren't very Halloweeny as they were flowers and stars!


All these ones below are Oslo's. He did four faces on one pumpkin and three on the other so def a lot of bang for his buck!



How fun is this gnarly guy Oslo found all alone in a field of perfect ones? And his cyclops vampire is def my fave of the season.




Hope everyone had a safe and healthy Halloween and that all your kids are doing what my kids are doing with their candy - playing sorting games and shop rather than actually eating it. And hopefully they realise that is the only night of the year they are allowed to walk up to strangers' houses and accept candy!!! xxx

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