Halloween was a little different this year, both because we're adjusting to some big changes around the Ranch and because well, it's springtime in the southern hemisphere and I find it difficult to imagine ghosts and witches riding high over the moon when the flowers are all in bloom and the songbirds are going crazy as the sun sets at 8:30pm.
Halloween is pretty iconic in upstate New York, with the leaves all gone from the trees the branches look like bony fingers stretching up against the night sky and things just sound spooky with all the dry, dead leaves blowing around. Sure, every once in a while we'd have a huge snowstorm and you've have to figure out how to fit a snowmobile suit under your form-fitting superhero tights, but for the most part it was pretty spectacular.
This year we were spared the commercial onslaught of Halloween by being here in New Zealand. It's not a local holiday but people have started to pick it up (apparently from watching too many American tv shows and movies.) Because of that stores weren't popping with Halloween paraphernalia, which was kind of a nice relief.
After much debate, Sophie decided to go as Jane the knight (from the popular local
television show Jane & The Dragon), passing up the chance to be
Snow White or a fairy (however those costumes were on tap in case she changed her mind at the last minute!) Josie went as Kiki the witch from the movie Kiki's Delivery Service (note her broom in the photos),
while I went as Wayne Rooney (a soccer player from the UK team
Manchester United, whom I've been told I bear some resemblance to.)
Late in the afternoon we attended a party at my office where all the kids could go around trick-or-treating to different rooms, which were all decked out with spider webs and some scary props. Afterwards we went home and had our friends & neighbors over and gave away candy to a surprising number of trick-or-treaters.
Sorry these posts are a bit out of order, I was so excited about the video-embedding that I jumped into that first! Click on the thumbnail above above to see our Halloween pics from last week.
