Pumpkin Parade

Here is my final Halloween post. Sniff. 

The night after Halloween, our whole neighbourhood returned their carved pumpkins to the same park from which they were purchased. Thousands of pumpkins were lined up on either side of the footpath and lit. We went down at dusk and stayed til about 8pm, but plenty of people were still there until much later. Another HUGE community event. Here are some photos of our favourite pumpkins from that night.

Halloween...I salute you...

 

 

 

 

Our pumpkin in the middle, with some kooky family standing behind it...

 

 

Have you got a favourite? I think I like the simple one with the stars...

You can also follow this link to see photos from previous years. Oh, and the council carted them away the following day to convert them into compost for the city parks. Yep, love this place! 

Trickle Treat

It's taken me a day to sort through the photos from Halloween. There have been a myriad of activities related to it so it's hard to narrow them all down. In this post I will just deal with the day in question. 

Poppet woke bright and early (about 5.30) and started asking if I was going to do her face paint yet. To her it felt like Xmas. After breakfast (and a large coffee) I set to work on her face. She chose a leopard after seeing a dress in Gap that she simple HAD to have....

Here she is ready for school beside her favourite tree on our porch. The coat possibly spoiled the effect but it was about 4 degrees!

After dropping her at school, we had to return at 11am to watch the parade. The junior school did a lap of the local neighbourhood to show off their costumes. Our favourite was the teacher dressed as Beaker. She was disappointed as none of the kids knew who she was, or even what a Muppet is! We knew and were suitably impressed.

 

Could Poppet look more pleased?! Her grin resembled a Cheshire Cat more than a leopard throughout then entire parade. She really loves her new school and friends.

They returned to school and spent the afternoon doing Halloween activities and craft. It really is a holiday here, a lot like Christmas. So much community spirit and excitement.

After school we did a final daylight tour of the neighbourhood. Here are some pics of Poppet's favourite houses all dolled up.

We went home for an hour, then went back out into the night to trick or treat. This is the first year Poppet has called it 'trick or treat' instead of 'trickle treat'. Cute. We teamed her up with her little Aussie friend and they tore off down the street for candy.

 

As the night got darker and colder, we stumbled across a house with sound effects. Howling and chains clanging, and scary music. That was enough for Poppet. Home time.

I'm sure I enjoyed Halloween as much as Poppet did. I never got to experience anything like it as a child and I think it's amazing. I could have stayed out all night! But a teary girl needed me to lie down with her until she fell asleep. In the light of  the next day as we wandered to school, she told me of the fun she had and how much she loves Canada.

I couldn't agree more.

Toronto Zoo.

We decided to hit the zoo today. It was the perfect weather for it. I think the top temperature was about 9 degrees but it was sunny and not too windy. We really wanted to see the Canadian and North American animals before it gets too icy and they all hibernate!

So off we went. It's about a 30 minute drive from our house to the zoo. Though the drive home took considerably longer, you can never predict the traffic in Toronto.

There are so many great things about the zoo here. Probably my favourite part is the size of it. It's so expansive and just gorgeous in the Fall. But that also means a lot of walking, so we only covered half of it in one day. That's where a membership is really handy. (Yep, that's the sound of our bank account hemorrhaging money...)
Here is a slice of the enormous quantity of photos I took today. There's still too many here, but, whatevs...

An example of the look of the zoo today. We could have happily wandered through the scenery for hours.

But we had some North American critters to see.

Seriously. Polar bears! We were gobsmacked by their grace and beauty, and size!

 

Arctic wolves. We would turn around from the polar bears and there would be a half dozen wolves just standing there watching us. Creepy (glad they had a good fence around them) but beautiful.

Poppet got so excited when she saw ice on one of the benches. Guess she's ready for the snow!

The Snowy Owl was rather cool too.

We had to suffer these vistas at every turn. Unbelievable scenery.

No Tundra is complete without it's own teepee.

We happened upon the Giraffes being let out of their dens. It must be a little cold for them in the mornings, so they emerged just before lunch. We were SO close! I love giraffes.

And then the kids got distracted by the autumn leaves. As you do.

And then, you know, there were hills to run down....

Gee, don't get up on our account.

Or you, big guy.

Look at this fatty having a nap. Glad he's nowhere near our trash.

It was an incredibly long way down to the bears and mooses. Poppet gave up the ghost, and her lovely companion allowed her to share his stroller. Lucky Dad got to heave them up the mountain. Yeah, I just watched, took some photos, had a chat to friends...

I couldn't finish up without sharing a photo of my favourite animal of the day. Pygmy Hippos. What's not to love?! They were happily munching on pumpkins and it was love at first sight for all of us.

Speaking of pumpkins, tomorrow is Halloween! Poppet is going to school dressed up and they are doing a parade around the neighbourhood before lunch. Then it's just a day of fun and activities, some quick dinner and some serious trick or treating. Can. Not. Wait.

Halloween Prep Part 2.

On the weekend we went to get our pumpkin. The local park hosted a pumpkin day, and we walked down with some friends to check it out. On the way we saw a fun Halloween front yard. I'll take more pics of the decorating closer to the actual day, most of the locals are probably waiting til the weekend to set up. This yard was certainly a good taste of gruesome...

 

I'm sure we'll be seeing plenty more limbs sticking out of the ground towards the end of the week...

Meanwhile, we hit the park for pumpkin purchasing, hot apple cider, face painting and cupcakes. It was a fundraiser to gather donations for the building on site which hosts lots of local things. We even bumped into people we know, not bad considering we've only been in the area a month.

One of the best things about Halloween is the sense of community. You get out and walk around, talk to your neighbours and admire the decorations. There's lots of little meet-ups at the park and the kids get very excited. It's a blast!

 

 

Much excitement abounded, though we realized we still have a lot to learn. We didn't bring our 'cart' (which the locals use to drag their kids around town) to take our haul home. Luckily, our friends had strollers so we nudged the toddlers out of the way and took the pumpkins home in them instead.

Would you like some hot apple cider with your wasp?!

Home time. First, the 'lid' had to be cut off and then all the orange goop scopped out. Our friends found a cute carving kit with these funny scoops, though i think the serving spoon was more effective...

 

After the face was drawn on the pumpkin it was time for some carving.

 

Luckily, Poppet was on hand to give her father plenty of advice...

And at last, here he is. Time to relax and have a beer, or chardonnay, or some gingerbread or whatever. Me? I focused in on the chardonnay...

 

We were happy with the result. Unfortunately, so were the squirrels. We've since moved him from our porch to the back deck as they were having a good old munch on him. 

 

Looking forwarding to lighting him up next week. I really love Halloween. Plus, it's getting super cold and you know how much I love that...