olde hallows eve at Motat

So we don't do trick or treating at Halloween (allergies being one of the main reasons) but we do love to dress up and be spooky.  So when we were given tickets to go along to Motat's Olde Hallows Eve we jumped at the chance.

We assembled a few costumes from things we had in the dress up box and DaddyB fashioned a whip for our junior lion tamer.  I so love this photo with the cat in it, I might have to get a big print of it for the wall!

Taking inspiration from the internet (what did we do before pintrest?) B did an amazing job of our face painting.  We bought some of the good snazaroo stuff this year after B had a nasty skin reaction last year to some of that $2 shop stuff.  Ouch!  He even did his own face this time, amazing huh?

We've been to Motat's Olde Hallows Eve twice before but I think this one was the biggest by far.  There were people everywhere and most of them dressed up which made for a great atmosphere.  It was a creepy carnival atmosphere, food vendors, a merry go round and entertainment on stage.  There were quite a lot of actors and actresses there to entertain and spook people too. Just a wee bit spooky though, nothing like Spookers!  I was glad that we made the effort this time and went all out with our makeup.  

Once it got dark we went and visited the Victorian village which had a spooky school room (with a ghostly girl in the window), a creepy church (didn't go in as the queue was too long), a graveyard and some witchy ladies handing out poisoned lolly pops (which the boys gleefully gobbled up).  There was also a big table set up for a Mad Hatter's tea party.  The Hare and Hatter switched seats and served imaginary tea to anyone who grabbed a seat.  Both of the boys sat and giggled and enjoyed the spectacle.

There was quite a bit that I didn't photograph, there was a spooky clown circus tent (for older kids/adults) and a craft area to make Halloween things.  I think there was face painting somewhere too.  It was pretty massive compared with other years.  We did get our photo taken in their photo booth but unlike other years it wasn't on a green screen (which had been awesome and free!) and was just in front of a black curtain for $5.  Still fun to have for our photo wall though.  We hardly ever take family photos.

After checking out the haunted house and mirror maze (which I slightly freaked out in), our wee circus performers were keen to go in the costume parade.  I put our names down on the list and all four of us got up on stage.  Usually I'd be a little nervous being on stage and having people staring at me but being in full makeup and costume was strangely liberating.  Not that I got up there and sang and danced or anything, but we made it into the final and I won a best costume rosette (and some old fashioned games for the kiddies)!

Despite insisting that they wanted to stay up till midnight, there was much yawning in the line for the parade and we left around 9:30pm.  It was a fun night out.  A little too crowded for me perhaps but a good time.

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