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Halloween 2011, The Horrifying Party

Luke — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 03:07:18 +0000

Our Halloween party was a huge one this year. All the big events made a return, as well as the truly terrifying haunted garage. We had three kids in tears and LOTS of screams, so all in all, it was a big success. We’re still finding spiders and webs around the place, even after cleaning up twice!

Even the young ones got dressed up for the party!

One of our neighbours helped get everything ready... She played a big part in the haunted garage this year.

Apple bobbing featured again this year. The kids actually got all the apples, so we had to put them in for another round.

Mom gets the kids excited about the yucky dip... This year there was a surprise bonus: scorpions!

Yuck.... yuck... yuck...

LR gets a... slime covered scorpion! YUCK!

The kids are excited to line up for the piñata. Some friends helped us set it up this year...

B is the first to whack the pumpkin, and already it's not looking good.

We raised it up higher to try to increase its longevity... It helped, but not quite enough. RJ still got some powerful hits in.

By the time LR and her friends had a go, the piñata was leaking candy everywhere!

It's down! FEEDING FRENZY! ... Next year, we'll add armour plating.

Mom hands out the clue buckets for the treasure hunt.

LR's team did really well, but there were some super hard clues in there.

At the end of the day, everyone lined up for the grand finale and selected their projectiles from the three rubbish bins filled with watery ammunition.

Run, pirate! RUN!

Your feeble sword is no match for the assault of 35 kids with water bombs!

ANOTHER DIRECT HIT! SPLASH!

School Camp at Rotto, 2011

Luke — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 03:07:20 +0000

This year, just like last year, many of the parents and teachers from the kids’ school head over to Rottnest Island for their school camp. There are various gatherings and get togethers for the kids and parents — it’s generally just a great chance to relax and catch up with everybody. The major events are the Students versus Parents Games, a sandcastle competition, and the “Fox Hunt” — a treasure hunt in and around the main settlement to find teachers (and some parents) dressed up in crazy outfits. This year the theme was fairy tale characters. Mom always gets roped into this.

RJ watches for dolphins on the fast ferry across to Rotto. LR was the first to spot them though!

As usual, the local quokkas were really happy to see us.

A lot of bike riding took place. This year we were on the busy street through the middle of Geordie Bay.

As always, Mom was looking great despite the rental bike helmet.

RJ's bike has suffered from a catastrophic mechanical failure, so we weren't able to get enough two-wheel practice in. We'll definitely have it sorted by next year.

The cool kids always sit at the back of the bus.

The ride back to the settlement from Geordie Bay is a very long one if you're in a bad mood.

Not content with simply riding around like a normal human being, this year LR started performing tricks -- no feet, no hands, and amazingly no crashes.

RJ took every opportunity to torment his poor teacher.

Living with a devious mastermind can be daunting, but we manage to keep him in line with massive amounts of tickling.

This year, the treasure hunt was for characters out of fairy tales. Some, like Jack here, were fun to find.

Others, like the disturbingly ugly step-sisters, were a little more daunting.

The witch was handing out lollies and candy, so she was much more approachable. Don't take things from strangers, kids!.... Yeah, right!

This year saw a surprising upset -- the kids beat the parents... again! RJ took off faster than anyone expected.

LR flies through the course with incredible speed and enthusiasm! Where on earth does she get such competitive spirit?

Oh yeah... I see now.

LR traded some 'magic beans' for Jack's hat and pet cow... Those 'magic beans' looked suspiciously like something that came from a quokka.

Just before we left, we did a tiny bit of fishing on some very feeble gear... and had great success! LR caught this pretty little wrasse.

LR and RJ sing the fishing song, "Heeere fishy fishy fish". We caught five different species of fish in about 30 minutes. Dad was kind of amazed.

RJ caught this feisty silver bream.

LR took this beautiful photo of the pelican that was eyeing our catch hungrily.

