“Spooky Day” is Rory’s name for Halloween, but I’ve missed it (againnn… that seems to becoming a tradition too). And I missed All Souls’ Day. AND Dia de los Muertos. Let’s make it a spooky week then!

The starter flag dropped for the end of year rush last week with Finny’s birthday (SIXTH! Another post…) and since then every day feels like managing triage. Finn has only a month left of prep, the weekends are filling up fast with end-of-year stuff, my sister came to visit, there’s Christmas cards to write, presents to find/wrap/hide: the days just aren’t long enough.

I was really excited about Halloween though, and went to a bit more effort this year – there’s just so many cool ideas to try! The most obvious was to carve my first ever pumpkin, because why the hell not. I screwed up though; I didn’t buy one straightaway and they sold out. But not to worry, because Justine and I came up with the perfect solution; Halloween Watermelon.

We even found a pumpkin-shaped one! It rolled a bit, but we fixed that by setting it on Finn’s footy kicking tee. I don’t know how easy pumpkins are to clean out this way but watermelon is easy as, plus you can stuff it in your face as you go.

Thanks to expert advice I bought a carving kit instead of just using a knife.

It was so easy! I worried the rind was too thin and would curl in the heat so we left a bit of raw bloody flesh in there too. Figured if we were lucky the currawongs would peck his eyes further out.

Okay, impostor pumpkin; done.

Next we sorted the kids’ costumes. Finn’d got a nerf gun from a classmate for his birthday after years of nagging us for one. He presumably wanted to swagger around brandishing it at the neighbours (yet remain a good guy) so opted to be a police officer. Rory didn’t want to be a baddie either, so he became Finn’s partner. No dramas making their uniforms as my sewing skills have evolved beyond the stapler of last year; now I use double-sided tape as well.

What You’ll Need:

• 2 pairs of Finn’s navy school shorts for next year (hand-me-downs)
• 2 collared navy polo shirts from Big W ($4)
• 2 plain dark blue baseball caps from Big W ($4)
• shoes and socks as the usual sandals aren’t WorkSafe compliant
• A printer
• The Internets. I copied, pasted and printed Queensland police badges and other insignia from Google images. It’s paper so I don’t think that classifies as criminal impersonation of a police officer; if you’re worried someone might mistake your kid for the real deal, write FAKE in red texta on their face.
• cop accessories from the Two Dollar Shop (nb if you’re going to get handcuffs get the metal ones not those pink ones with diamantes). Also closely monitor older child so they don’t try handcuffing their little brother to a street sign).
• longish strip of sturdy navy material for equipment belt
• and of course your trusty sewing kit:

Assembly: dress kids in polos, shorts, caps and shoes and staple belts around their waists. Cut out insignia and attach to hopefully compliant child with staples; Scotch tape tricky areas. Attach whistle, cuffs, holster, taser, nightstick and any other cop accessories to belt. Arm children but withhold ammo.

Take photos quickly because it’s windy and their badges keep flying off. Halfway around the block curse because your sewing machine has run out of staples.

Stay tuned for the next thrilling instalment of Spooky Week… Part 2!

– Michelle