HALLOWEEN ON TAMBORINE

My friend Heather invited us to a Halloween party last night. She really laid out the welcome mat,
And imported delicious American naughties for the occasion...

And also put together great party bags...
There was so much to do!

First, let me just say that I LOVE jack-o-lanterns and I was so excited when the invitation said that the party would begin with pumpkin carving! Its only the past few years that we've been able to find these pumpkins in the shops at Halloween as Australians tend to just sell and buy pumpkins that are tasty to eat and the value of a carved masterpiece has not really caught on...

Watching someone manage to carve the top off in such a way that it fell INTO the pumpkin was HILARIOUS...

He asked, "What do you do if it falls in?" and we had no idea... of course, we were laughing too hard to be understood, but has anyone seen that happen? Too funny! Anyway, at Justice's request I did a castle, and as you can see he was quite proud of our masterpiece...

It DID turn out pretty well, I think...

and so did the ghost one that I did...and even the third one I carved, a more traditional face...The problem was that my hostess was a carving genius, complete with a knife sheathed to her side and an entire assortment of files...Her sister was pretty amazing too...We ended up putting out a really impressive display on the steps... But those ladies are in a league of their own! WOW!

Our hosts...

The gorgeous invitation said that a costume attempt was required, and there was a caution on the bottom that if you did not attempt, a costume might be supplied for you.

(I thought that that was a brilliant invitation to dress up!)

Dinner was lamb Asado, a lamb roasted over a spit.

Even this seemed pretty thematic when you walked in the back and confronted the view...

Heather arranged a little scary corner haunted house

in the dark stone corner around her water tank -

complete with a giant Death and a fog machine for effect! People were invited to camp over in the back yard, so she decked that out too!

(Its rare that you're happy with the red eye effect)

WHAT A GREAT HALLOWEEN PARTY!

Thanks so much Heather, we had a blast!

Halloween party continued...

Some of the costumes...

And then - he was SEVEN!

JUSTICE'S BIRTHDAY IS HERE!!!

I don't know how it happened, but Justice has just turned seven... SEVEN...

We celebrated primarily last wekend with a sleepover birthday- two friends spent the night on Saturday and we went to dinner and then I took the three soccer-crazy boys to the Brisbane Lions home game. Where we sat sixth row centre field between the two teams. I do not know how I scored such great seats, but the kids thought we were rock stars!

VERY EXCITING!

We celebrated today with pressies -

thank you Grandpa America, Aunt Suzi & family, Aunt Sharona & family and Grandma & G'Pa!

We also had dinner out with Sharona and Keala. (Thank you!)

It was a wonderful day to celebrate such a great kid.

Our little man is getting so big so quickly!

Too Busy to Blog...

I know I always say I am time poor, and I have good intentions about returning to letter writing, but truly, we are crazy busy at work... and after that, its family, school, baking groups... life is madness... things settle down at the end of November and I am going to blog more faithfully, write letters (even if its the only one you get all year) and scrapbook... Really, I am... after a week of napping!

(scroll down though - because I back dated a bunch of August/September posts)

School Holidays...

I had this week off as well, so Justice and I have been "hanging out" when I am not plugging away on my million group projects...

It did keep raining and raining, so we have been to the movies with friends (Despicable Me) and been to the movies together in our pj's with a $5 voucher (Diary of a Wimpy Kid) and seen a 3D movie with some free passes (Legends of the Guardians) and rented some movies... Yes, I am SO imaginative!

We did also attend this "wood" workshop on Wednesday where Justice made this birdhouse out of the new "Kid Wood"... Our Toys R Us is very cool during school holidays, running free workshops and competitions...

Two solid weeks of rain during the two weeks of school holidays... this just doesn't happen in general, and to span the whole school holidays is cruel... It makes me especially grateful that he went to sports camp last week!!!