Trick or Treat!

Halloween is becoming more popular in Australia, and every year, my boys ask if they can go 'Trick or Treating', and generally because it's my busy time of year with work, it's always a last minute decision if we can go or not. Of course, they want to Trick or Treat with friends, so last minute call ups to friend's parents are not ideal, as other arrangements for their children have already been made, or they aren't going, so it makes it really hard for my kids.

So this year was no different... I told them this morning that if I finish my work before they come home from school, then we can call around, see if anyone has organised something, then go to the $2 shop and get their costumes. It was all in the timing and luckily I had 5 minutes of work to finish when they got home at 3.50pm, shops close generally around 5pm to get the costume, but we had to make sure we could tag along with others, as it's our first time, we didn't know which houses to approach. But then my boys were too interesting the the TV when they got home from school, and not in the event they had been nagging me for a month. So I nagged them back! "IF YOU WANT TO GO TRICK OR TREATING, WE HAVE TO GO TO THE SHOPS NOW!!!" But as none of their friend's parents had returned my calls or some had pre-arranged to go with other kids, their interest had waned.

At 4.15pm I get a call from my 9 year old's friend's mum saying that they are going, but not till about 6.30pm, I said that's fine, I'll just see if I can get them off the couch to buy a costume. As soon as I said that they could go with someone, they jumped off and we went shopping.

We got to the shops, and as it was already Halloween, most the costumes were gone. There were a few masks, and plenty of accessories, but of course, the ones they had seen in the window were not in their size or were sold out. So another painful excursion to eventually get some pumpkin masks, a knife, some fake blood, some oversized t-shirts to destroy if they wanted to and they were set. (as you can see, I was rather over-tired myself, as I'd been working since 4.30am, and was at that point of being deliriously tired!)

We went home and set up ready to go by about 5.30pm. I suggested to the boys that we go down to one of the local shopping strips, as they were having a Trick or Treat event in some participating shops. They agree to go down, even though I said we might be a bit late, as a lot of the shops would have shut for the night. We arrived, and there were still plenty of kids in witches costumes, and ghost masks walking down the street, but not many shops with 'treats' to share. However, the further down the street we went, the more we realised that the event was a success, as the boutique ice-cream shop gave away 700 ice-creams, and they were sold out. We saw some of the boys friends, and there were some parents with bowls of treats just to keep the momentum going, but otherwise the shops seemed to be exhausted by the on-rush of costumed-tikes going up and down the street.

I decided to rush home and get our bowl of goodies to hand out to kids in the street, as I knew that our bowl would remain full if we kept it at home. We arrived at my son's friend's house and bumped into our old neighbours. A few more families joined in with children ranging from 5 years old up to 11 years old, and the adventure was on. They knocked on doors with signs out the front, and their eagerness knocked on doors without signs too! My boys mood definitely changed from grumble bums to avid souls doing everything we tell them not to do (knocking on strangers doors and accepting candy from strangers!) when it's not Halloween.

What was supposed to be only half an hour, turned into almost an hour and a half. And the more houses we knocked on, the more joined our group of trick or treaters. In the end, it was a fun night of kids being kids.

Anyway, here a re few pics of the night! Happy Halloween!