Halloween

We had an early practice for Halloween when the next-door neighbour's daughter turned up on our doorstep during kids dinner dressed as the Grim Reaper.  Tom ran to answer the door and his blood-curdling screams brought me running after which it took me about 15 minutes to calm him down and persuade him that the Grim Reaper was not real.  We even persuaded George from next door to dress up in his outfit and ring the door bell to prove to Tom that another scary-looking person was actually someone he knew as would all the other dressed-up people at Halloween the next day.  

It's taken me 10 months but I finally succeeded in making Tess proud of me this year - by dressing up as the "Daughter of Darkness" for Halloween.  It was a very last minute decision and due to the happy coincidence of me being in Aldi (aussie equivalent of Lidl) where their Halloween costumes were on sale at half price.  There is no doubt in my mind that dressing up allows you to behave differently from normal and so we went trick-or-treating in Adelaide Street and I stood outside Grazia's house drinking a bit too much wine (that's the different from normal bit) and chatting to all the other parents whilst the kids ran around stuffing their buckets full of lollies.  

We had a hectic Saturday morning with Tom and I doing early set up for his T-ball match (I now know that the bases are supposed to be 15.24m apart for U8 T-ball) and Jules and Tess  leaving in time to make the 8.30 opening of the Spit Bridge in order to deliver Oka to the shipwrights where hopefully they'll be able to fix the rotten shrouds rather than condemning her to driftwood.  

 Tess steering Oka

 Tess on a wave

Tom on a wave

I bought Tom a voucher for 3 surf lessons recently and we organised 2 of the lessons for this weekend.  Tess decided that she wanted to have a go too and so we headed down to the beach on Saturday afternoon.  It was a bit overcast but the surf was a very manageable size and the instructors were brilliant so the kids had a lot of fun.  It was a completely different story on Sunday afternoon when the entire beach was closed and they were issuing safety announcements over the speaker system.  The kids still had their lesson but after an impressive but unintentional eskimo roll and then a surf board in the side of the head Tess decided to call it a day.  Tom lasted a little longer but the surf got rougher and choppier until he was forced to call it quits too.  At the beginning of the surf lesson the instructor had obviously worked Tom out (ie that concentration isn't his strong point) and he was called up to do a demonstration for the rest of the class - he was very proud!!  

Tom demonstrating the ninja position

On Saturday evening the Wakes-Millers came round with Tom's birthday present which was an awesome set of walkie-talkies.  I may have to buy shares in a battery company because they have been used almost constantly since.  

We had solar heating installed about a month ago and it was one of the best things we ever did.  The kids were able to swim on Saturday evening and then on Sunday morning both Tess and Tom had friends round and the 4 of them spent almost the whole time in the swimming pool (when they weren't running around being secret squirrels with the walkie-talkies!).  They wanted to play water volley ball and had the ingenious idea of moving the pool blanket roller to act as the net.  It always makes me feel as if I'm on holiday when we're able to spend all day in our swimmers.  

Squish has become public enemy number one since eating all our beautiful broccoli and cauliflower so I used some broken up pool noodles to block up his nest.  The first night he chucked out a couple of the bits but kept one as a cushion and then after finding that a bit uncomfortable he disappeared.  However, when I was on the deck during the week I looked up to find him staring down at me - he seems to have found himself a new place to sleep. We're a bit worried about our tomatoes which we moved upstairs to keep an eye on but which are now very close to his new sleeping place.  He's on notice!!