Left Coast Mama » Halloween

Happy Hallowe’en or Halloween, however it is spelled now.

Gwen — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 16:50:48 +0000

My boys love Halloween. I love Halloween. Anthony likes Halloween except when we get a parking ticket. Our love of Halloween and the relative closeness of Quinlan’s birthday gives us a week or so of Halloween celebrations.

Ghost train theme this year: Circus of Disaster.

We have Quinlan’s Halloween themed birthday party, other Halloween activities like the festival at Aidan’s school and the Stanley Park Ghost train and of course trick or treating. We also added a Halloween themed geocaching weekend in the mix.

Quinlan picks up a geocache on our Geo Monster Ball weekend.

Aidan and some of his friends at the Halloween Howl at his school.

On the weekend we had Quinlan’s birthday party at the pumpkin patch and came home with four pumpkins.

Four Muddy Friends

Aidan already had a pumpkin from his school the week before so we had a total of five. The upside to the plethora of pumpkins is that everyone got to carve or plan the carving of a pumpkin. We had Quinlan’s scary faced pumpkin. (I wish you could see the face and hands to go with the pumpkin, but alas we did not get a picture of Q describing what he wanted Anthony to carve for him.)

Quinlan's scary pumpkin.

We had Aidan’s self carved (mostly) ghost pumpkin. We had my double duty robot and owl pumpkin, and a quickly carved Frankenstein’s monster pumpkin. Last but not least was Anthony’s adrino powered pumpkin complete with fading lights and sound.

Halloween dawned bright and dry but cold. Aidan was happy to be able to wear his wizarding cloak and hat to school, and Quinlan was happy to be a robot on our way to swimming lessons.

Boys ready for some trick or treating fun!

I love how many people smiled and let Quinlan know that they thought he had the best costume. Mostly because he was making so many people smile and he was happy, but also because except for the head, I made the whole costume and it was a lot of work. Once we had a decent supper in the boys we headed down and parked near the coop and started our trick or treating about 6:30 pm. The coop went all out again this year and by the time we were finishing about an hour later lots of houses were running out of candy. After we finished we headed back to the car where a shiny parking ticket was waiting for us. It looked like Easy Park was not being charitable this year and all the cars had parking tickets. Happy Halloween to us.

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Related: Aidan, Anthony, Family Time, Gwen, Halloween, Quinlan, Vancouver.

Halloween, Pumpkins and Candy, Oh and a Birthday

Gwen — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 15:11:45 +0000

Halloween, next to Christmas, is my favourite time of year. I love to dress up, trick or treat with the kids and decorate. I have always loved carving pumpkins and decorating the house even before we had kids. The few years that the smell of raw pumpkin gave me a migraine were the saddest few years of my life and I resorted to carving up green and red peppers. Aside; the green peppers were very cute and the littlest trick or treaters at my mom’s house were enchanted with them.

When Anthony and I moved to Vancouver we lived in a condo for the first few years an didn’t get any trick or treaters, but we still carved a pumpkin. When we lived in an apartment we decorated and got a few kids. When we moved to the townhouse in Vancouver we really expected some trick or treaters. Now seven years later we don’t expect any. We do however get the place decorated, the kids costumed up and leave candy out for whomever decides to come while we go out trick or treating with our two boys. Halloween, though fun before the boys, is so much more fun now.

Since Aidan was a baby we have taken time before Halloween to take pictures of the boys in their costumes. I love this tradition and I really hope they don’t grow out of it. We also have gone to the Richmond Country Farms Pumpkin Patch for the last 4 years. It is a little expensive but the boys have a wonderful time. This year, like last year, we are having Quinlan’s birthday party at the Pumpkin Patch. It is a lot of fun and has music, a maze and of course tonnes of pumpkins. This year we are adding the Stanley Park Ghost Train to our traditions.

The best of our traditions is our trick or treating ritual. We go down to a housing co-op near our place that is right next door to an elementary school. We usually drop off candy to some of our friends living in the co-op and then go around. We take lots of pictures and let the kids stay out a little bit later than usual bedtime. This is the best place near us to trick or treat because the co-op goes all out. They decorate to the nines and all the kids in the co-op and nearby elementary school are there. We come home with a tonne of candy and have hot chocolate by candle light and jack o lantern light before bed. Once the boys are in bed it is chocolate o’clock for the grownups, just like it should be.

