Trick or Treat Aussie Style

Happy Halloween!

When we moved here I was pretty sure we had given up any hope for the kids to be able to go "Trick or Treating". I thought October 31st would be just another day to the Australians, with no spooky fanfare. Happily, I was wrong!

Apparently our neighbourhood is one of the few who do celebrate Halloween, so we really lucked out there. The kids didn't get to wear costumes or have any celebrations at school but they were excited that they would not miss out on the big candy grab!

Caitlyn, wearing her candy corn t-shirt and leggings, and I, in my tacky Jack-o-lantern shirt, put on our sunscreen (sorry to gloat!!), and proceeded to vamp up our house true Halloween style! Normally, I stick to some tasteful fall decorations and pumpkin patch signs, but this year I felt like I had to somehow prove my Canadian-ness by having the best decorations on the block! We had spider webs galore, a giant arachnoid hanging from the front deck, stuffed pumpkins swinging from the palm trees, and a carved twenty-four dollar orange pumpkin glowing to greet the trick-or-treaters!! Yes, I did say $24!!!! And no, I do not want to hear how pumpkins were only $2 each at Superstore!!!! Bananas, bananas, bananas!!!!!! I had just dropped my friends off at the airport and was feeling a little homesick when I made that purchase! Next year maybe we will go on the cheap and carve a yoda out of one of the green pumpkins they have here!!

At 4:30 p.m. we all got dressed and ready to head out to met some of Caitlyn's friends for trick-or-treating. Yes, all 3 of us got dressed up! And the bonus here was that we didn't have to figure out a costume that would fit over a snow suit! Oh sorry - gloating again!

Caitlyn wore her Tinkerbell costume with light-up wings, Jack was Luke Skywalker, and I dressed up as Marge Simpson. I figured that I may as well have some fun since I don't know enough people here yet to be embarrassed! We looked great, if I don't say so myself! Since Halloweening is a new thing here, the costumes we saw reminded me of my childhood. Not the fancy store bought ones you see nowadays, but the kind you threw together the day before Halloween! Girls were either witches or ghosts (bed sheet and all) and the boys were murder victims or scary masked murderers! Good thing I didn't go to all the trouble of making an Ahsoka (Star Wars) costume for Caitlyn! I would have looked way too keen!!

Paul was in charge of handing out candy. Again, I don't want to hear about how Halloween candy was $10 for 100 candy bars! I paid $22 for 50 mini Malteasers and $10 for some lollipops! But, what are you going to do??? You got to have lollies!! We actually ran out of candy by 7:30 p.m. and had to turn out the lights. I think we had more kids come to our door here than we ever did in our Calgary house!

The kids didn't get as much candy as they did last year but they didn't notice at all. They counted and sorted and were over the moon! And, they still let me raid their bags for a candy bar! Isn't that what's it about?