Scary Monsters, Super Creeps...

...no, just my little monsters ready to go trick or treating.

If you want to see the full horrors of me in my St Trinians outfit click here.

So I went as...

So much for promising you a photo of me. I remembered the camera and my friend took this photo before the evening even began so I can't blame too much wine for the out of focusness (not a real word I know) but once I started drinking dancing I forgot all about the camera so this is as good as it gets.

As you see I went as a St Trinians school girl, it was easy to prepare and involved no making. Mum says I have to credit her even though I'd thought of it before she suggested it. It was a great night, our social committee turned the tennis club into a Halloween den and everybody looked fab in their costumes. The dancing went on for hours and I won't tell you what time I got home but it was later than the last party!

The day after...

The contents of Bens treat bag!

Mollie and Ben did very well trick or treating and came home with bags full of sweets. We then went into the estate next to ours to see a house that is always spooktacular. The owner spends a good month working on making his house spooky and the end result is very good, with coffins with bodies inside, shrieking witches and ghosts, a bubbling cauldron and much more. Ben got a big fright when a coffin opened and a head screamed at him! Alas I was not in blogger mode and forgot my camera. Unfortunately there were not as many fireworks to see this year as the Gardi and Government have been cracking down on people using them.

I've been burning the candle at both ends but unfortunately not for my enjoyment. I had to collect Dillon and two friends at midnight last night and then get up with Mollie today 7.20am to give her a warm up for a tennis tournament she was playing in and I thought life got easier as the children got older!!!

Halloween Party 2007

Preparations for All Saints Eve

Trick or treat,
Smell my feet,
Give me something nice to eat.
If you don't,
I don't care,
I'll pull down your underwear!!!

Ben trying on our witches wig.

As a child Halloween pretty much came and went as we were all looking forward to celebrating bonfire night five days later. We knew kids in America went trick or treating and by the time I was a teenager, children in the UK began to come knocking at the door, but it was never many and always children we knew.


When I moved to Ireland 12 years ago I found that things were very different here:-

Firstly, there was no bonfire night which meant no fireworks and I love fireworks.

Secondly, every single child in the vicinity comes calling looking for treats. This could be well over 100 children and teenagers mostly in fabulous costumes looking scary, cute, funny or just weird! The first year I had to drive up to the local newsagent when we ran out of sweets, now I'm always well prepared with copious amounts of goodies which I always hope will go otherwise I'll end up eating them all!

Thirdly, even when you say trick they don't have one prepared and just laugh and ask for a treat.

Fourthly, even though private fireworks are banned here and there are no displays on Halloween it doesn't seem to deter people from travelling up north to purchase them or finding someone down here to buy them from. So I still get to see some fireworks!

Before you say anything Sam, no it's not me with the pumpkin!

And so began the Halloween preparations in the O'Sullivan household. Mollie's costume was made last week as she went to a fancy dress party, Ben decided to dress up as a soldier which means he wears his army gear and Dillon doesn't dress up. The pumpkin was purchased and the house was decorated with pumpkin lights, dragonfly lights, ghosts, skeletons, bats and witches on Friday. Mollie designed the face the pumpkin should have on Saturday. Plenty of treats were purchased and I cut out the pumpkin design on Sunday. Finally today Halloween fairy cakes were made.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Two Faced Mollie

Up bright and early today because Mollie had her Girls Brigade enrolment, which involved her being in church in a smart, clean uniform with hair neatly plaited by 10.30am. At 9.40am I found myself with the whitener trying to whiten Mollie's runners. This was not as easy as it sounds because I had planned to leave at 9.50am, Mollie was in the shower and her hair was still to be plaited. To make matters worse after I had finished whitening one shoe the sponge on the applicator disintegrated so I was left with one white runner and one very dirty one! After a quick rummage through the face painting box I found another sponge I could use and finished the shoes. After quickly plaiting her hair we were ready to go and thankfully got there in plenty of time.

This afternoon Mollie, Ben and myself went to Templeogue tennis club to support our Sandycove teams playing in the finals of the over 45 league. Well done to the men who won their class and commiserations to both ladies teams who lost after putting up a great fight.

Then it was time for Mollie to transform into an emo fairy. We had a successful shopping trip to Dundrum shopping centre on Friday evening where we found stripey gloves in Penneys and pink hair dye, black and pink stripey leggings, fairy wand and sparkly make-up in Claire's Accessories. Yesterday we went past a local newsagent and I spotted black hairspray in the window for €2, the last thing we needed for the outfit and as I only had €1 on me I went to the cashpoint to get out more money. Alas when we returned to the shop the hairspray was no longer in the window. Yes, it had been sold and there was no more! I still think Mollie looks pretty cool and all her clothes and accessories came together well.