Halloween!!

We started our Halloween celebrations on Friday night with the Beavers' Halloween Party. It included haunted room run by the cubs, spider cupcakes and spooky craft. Liam was Mario and he even won a costume prize!!

Beavers

Mario

On Saturday morning we headed to Chilliwack, which is near Vancouver, to meet up with some other exchange teachers for a Halloween celebration. We started at the Chilliwack corn maze, which was fun. The maze itself was quite muddy, and after a couple of turns we decided we would turn back. But there was a lot of other fun stuff to do there including a corn pit, which was like a ball pit but filled with corn kernels!

the corn maze

Liam being buried in the corn pit!

Then we started our parties! We started at John's place for drinks and appies and it was great to see other exchange teachers we hadn't seen since February and hear about their experiences.

We then moved on to John's friends' place for pumpkin carving and beer tasting. Frank did a fantastic job on our pumpkin with excellent advice from others who were doing the same! It was a big job. Likewise, I did a great job on the beer tasting.

Frank hard at work

Then we headed on to a Halloween party at the house of a couple who are going to Perth on exchange next year. It was very atmospheric (Liam was in tears at the dummy on the porch!) and the costumes were great. (See photos for ours!!)

The exchange group

At midnight we called it quits and headed to Carlene and Bruce's place in Port Coquitlam for the night. Carlene and Bruce are from Highton in Geelong, just around the corner from Peter and Robyn!!

The next day we were up and away early in order to be back in Kamloops for Liam's friend Summer's Halloween birthday party. That evening we took Harry Potter and his fairy sister to 'Boo at the Zoo' at the Wildlife Park where they had lots of great decorations and Halloween activities in the dark!

At the Wildlife Park

My Harry Potter

Boo at the Zoo

...and the reverse

The front of our pumpkin...

Monday was Halloween itself and we were already exhausted! Liam wore his Harry Potter costume to school and we took our pumpkin up in the pram! It was heavy! They had a Halloween dance and did craft which we used to decorate our house! At Frank's school there was also dress-up and competitions.


Frank and some colleagues



The pumpkin in the pram!

Some of the pumpkins at school

Liam's classroom on Halloween

On Monday evening we went trick-or-treating. We started next door at Susan and Gary's and then visited some other friends before meeting up with Kim, Ben, Louise and Adam to hit a street where the houses are close together and the driveways not too steep!!! (so practical!) We spent almost two hours out and came home with 10 pounds (!!!!) of treats! Liam did a great job and Phoebe, who started off calling out 'trick or treat', moved on to 'treat' and then finally just what she really wanted....'chips'!!!





Fairy Phoebe and Mario Liam

Trick-or-treating at Susan and Gary's














The fam in costume!



Getting ready to hit the streets

Kim's house, complete with graveyard!

Jack (Liam's partner in class)
and Liam

We finished off at Bruce and Cynthia's. We had promised to walk down their really long driveway, but we were so tired we just drove to the door!


It was a really great evening and such a happy, community event. We had a great night.





Halloween baking 2

Halloween baking 1



This says it all!