Monday, November 4, 2013

Halloween and another ice hockey match

Although it is Halloween, a lot of people also decorate their houses for Fall, or Harvest, like this house below with the scarecrows, and lots of pretty orange and yellow flowers.

The boys school had a Fall Festival, and there was a prize for the best decorated door, like the one below.  There was also a chilli cook off, so everyone got to taste, and then vote on the best chilli, as well as a maze to run through, games where the students could play to win candy for their 'trick or treating', and a game where they threw a ball at a target, and if they got it, the teacher that was on the seat at that time fell into the water.  Some of them had wetsuits on - it was a bit chilly! 
There was also a competition for the best Halloween costume, so all the kids got dressed up, and it was fun to get a little taste of what Halloween was going to be like.
The boys were very excited to decorate the house for Halloween, so we made a bit of an attempt, but not as elaborate as some people!
We carved our pumpkins.  First we had to scoop out all the seeds - they are not fleshy like our pumpkins at home, but mainly gunky seeds in the middle.  The boys all chose a design, and then I helped them carve them.
We also made some cookies for them to give to their teachers and friends.  I made them during the day, and then when they got home from school, we all decorated them.  It was quite an effort!
Quinn had his Halloween celebration at pre-school, which was really cute to see all the little ones dressed up.  There were lots of princesses and super heroes, but also Harry Potter, pirates and Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz.
They had a fun day where they had lots of different craft stations, bowling over pumpkins, and the limbo.  Here Quinn is pretty pleased to show his Halloween craft.
The boys had their Halloween parade at school.   We stood there while every student passed us by.  It was interesting to see all the costumes, and the teachers dressed up too.  Luke was the very last student to come by, out of the 837 at the school!

After the parade, both Luke and Ryan had a Halloween breakfast.  We took in fruit skewers with Halloween 'peeps', a marshmallow treat on the end, and caramel apple - which is fresh apple cut up, and then dipped in caramel.  This is apparently an Autumn specialty!  They could then play Halloween games, but once the party was over they had to change out of their costumes.  Here is a photo of Ryan and his friend Job, after their party.

Halloween was Thursday night, and we went to the neighbours to have some dinner, and then all the kids went out together to go trick or treating.  The adults got dressed up too, which was a bit of fun.  I just borrowed a costume off our neighbour, Jen, and Phil was Darth Vader (the mask is on his head, and Luke has his light saber).  Luke was a zombie pirate, cause he had to go for something really gross, Ryan was a Native American, and Quinn was Wolverine.
We went trick or treating around the neighbourhood for an hour or so.  It was fun to see all the families out, but some were a bit cheeky, and a car would pull up, the kids would go around the cul-de-sac for candy, get back in the car and go to the next street!


We admired the decorations at this house on the corner for a few weeks prior to Halloween.  They had a graveyard set up, and their pumpkins out the front.  For the night of Halloween they went all out, and had a smoke machine and this spooky scene set up - it was pretty impressive!
The boys had Friday off school, after Halloween.  The Blacks, another Aussie family on exchange over here came up for the weekend, and we had tickets to go to an Avalanche match, at the Pepsi Centre in Denver.




 There was quite a group of us - 12, and we went in and had a look around 16th Street mall, and had dinner before the game.  There was a ceremony as they were retiring number 52, which is quite an honour.  The guy had retired a while ago, but now his number was going up in the rafters, and would not be able to be used again.  It was a fun night, and the Avalanche won, which is always a bonus! 

 


 

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