We caught a red-lipped morwong that swallowed the hook. We tried to be as careful as we could, but he was injured fairly badly. Rather than let him suffer... We fed him to the pelican! YAY! Nature wins again!

RJ and his mate C. go exploring the dunes while the grown-ups waste their time having boring grown-up conversations.

Halloween 2010

Luke — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 03:07:50 +0000

We survived our massive annual Halloween ~~ordeal~~ party. Last year’s party was talked about at school for the whole year, so this year’s was heavily anticipated. From apple bobbing, to treasure hunts, a nigh-invulnerable piñata, to a wet and soggy caveman, we had all the major attractions.

This year, however, we decided not to do the haunted garage. Too many kids came out of that one completely freaked out and crying… Next year, however… MWAAAAHAAHAAAAHAAA… Look out kids!!!!

It was a dark and stormy... err... bright and spooky afternoon in the park that day. Jim decided to hang out at the slide; his diet had been a huge success!

The local cemetery has been full for some time, so the extra bodies get sent to our park. Building sandcastles is always extra surprising around here!

RJ, the knight, stops to sheath his sword, blood streaming from his wounded arm.

Dr. Seuss showed up and filled helium balloons for everyone.

A rastafarian showed up... to do Jamai-cup!

This pirate and witch teamed up to do terrible things to a pumpkin.

Some of the kids try out Jim's all-apple diet for themselves!

Poppa got an apple on the first try, but was it one of the prized apples marked with an 'X'?

E. wont be going hungry tonight!

Mister Mistoffelees let everyone stick their arm into the Bag of Worms to find a buggy prize.

RJ considers whether he should settle for the ant, or if he should plunge his arm in for another attempt.

Amanda and RJ work together on making the scariest popcorn monster hand ever.

LR the cat starts off her monster hand with some creepy lolly fingertips.

Frank has a secret plan to build herself an entire popcorn monster.

The bat... Two balloons, newspaper, flour, spraypaint, plastic wings and duct tape to hold the them on... Will it survive the assault of 30 children?

After everyone has had a go with blindfolds on, the bat is still in perfect shape! Mum helps RJ to get really stuck into it.

C. has several attempts and pounds it mightily.

One of our new neighbours shows no mercy! The bat laughs at his feeble attempt!

The crowd waits anxiously... Will the sweet, sweet rain of candy ever begin to fall? Will the bat continue to mock them?

HRRRRAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!

Fed up with its mocking laughter, Mum goes medieval on the bat. WHAM! WHAM! CRASH!

The first few pieces of candy have dropped. Time to just rip the thing open!

FEEDING FRENZY! Watch out for your feet, Mum!

A caveman proudly nurses his mortally wounded pet bat... Mr. Batty McWings, beneath your surprisingly tough shell, you were so sweet and full of joy. You will be remembered.

Time for the treasure hunt! RJ and his cohort start the search for the elusive marbles.

The older kids have a scavenger hunt with riddles, clues and challenges to solve.

One of the challenges... Find the caveman (currently hiding up in a tree behind a camera). We need to plant some taller trees.

Success! LR's team wins a reward!

Time for the ultimate battle: Caveman vs. Kids. Can his newly developed 'club' technology defeat the onslaught of hundreds of water balloons?

Caveman isn't doing well -- he's been severely handicapped by fogged goggles. He can't see a thing!

A brave young LR chases down the caveman and throws her grenade!

DIRECT HIT!

Another hit! It's not looking good for Ugg and his stone-age technology.

Ever smelled a wet caveman? It's not pleasant... even to a wet caveman.

Pirate Lilly gathers the troops to prepare for trick-or-treating!

Come on mateys! There be candy to plundarrrrrr!

RJ has grand schemes to fill his entire bucket... at the next house.

LR sets the direction for the unruly mob. How about that one over there guys?

Lilly brought her pet bobtail lizards around for a visit after things had quieted down. They're surprisingly friendly.

As with all things reptilian, they were a big hit with RJ.

