Happy Halloween!

Today is October 31st, the day when good little northern ghosts and goblins head out with their flashlights in the cold dark early evening to trick-or-treat their way around the neighborhood. Halloween and trick-or-treating does not have the cultural hold on Australia that it does in the US. We hear that some trick-or-treating does go on, but clearly not like the US- the only mention I saw of it in retail was a little orange and black "Trick or Treat" logo this week in the Woolworth's, or Woolies, (one of the two largest grocery chains) circular on the lolly page. As far as I have heard, there was little to no conversation at school about Halloween.

Neither Rick nor I are very big on Halloween (when I was 5, it was all my mother could do to get me to put a brown paper bag over my head to go to the Sunday School Halloween party-- I got so stressed I ended up with a nosebleed that sent me to the ER). In fact, when we were here in 2004, when the girls were 2 and 4, we were here over October 31, and I was so grateful to get a year off! However, now that we live here, we are trying to keep up with our American traditions, so we wanted to give our kids some Halloween experience. Given that it is early summer-time, pumpkin patches are not to be found. Rather than pay dearly for one of the 4 pumpkins I did find at the super grocery store, we took another transplanted American's suggestion and went with a watermelon, which had the distinct advantage of being quite yummy during the scooping process. We ended up with a jack-o-pig (the photo does not show the little piggie corkscrew tail made from the stem that inspired the pig). We couldn't leave it out because the flies would have descended on it, so the poor little guy has spent most of his short little life in the fridge!

After some negotiation on costumes-- Erin wanted to be a train, and Claire wanted to be a princess-- we ended up with the Princess Express, with Engine Erin pulling the Princess Claire Car and the Little Lachlan Red Caboose. Lachlan wasn't too keen on his caboose, but it was a cute idea! We stocked our two closest neighbors up with candy (some of the distinctly Australian candy was Sour Geckos, Caramello Koalas and Freddo Frogs) and the Princess Express visited both homes- at one the gentleman treated them to a trick before they got their treats, and at the other, their babysitter greeted them as a ghost with a fuzzy purple hat, which sent Lachlan retreating back towards our house! It was great fun, and we are once again so grateful for the little neighborhood "village" that has made our children feel so special.

Love, Anne


Scooping out our summer treat (post swimming lessons in our pool).

Our jack-0-pig (it has a corkscrew stem on the backside)

The Princess Express train

The Little Red Caboose couldn't quite get with the program.

Little Lachie Turns Two!

Today was Lachlan's 2nd birthday. It is so hard to believe that this is the little guy that was born two years ago in New Haven. As a newborn, he cozily napped in his Baby Bjorn as Rick and I walked in the crisp 2005 fall weather, having our first serious discussion as to whether we would even consider moving to Australia if the chance arose. He spent 6 weeks camped out in a pack-n-play in his nursery, after our furniture was shipped out. He has managed 3 trans-Pacific flights in 9 months, and will take 2 more this January. He says "ta" instead of "thanks," and wakes up in the far too early morning hours to the calls of tropical birds. He's seen lots of adventure in his first two years, and his sunshine, laughter, silly faces and easy-going nature have been a joy during our transition.

We named him Lachlan because we decided to have a third child during our first time here in Australia in 2004. When we discovered we were pregnant, we emailed Rick's colleague Kent to find out good Australian baby names. Lachlan turned out to be in the top 10 most popular Australian baby names, but it is very rare in the US. Once we discovered that we were having a boy, we knew Lachlan was his name- despite the fact that we had promised one another, when we first started having children, that we would not name our children names that they would have to spell for everyone they met. We just knew that was his name, and when he was born, we had lots of quizzical "And how do you spell that?" comments, followed by "Oh, that's interesting," a pause, and then, again "Now, how do you spell that?"

But here in Australia, there are Lachlans on every playground, in every school, on every beach. Lachlan Macquarie was a former governor of New South Wales who arrived in Australia in 1809 and is giant in the history of Australia. He appears to have gotten a thrill out of naming things after himself, so among other things, there is an island, a river, a lake, a port, many streets, and even a nearby shopping centre, named Macquarie. Our Lachlan can find, among other things, streets, a city council and a river bearing his name. When we named him, we had no idea that he would someday live in a culture where he would seem so, well, familiar.

Now that we are here, he is no longer my "fall" baby, but my "spring" baby. Instead of a birthday season identified with cooler temperatures, falling leaves, cornstalks, mums and pumpkins, we celebrate his birthday amidst fragrant flowers, hot dry winds, school holidays and water balloon games. And when we sing "Happy Birthday", we add in three "Hip, Hip, Hoorays" at the end, just as we have learned to do for Australian friends in the past 9 months.

He's a great little mate.

Love, Anne





The day begins with our madhatter.

When he saw his cake, he cried "cars", and then, immediately- please????!!!!!, because he wanted to grab hold of them.

Presents!!!!

Water balloons with sisters.