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Disclosure: I am participating in the Allan Candy Company program by Mom Central Canada. I received compensation for my participation in this campaign. The opinions on this blog are my own.

Allan Candy Halloween treats are all made in Canada and are peanut free and their line-up includes: Allan Intense Jubes & Jellies, Allan Chewy Rascalz and Allan Fruit Buddies.

© 2011 Left Coast Mama | Permalink | No comments
Related: Aidan, cute, Family Time, Halloween, Quinlan, Trick-or-treating.

Welcome to November! NaBloPoMo Here We Go Again!

Gwen — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 04:16:28 +0000

How is is already November? How is my youngest already 2? The answers to these questions are all a matter of time moving faster than I’d necessarily like it to. So since I feel that I am not nearly ready to write much after being tired from a long day of swimming lessons, school and rounding up the boys, I am presenting a mostly picture essay of our Halloween. Too bad none of my pictures of the boys turned out.

We went all out with the decorations this year. The boys had fun putting up the spider webs with me.

This weekend was a fun mess of Halloween, movies, geocaching, cleaning and more Halloween. On Friday Aidan had both a class party and the annual Halloween Howl that evening. While he enjoyed all of it, the pinnacle of the whole evening was probably the firefighter patch one of the parents gave Aidan. This parent was a firefighter for Delta and was very impressed with Aidan’s costume. Aidan was happy with all that he was able to do and had a blast. When he got home he was very tired and it took him all of about 5 minutes to get to sleep.

Saturday Aidan and I went to see “Scooby-Doo: Curse of the Lake Monster” and I think it wouldn’t be exaggerating too much to say that Aidan really didn’t like it. I am not sure why, but he was so worried about the scary parts that even the funny, parts had him upset. Good thing the movie wasn’t too long and when we met up with Anthony and Quinlan all was fine. We had a good day playing tourist downtown.

I think it is fair to say that Sunday that Aidan was excited to be going trick-or-treating. So after a long day of cleaning, drama class, pumpkin carving, we finally made it into our costumes and out the door to go hunting for candy. As usual we went down to False Creek Co-op next to False Creek Elementary. This is a complex that really does Halloween well. They get a tonne of kids and they really decorate and get into the holiday.

This is typical of the complex. Most places are well decorated.

One of the more interesting pumpkins at the co-op.

Even simple carvings can be very effective.

Aidan was having a hard time waiting for his little brother. As he said, I was so excited I forgot my manners.

After knocking, Aidan noticed the hand coming out of the mail slot . . . he backed up pretty quickly.

Again, sometimes simple is very effective.

We trick-or-treated for about an hour, but we decided that we were finished when we had to keep reminding Aidan to say thank you. He was so excited about all the candy, and he wanted to see what he was given right away that he kept forgetting. While Anthony and I understood, we decided that before we got too much more frustrated with the lack of manners we had better quit for the night. I don’t think Aidan was too disappointed.

When we got home, I got out the tripod and took some pictures of the pumpkins I carved. Some turned out, but I still have a lot of work to do with balancing the colours and light situation. The first few are outside, but since there was too much light that I couldn’t adjust I continued the shoot inside. And before you ask, it had nothing to sdo with cold or how hard the concrete and tile were on my knees. Really, nothing at all.

Quinlan has a thing for owls and this is my fall back pattern.

I was running out of time so this one is just a free form simple carving.

Another owl simplified from a picture in the October Martha Stewart Living.

See the SPOOOKY web?

Next year I think I will do a pumpkin with only stars. Now if only I had a starburst filter this would have been a fantastic photograph.

I like the way the three pumpkins are so different, yet they go well together.

Hope you had a great Halloween!

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Related: blogging, children, Family Time, Halloween, My Boys, National Blog Post Month, Pictures.

Happy Halloween

Gwen — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 21:41:33 +0000

Yesterday was the best Halloween ever. I was hoping to get Aidan a little trick or treat practice at a local mall but I guess that the malls weren’t cooperating and had all their Halloween activities on the Saturday past. Oh well, so we bundled up and went out for a walk down to Granville Island to take some pictures. Aidan decided that he liked the wings I made for me and wanted to wear them so WTH I let him and he made a very cute winged monkey.

