Halloween in Paradise

Ilona takes her Halloween pretty seriously (see here and here for some examples from Pittsburgh). Halloween is known in New Zealand, but it is not a big holiday (Guy Fawkes Day in early November is much bigger). But we had to do some decorations and invite some of the other kids over. Ilona (helped by Mike) did a great job in making the house look scary, at least as scary as you can make a house full of windows on a bright sunny day look! I fear we went a little overboard since some of the little princesses and butterflies (all of Alexander's friends are girls for some reason) a little nervous. Hands coming out of the snack bowls didn't help.

But once the kids started popping balloons and making ghosts, all was right. Ilona has a wonderful story she does involving ripping apart a monster that had them all captivated. We even had some trick-or-treaters (exclusively the domain of 10 year old girls, here, it seems). Not quite like home: Halloween should be a fall event, and it just doesn't feel right on such a wonderful day. Of course, in Winnipeg, kids end up wearing parkas and flashing their costumes during trick-or-treat, and that isn't right either!

The party ended when we ran out of water, again! The water collection system on our roof obviously doesn't work very well. The water guy was startled the next day when seeing Ilona: she hadn't had the water to wash off her green witch makeup.

A few parents (including us!) were in for a surprise when we found out where food coloring in drinks ends up in little kids. We almost took Alexander to the doctor before we figured out what was going on!