LR enjoys some of the spoils of the evening... POP ROCKS!!!!

The gorilla rests his weary frame on the porch, waiting for trick-or-treaters. It's been a long, long day.

Halloween 2009

Luke — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:01:27 +0000

This year, our Halloween party was the biggest ever. Every kid from both of the Year 1 classes at LR’s school was invited, as well as all the children on our street and a bunch of RJ’s friends. It was absolutely crazy, but we did our best to keep them busy. Activities included the Haunted Garage, a “Yucky” dip, a piñata, a broom race, a treasure hunt, making disembodied hands and the grand finale, a total, all-out assault on Dad with water balloons.

LR, as Supergirl, decided the world needed rescuing.

RJ and Mum put together a great snapping turtle costume.

Follow the link to get to the rest of the pictures and see what went on!!!

Grammy came along too. We needed all the help we could get!

We recruited a couple of the dads to carve pumpkins and watermelons brought by the kids.

A couple of the kids were amazed by our American maibox. Australian letter boxes look nothing like this.

The Yucky Dip involved a huge bowl of slimy, coloured pasta of different shapes. Prizes and bugs were hidden through it and the kids had to do their best to find a prize in the revolting mess.

Mum helps one of the kids search for a prize in the "Yucky Dip".

We do the apple bobbing every year. The kids figured out pretty quickly that grabbing the apples by the steps was the easiest way to win… This year, though, only apples without stems got prizes!

RJ volunteers to be next in the apple bobbing competition.

An apple bobbing champion is born!

In previous years, we’ve made disembodied hands for each of the kids in LR and RJ’s classes. It’s a huge amount of work, but the kids love it. This year we got smarter and had the kids make them!

Everyone had fun making ghoulish popcorn hands with Am!

You have to fill them all the way to the top with popcorn!

The annual treasure hunt is always a big hit, but it’s getting harder and harder to find enough hiding places for the number of kids that show up. For the older kids this year, we hid marbles around the yard, with different prizes available for one or more marbles. The younger kids, searching our neighbour’s yard, had to find tiny pumpkin baskets containing small toys and sometimes a piece of candy.

Mum gives everyone instructions on the treasure hunt. This year they had to find marbles hidden around the front yard. It wasn't easy.

One of LR's class mates hunts for precious, precious marbles.

LR found two! Home field advantage, perhaps? She donated one to someone who wasn't as fortunate.

The younger kids had their search across the road. They had to find little plastic pumpkins and cauldrons.

This year we asked all the kids to bring a broom with them for a broom race. We ran two races and the kids did really well. We may have to rethink this one, having 15 kids running at you with long sticks is not very safe.

RJ gets his broom tuned up for the Broom Race.

Kids rush to prepare for the Broom Race.

Two serious contenders for the prize... provided no one brings kryptonite along.

RUN RUN RUN RUN!

The piñata survived through quite a few attacks before finally relinquishing its hidden treasure.

The piñata was especially popular.

T prepares to deal a mighty blow to poor old Jack.

Can I be next please?!!

SMASH! The lollies have been liberated!

To wrap things up, we had a water bombing event. The kids line up along the side of the road, heavily loaded with water balloons. A very brave, and soon to be thoroughly drenched, Dad makes several sprints past them as they hurl their watery grenades at him.

30 kids. 200 water balloons. 1 victim... at least Dad had his goggles. Dad gets the kids riled up with some serious trash-talk.

Splash! Direct hit!

Totally soaked, except for the bits under the goggles, there were still more balloons to come, as well as a bucket of water.

Finally, after almost everyone has left, we get to go trick or treating. Not everyone on the street has candy, but those who do love to see us and check out the costumes.

Trick or Treat! LR checks out the new neighbours to see if they've got treats... and maybe if they'd like to come trick or treating with us.

This... is... the... BEST THING EVER!!! FREE CANDY AND LOLLIES!!!!

Let's head home and see what we've got.