I was very worried that with Aidan’s imagination that the trick-or-treating aspect would be very short. I think I was right to worry because we had a bad start. I have a friend who lives in the coop housing right by False Creek Elementary school and it is the place to go trick-or-treating. Most of the places right around our townhouses are not full of kids so there are not a lot of places to actually get candy on Halloween. We decided to bring some candy to Joanne’s and do some trick-or-treating in her complex. (It also gave us a place to go if things didn’t go well with Aidan and a place to leave the stroller.) The only problem was that the place next door had a Halloween scary sounds cd. Aidan really didn’t like the “spooky” (his word, not mine) music. We tried to get him to knock on a few doors close by but he was still upset and would go to any place that had a pumpkin or any sort of decoration.

In both of these pictures taken in front of Joanne’s place, Aidan is very worried about the music.

Frankly we were about to give up when he did go to a house that was well lit and had very little decoration. When Aidan realized that he got to knock on the door (“knock knock” he said every time as he knocked) and got chocolate he decided to try a few more doors. He then started to really get into it and was smiling and going up and down the stairs, knocking on doors, saying “trick-or-treat” and “thank you” and even asking for more at a few places. (Cheeky little monkey!) Aidan and I decorated a little bucket to put his treats in and I brought a cloth bag to dump the candy in when it started to get full. He got great joy in bringing the bucket to Daddy to dump the candy in the bag. I think in the end we went to about 50 or so houses and Aidan had a blast.

I think the best line of the night was “Aidan likes chocolate!” And so he does. He asked for some for breakfast this morning. I gave him a couple of smarties and his cheerios. What the heck, it was his first real Halloween.

Happy Halloween, Happy Monkey Tuesday!

Gwen — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 06:38:00 +0000

Tonight Aidan and T. were dressed up in their finest Monkey costumes and we went Trick-or-treating. As always with Vancouver we found the celebration a little different than in the east. A few places in the complex had their houses done up but at least two of those weren’t home to pass out treats. Kinda disappointing.

Aidan had a great time though because we let him do what he has wanted to on the last few walks. Go up to strange doors and knock or ring the doorbell. The fact that only two people opened the door wasn’t a problem. The fact that they gave you candy (well at least something to put in your bag and shake) was amazing.

As always this post wouldn’t be the same with out some cute pictures. So here goes:

Aidan and T. walking out from our front Door. The bags were a hit.

I missed my blue hair so much I wanted a blue wig. We couldn’t get the boys to sit too well so we joined them.

We did manage to get one picture of the two of them that wasn’t of Aidan’s back end.

“Hi I’m Scary Tyrone the Jack o’lantern”

“Who”

Catergories: Halloween, Monkey Tuesday, Trick-or-treating

Horror Cookies and prep for Monkey Tuesday

Gwen — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 05:18:00 +0000

I am a Halloween nut. I love it! I try every year to be creative with my pumpkins and decorate the door and get enough candy for the hoards that come to our door. Well for the one or two that come to the door and all the grown ups that come to the house. Last year we didn’t have any children and we were really excited when the Chinese Food Delivery guy came to the door. (Yes he did get a treat.)

This year I have something to compete with. I don’t have my Halloween wreath up yet and my pumpkin lights are not in the window because the boy keeps playing with them. I haven’t quite figured out how to combat that. Now three houses in the complex have really done a lot of work with their front porches. One is I guess a little generic with some scarecrows and a sign, but the two up front on the street have the webs, bats, spiders, cool lights and their pumpkins already lit. I am jealous. Well I guess that tomorrow I will be able to get the pumpkins carved and they should look good.

With Halloween in mind I tried to bake some stained glass Halloween shaped cookies. I hadn’t made them before but I had some at Dei’s last Christmas and I thought that some Jack o’Lanterns would be cool. I found some really cute (and a little expensive) Halloween cookie cutters and some life savers (a bag individually wrapped was all I could find) and today I had the time to make the cookies. The first set burnt in our oven. I swear the oven is about 50 degrees hot. Some weren’t too bad but others (like the cat) were totally burnt. Even Anthony wouldn’t eat them. The next set I turned the oven down to 300 and put a lot more candy in the holes. Tis worked better but I think they are meant to be bigger cookies with bigger hole because instead of a nice stained glass effect I got horror cookie. Some looked like exploding pumpkin guts and others like they were bleeding out the eyes. I have picture proof.

Anyway, we got out today and took some pictures of Aidan in the sunlight in his monkey suit. I will post a couple of pictures now and more on Monkey Tuesday.

Happy Halloween!!!

Tags: Halloween, decorating, Horror Cookies, Monkey Tuesday