Halloween in Spring

New Zealand does not really celebrate Halloween, so the excitement factor was not present. However, I was not about to allow my children to miss out. Halloween is like our fave family holiday. We have 6 tubs of dress-up clothing and decorations at home. So this year, we had to do what we did in Finland. Make our own holiday and look for any American's or Kiwi's that wanted to be goofy with us. This was not a problem for me.

Ellie carved these apple's into scary faces since we couldn't find a carving pumpkin. Remember - it is spring here.

Halloween in the spring is sorta odd. All the spring flowers are coming up. It is super green and super alive. Bright colors of life just don't go with Halloween's Brown and Oranges of autumn.

Our creepy scarecrow and Ghosts!

We ended up having our house featured on the New Zealand "Good Morning" Show because photos were sent in by tourist (we live on the steepest st in the world)
Click here to go to TVNZ  we were featured on the broadcast of October 26th.

We got invited to a Halloween party by Missoula friends of friends. Our buddy from Missoula Phil Gardner lived here awhile ago, so these folks were his contacts. Angie and Dean - super nice kiwis with neato kids the same ages as ours...The party was a teenager madhouse. Really fun for our kids.Of course, we came to the party dressed to the nines. Complete outfits and themes. But, when the kids looked out the window at the other kids not really dressed up, they quickly shed their costumes before they even got out of the car.

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Love that stash. John was a "Tiger Tamer" - and I was a Tiger.

Angie and Dean with John

The next day on Halloween was a Bike Jam downtown. It was organized by the BMX crew in Dunedin. Riders got extra points for being dressed up. It was a cool scene. Alex was the only kid with a "dirt jump" bike as compared to the small BMX bike. He had to step up with the big Boys. He was one of two kids below the age of 14years. It was mostly 20 year old guys competing. 

There were hundreds of folks cheering and dressed up for th event. Alex really rocked it and took 2nd place.

Alex with wings and bike!

Sweet Wheel Grab

Later that day on Halloween we hosted our fellow American/Kiwi friends for a pre-candy meal of "Sausage Fingers" and "Deviled Eye balls"

 Chris, John and Linn Layn

Ellie and our local Black Cat

Kids trick or treating on our street. People waved them to go away, some had signs that said "No Halloween Here" and many others went to their kitchen's to find anything to give the kids since they were not prepared. So their lot was limited. But they had fun!

GRRRRRRRR!

Ellie and her sweet little friend Holly eating "growing food" before getting "junk food" trick or treating.