The Ice Cream Social
The first event on the school calendar was an ice cream social. We examined the notices that came home from school carefully to try and figure out what this was all about. Turns out the school puts on about 100 litres of ice cream and all the accessories that go along with it. We tipped up (me with coins jangling in my pocket in case we had to buy stuff) just after opening time and found the whole school bursting at the seams with people. We got in line and were handed a cup with a couple of scoops of ice cream in it. We joined the next line to get sprinkles and sauce (or whatever else you wanted!) The cafetorium (a multitasking room) was pretty full, but we managed to find a seat and and ate our ice cream. The kids were blown away by FREE ICE CREAM at SCHOOL!!! Doesn't get much more awesome than that :) Had a bit of a wander around and found ourselves in the gym for the 'social' part. The kids were expecting a dance and were quite disappointed when it turned out to be the chicken dance, line dancing and the macarena! We headed home reasonably early (Matt and his workmates were busy destroying a bunch of lobsters out on the deck) but everyone was well pleased with this introduction to the social side of school!School Fair
Right around when everything was getting all autumny and people were starting to stack pumpkins on their front door step, the school had their Fall Fair. We were told to bring money for tickets for food and some baking for the cake walk. There were to be a whole lot of fall activities to have a go at too.
The cake walk (as it turned out) is kinda like musical chairs only not really! there are numbers marked in a circle on the floor and everyone hands over a ticket, then shuffles around the circle while the music plays. When the music stops everyone stands on a number and the master of ceremonies spins the wheel. if your number is called, you go and choose something from the baking table. everyone else hands over another ticket and resumes shuffling! I made some halloweeny biscuits - witch hats, pumpkins and ghosts - and an apple pie with a jack-o-lantern lid (sounds good but was a bit of a disaster really, kinda fell apart when I tried to get it out of the tin.... was probably the last thing on the table!!). Owen was desperate to have a go, so I gave them a ticket each. Both were very disappointed with the outcome and didn't want a second go!
We headed outside to check out the activities. The boys weren't keen on competitive corn shucking, or the skeleton race (team running to collect all the bits then put it together) but there was no one at the scarecrow race so it was Alex v Owen. The idea was to run up to the pile of clothes and put the scarecrow clothes on then run back. Owen misunderstood and hauled the whole lot back to the start before he started getting into them, which put Alex a bit out of stride, but he recovered and carried his gear back too. Alex won, but the nice bloke gave Owen a ribbon for fastest run back :)
We walked on over to the pumpkin toss - first one to get three little pumpkins in the basket wins. Alex wasn't keen but Owen had a go (probably thinking about the success he had washers out at the corn maze) and beat out the competition (3 other kids) to getting his pumpkins in. Another blue ribbon to add to the stash...Alex and Amelia had a go at the 'egg' and spoon race - the mean attendant there didn't give Amelia a ribbon despite being the only one in her 'race'!
The next one they tried was the good ole sack race. Somehow Owen beat off all the competition and won that one too! He probably jumped the gun.... Alex did a bit of musical hay bales and we headed back inside for some popcorn and hot apple cider to finish off the experience :) Everyone had a great time - the handful of blue ribbons were very gratifying :) (they must have given out thousands!)Halloweeeeeeen
Halloween was VERY exciting. We bought our pumpkins and carving kit about three weeks out and the kids (with a bit of help) all set to and carved their terrifying pumpkins. We had great fun - its both easier and harder than it looks! Amelia was dead set on continuously stabbing hers with the saw (very Halloween!) so she was relegated to managing the slimy goop that came out of the inside and holding the spoon while I did the carving (not very Playcentre I know, but this is all about appearances!!!) Pleased as punch we put them out the front to look all ghouly on the lead up to Halloween night.
I took the kids down to our local Dollarama (nothing over $3.50 as far as I can tell) and we selected some decorations - a couple of swinging ghouls for outside the door, and some gravestones for the front lawn. Some people go all out on this - up the road there was a cat that was honestly taller than the house! - but we decided to keep it to a manageable number of ghouls, pumpkins and gravestones. The kids had a ball planting the gravestones and shifted them around multiple times before the layout was 'perfect'. Unfortunately the wind got up the first night we had them out and they blew away!!! I found all but one down the road and in the neighbors gardens (along with bits of down pipe and pumpkins from other houses. I decided to keep them inside till the wind died down and Halloween got a bit closer! It was about now that we started to wonder why no-one else had carved their pumpkins. Driving around I'd seen lots of pumpkins (pretty much everyone has them) but none were carved.... after they had been sitting there for about a week we found out!
I went to put the lights in one night and they were starting to get puddles of decomposing liquid in the bottom of them... along with some very festive mold..... Alex's pumpkin didn't even make it to Halloween night and the teeth of Owens had all curled up inside the mouth leaving his looking kinda cheery rather than toothily spooky. Most people carve their pumpkins on Halloween day or the day before to avoid these decomposition issues..... Tricks for new players!
We decided that we would all go trick or treating (instead of one of us staying behind to open the door for trick or treaters). We waited for just on dark, and answered the door a few times before setting out ourselves. I'd got the kids quite small buckets so we didn't end up with too much junk, but they were full after about 3-4 houses which seemed like a bit of a let down, so we took out the chip packets and kept going. Some kids had pillow cases and those big black rubbish bags... I'm not so much a fan of Halloween in NZ, but here where everyone gets into the decorating and themed cereals it kinda seemed like the right thing to do :) It was kinda cool out in the dark with the kids jibbering with excitement clutching their buckets. there were heaps of kids out and a bout which just added to it really! Any door with an outside light on was fair game, and people were giving away ridiculous amounts of treats. Once Amelia's legs started to give out we headed for home and a bit of quick loot examination before bed. I ended up with a whole grocery bag full of chip packets... appalling really! After the kids went to bed we sifted thru the lollies and took out all the truly terrible looking stuff . I was going to throw it out, but there were still teenage kids coming to the door so I gave it all to them! Great experience for all!Saw quite a few ninjas, witches and lots of superheros, but no raccoons...
