Halloween part two, take three

Feeling a little calmer now....we'll start off with a couple of shots from my walk in the mountain with the dog...



To eat or not to eat....Not.



That's some fairly heavy duty armour isn't it!

Halloween....Lets see how this goes....

As I have said before, the whole Halloween fiesta went off pretty well. The first kids arrived before me! One of the Moms phoned the night before to ask if her daughter could come over straight from school, an hour early, as she had to leave early. It seemed a little strange, but what the heck. The second also beat me home, his folks just dropped him off at about 5:20 for a 6pm party....by the 6:00 start time there were a good 15 kids here. Nothing like a little free babysitting, no?

Two of the mom's stayed and helped which was a great think when you think about 40 kids all working on the first pumpkin of their lives with knives all at the same time. Thankfully no-one was wounded, not even a scrape. The finished doing all of the pumpkins, and the tombstone poems by 7pm. Egad. Then they all turned to me and asked what was next. Only two hours to go!

Fortunately one of the Moms had set up for the kids to trick or treat at her house and a neighbours, so off we went...in a big fat parade of gleeful kids. They stopped after the second house to eat, after which we went for a bit more of a wander around the village to show off the costumes, stopping on the stairs of the church in the main plaça for a photo op...nothing like a little devil worship on the church stairs. Keeps the priest in trim. We wandered a little further, then headed home for a few minutes of eating and chatting then the dreaded question appeared again, what do we do next? Clearly they felt there was a protocol to these sorts of events....so we went up to the terrace, OH, I failed to mention that it rained during the party, so we did the pumpkin carving with all 40 kids, some from grade six and pretty much adult sized, in my 10 by 25 foot living room...plus four adults. It was some crowded! Anyway, up on the terrace trying to light the pumpkins, but these are kids who are used to running through fireworks, and their idea of safety around open flame does not match up with mine. The other moms were just as darned scary.

The kids were holding the pumpkins, nay, hugging the pumpkins while peering down into the flaming center with their long hair and wildly inflammable costumes...I finally got them all to put the darn things down without anyone turning into a human torch...then they all wanted to carry the things downstairs. Lit. In the main part of the house. Small children in costumes labeled "keep away from open flame", tottering down the stairs in masks they cannot see out of with skirts that are too long, all with lit pumpkins in their hands. Even eldest was twitchy....we eventually got them all blown out.

The last one (who was second to arrive) didn't leave until an hour past the exit time...goodness gracious.

And my house? Beth asked how it was cleaner than in the morning....here's the trick. I cleaned the bathroom, fresh towel and soap cause that's just a nice thing to do, swept the stairs up to the apartment cause the parents would see that. I swept up anything that appeared as I moved the furniture around and that was that. With forty kids coming over, I am NOT cleaning first.

After they left, leaving a universal coating of pumpkin guts, pop, chips and dirt throughout the apartment (I found pumpkin guts on the wall near the ceiling today) I mopped everything twice...the bathroom got three goes.

- OK boys, ready, AIM fire, no?

By the time I was done all the furniture was back where it belonged, I had most of the decorations down, the kitchen was clean and everything was packed away....not everything, but there wasn't much left to do. Took about two hours.

Next year it we do it again, I will get the other mothers to all host a trick or treat, we'll be party central, but a longer trick or treat, plus I'll end it at 8:30 rather than 9.

*Phew*

Today was wildly productive...I went into town to do a bunch of bureaucratic crap, all reasonably successfully, I had a nice walk, found a great Turkish place for lunch, sat on the beach eating it, and then had the most amazing sea glass hunting in my entire life...honestly I could squat down on the beach and pick up 15 pieces of yellow and blue glass...I even found purple!!! It was amazing...I found everything in the picture in about 20 minutes...and I wasn't looking all that hard...there must be more!



Look at these pieces...interesting shapes, good size, good colour, particularily the two bi-coloured yellow pieces!!!
Wait a bit and you could see them as jewelry on my friends site!




Then the trip home was fairly clear.

Yahhooooo

Tonight is movie night..and the man seems to be recovering...eldest at the moment seems fine, cross your fingers please.