Happy Halloween! Halloween is a favorite holiday at our house so we've been looking forward to it for weeks. The kids have been drawing and coloring
Halloween pictures (Nate draws an excellent bat and witch on a broomstick) all week. Plus there has been lots of
Halloween crafts- from making a giant spider (the size of a trashcan) to a mobile of bats, to small spiders (
red backs of course). We even paid a small fortune for a pumpkin (
extortion or ex-pat tax prices...we saw some medium sized ones for $45 -
OMG). Nate had decided that he wanted to be a
leaf blower man and his sister a pile of leaves he could pretend to blow around. After spending three hours last Sunday searching craft and hardware shops getting all the supplies to
jerryrig this costume he announced that he had changed his mind. I thought Michael was going to faint then awake to kill him but it was a true parenting moment and he rose the challenge and calmly said
ok. UGH!!! So instead Nate went as the Lollipop man (school crossing man) and Reese went as a bumble bee. They both looked great and got lots of compliments on their outfits. We went over to Nate's friend Harry's neighborhood. Halloween is just starting to take off here in Sydney so we had to go to a
neighborhood known for
decorations and celebrating. It is nice and old fashion- a lot of
homemade costumes, still safe to give unwrapped candy (of course us being American
paranoid freaks threw those away). Plus you can't beat trick or treating in 80 degree weather and sunshine (plus the mom's walk around with glasses of wine)- much better experience than Seattle cold, dark and wet. We only got 4 groups of trick or
treaters to our house (a gaggle of girls who
screamed she's American when I opened the door...apparently they must have gotten odd reactions from the rest of the neighbors). Nate loved
zig zagging across the streets so he could pretend to be a real crossing guard- he even stopped several cars. Reese loved the holiday and by the second house she had the routine down pat saying trick or treat and thank you. Then she would open her bag to show us (after each treat received :)) then run to the next house to do it again.
Every time we met up with other kids she would wave and yell "Happy Halloween"- it was complete joy. I think both kids could have gone for hours (a vast improvement over last year's one house adventure).
Here are some photos: our bee &
lollipop man
Nate, Ang and I made this Halloween poem:
Eye of newt & tongue of snake
mix it well with a rake
add a tail fresh from a rate
don't forget the wing of a bat
stir it, mix it, in a pot
over a flame until it's hot
dash of venom, pinch of trouble
let it simmer until it bubbles
almost done with our scary stew
add blood of Nate and Reese's poo
serve it up to every guest
hope you enjoy your Halloween fest
Michael and I went to Melbourne for the big horse race- the Melbourne cup. The call it the race that stops the nation. It is on the scale of the Kentucky derby or English Ascot races. We traveled to the races on a friend's boat - an excellent way to tailgate and avoid massive traffic. We were invited to a private tent at an exclusive part of the track. It was quite fun to watch the fashion show parading in front of our tent. As per typical Australia- there was a lot of skin and a lot of booze. Funny enough most of the special private tents don't even have a view of the track - you watch from a TV or watch outside. Still it was quiet fun.
