The longest time.....

 I don't know if you've heard, but Halloween round here is a big deal. A really big deal. Such a big deal in fact that folk have been preparing for it since mid-September. That's mid SEPTEMBER and Halloween is, for the uninitiated, at the END OF OCTOBER.

And when I say preparing, I mean decorating houses, purchasing or making costumes, buying "candy", baking - you name it, it's been going on. And the anticipation grows. This all strikes me as slightly odd, and beggars the question: does this very God-fearing country know what Halloween is actually all about?

Anyway, it is not ours to question, just to join in - a little. Acquaintances have responded with genuinely shocked faces when I have answered the question, "Are you taking Finn Trick or Treating?" with a to-the-point,"No." This is probably the only year we will be able to get away with it, so we're going to.

We have, however, done a proper job with the pumpkins. Finn's pre-school organised an outing to the Pumpkin Patch (and by this I mean an actual Pumpkin Patch where pumpkins are grown). It was fun: we wandered about the enormous field looking for the perfect pumpkin, of just the right size and shape, with no rotten bits and as few creepy-crawlies in residence as possible. These were collected and purchased (at $2 a piece) in plenty of time for the children to visit the baby animals, play in the corn, and wander round ogling at all the scary tableaux about the place. I tried to encourage Finn not to spend too much time looking at the ghosts and werewolves and spooky house with empty moving rocking chair and the like. I have one child that wakes crying in the night, I don't need another one!

So, the idea is that you buy the pumpkins to carve or just put outside your house as decoration, along with the ghosts, gravestones, witches etc. This farm dedicates acres and acres of land to pumpkin growing. But the one thing you don't do with these acres and acres of huge pumpkins? Eat them. They are grown for ornamental purposes only. Three applications of pesticides and all.

Several lessons we have learnt from the whole pumpkin episode:

1. Carving pumkpins is fun, the resulting Jack'O'Lantern is very effective (see pictures) especially when enhanced with web and spiders to make it truly scary.

2. Finn is too much of a wuss to put his hand inside a pumpkin and pull out all the seeds and string business - he would use the scoop in our carving kit but not his hands.

3. if you leave a beautiful Jack'O'Lantern in a house which is centrally heated, you will wake up one morning to a collapsed, putrifying mess; 4. always make sure you have a spare in reserve if said disaster occurs before Halloween!

We did attend the Halloween party at Finn's school. The kids all came in costume - we found Finn a Lightening McQueen Pit Crew oufit complete with sponsors hat, ear piece and microphone - some obviously the result of far more parental effort than a quick trip to Walmart - ahem. They ate rubbish for a bit, trick or treated amongst themselves then sang some songs. And that, as far as Finn is concerned is what you do on Halloween. Long may it last.