Elderly cat breathing difficulties when purring

[kazaddress]

Will you Be doing anything special this Halloween?

 

im hosting a pizza and very silly games party again

 

everyone is wering masqueraid ball masks. and bringing "scary" toppings (im make the pizza bases, and suppling cheese, tomato base and rum punch, pumkin soup, pumkin muffins and pumpkin and pecan pie.

 

I have got so many silly games organised (including a piniata)

 

cant wait... not sure how im going to fit 20 people in our teeny tiny cottage though!

 

whats everyone else got planned?

[Ziggy]

We hold a halloween party every year (it's been going for the last 5 years) and considering that the same families keep coming, I guess it's been a success...

We have pumkin carving (I have 24 pumkins in the garage!!!), which is a wonderfully messy experience, we have fireworks and a bonfire, and we order a truck load of pizzas... plus lots of wine for the grown ups...

Dressing up is optional, but my girls are always fully done, this year two are being pumkins, one is a vampire, and one is what we have decided to call a 'modern cheeky arty witch', and my husband and I dress up too...

I bought this amazing medieval red dress last year for the party, then realised I couldn't wear it (my brains were away on holiday, somewhere far away), cause I was still fully breastfeeding my last baby... and well the dress didn't lend itself to such motherly occupations!!! So will definitely wear it this year... Hubby dresses as a scruffy, dark butler...

Last year was not what I hoped for, as I was poorly with flu, and ended up totally drained and having 13 cold sores on the day of the party!!! We came very close to cancelling it, but decided everyone was ready to come over and we had near to 30 pumkins we wouldn't know what to do with, so we went ahead with it anyway... I can't wait for this year's party, feel I have revenge to take on last year!

For the first time we are also having an entertainer, coming to kick off the party with a reptile road show, so we will be having insects and reptiles to handle and learn about, which I think the kids (and me, and me!!) will love... and I thought it would go well with the theme...

 

We also decorate the conservatory with cobwebs, bats, witches and so on...

 

I totally love it, and I love the pumkin carving!! We make a big display of all pumkins around the fireplace, and it looks really lovely.

 

Sorry, getting carried away, it's the one time in the year when I turn into a real kid and really, really enjoy myself

 

Here is my pumkin from last year

[Snowy]

Not exactly hosting a party, but helping others from church host a Bright Lights party for all the village kids - magic show, 'X' Factor competition and loads of silly games! Should be fun!

[Joojoo]

That's a fab carving Ziggy

[cammy73]

No party as such but the house will be decorated and our pumpkin is already carved and ready!! lots of wine and loads of sweets for the trick and treaters...

Sharon x

[xScrunchee]

Will be walking round the corner with the children so they can do 'trick or treat' on my Mum but that's about it.

 

We only do this because the children like dressing up and being a meany Mum I won't allow them to go trick or treating other than to my Mums house. (I see it as a form of begging)

I don't open the door to trick or treaters neither.

 

I also don't give money for 'Penny for the guys' or carol singers unless the money is going to a good cause which nine times out of ten it isn't!

 

Miserable eh?

 

[Egluntyne]

I don't open the door to trick or treaters neither.

 

They spray Silly String all over you car and tie your gates together round here if you don't answer the door....and this is a reasonable neighbourhood.

[xScrunchee]

Our neighbourhood is not too nice to be honest.

 

Years ago I decided to give some carol singers some money (don't know what came over me ), and the little treasures ripped my door bell off of the wall and ran down the street constantly pressing it so we kept going to the door.

When I realised it had gone I sent OH out into the street to look for it as I was gutted because I'd only just bought it.

 

He managed to catch up with them and ended up finding the doorbell in a bush. Little sweet children!!

[buffie]

I'm alone We had films at the weekend and no doubt I'd dig something out to watch that will scare me silly and I won't want to move from the chair

 

I've already had my pumpkin lit and the house is decorated Mikey is back on thursday and i won't be going to the door, just in case

 

 

 

BBx

[Laura & CTB]

I don't open the door to trick or treaters neither.

 

I also don't give money for 'Penny for the guys' or carol singers unless the money is going to a good cause which nine times out of ten it isn't!

 

Miserable eh?

 

quote]

 

I'm with you on this one Jay - I have a sign up on the door informing callers that CTB is on shiftwork and asleep (whether he is or not ).

[Ziggy]

In our neighbourhood the trick or treaters are quite sweet and friendly... we get some groups at the door every Halloween, both kids and teenagers, all of them usually accompanied by an adult, and when we let them help themselves to the bowl of treats they invariably go 'oh thank you so very much... that's very kind of you... have a lovely evening'... so scary, eh

 

I don't go trick or treating with my girls cause it makes me uneasy, though we enjoy greeting trick or treaters at our door. There is this non-official understanding in the area that trick or treaters should only go to houses that display a pumkin by the front door/window or any other 'trick or treaters' welcome sign... not every person out there respects that obviously, but generally it goes alright... I wonder if it should be slightly more regulated, making it official that trick or treaters should only go to houses displaying that it's ok, and of course banning any 'tricks'... Even though it's called 'trick or treating' it's just plain mean to let the whole game turn nasty, and that shouldn't be legal and probably isn't...

 

There is another neighbourhood nearby where the whole street joins in, except a few houses, and it is full of little kids dressed up and running around from door to door. The only time I went trick or treating with my girls was there, with a friend of mine and her kids, and I felt a bit reluctant... my friend then thought she saw a pumkin at a window, but it was only an odd lampshade, and by the time we'd realise that the girls had already rang the bell (we saw the window through a bush, hence the confusion), and they were not welcome and I got a right telling off from a very irrate lady... that really put me off, as it had been a genuine mistake on our part and our girls were very polite, saying 'we're very sorry' and walking off... sigh...

[Cinnamon]

We luckily don't get trick or treaters here - no street lights & no children in the village either.

So in the past when my girls have wanted to do this,I have had to drive them to friends houses to join in there

 

Happily they are now not interested,as I really don't enjoy them doing it.

 

I don't like them eating the sweets either - you don't know where they have been!

 

I am all for a bit of harmless spooky fun, but I will admit to it not being my favourite holiday of the year

[Mrs Frugal]

This is a very nice quiet neighbourhood and we have an endless stream of trick or treaters here at Halloween but they're all usually under 14 years of age and come accompanied by parents who stand at the end of the drive. Ollie is doorman and saves us getting up as he's happy to offer a big basket of sweets for the children to choose something from. We have a carved pumpkin in the open porch and another on the dining room windowsill and I hang bat shapes cut from thick black paper on black cotton around the porch so they flap about in the breeze . Ollie used to like to dress up as a zombie/mummy/vampire etc but once he turned 13, he decided he was too old to do that anymore, thank goodness! We always make pumpkin soup with the scooped out flesh from the pumpkin! Wouldn't be Halloween without that!

[Rhapsody]

When I lived in London and the kids wereyounger we used to have fab street party Halloweens with the neighbours, really gonna miss that Ironically we now live at the end of a drak creepy overgrown lane in a really old house, maybe some local kids will venture down, we have stuff ready if they do.

As a practising Pagan I will be lighting a bonfire,lighting candles all over the house and maybe casting a circle if I get over this bug my kids have given me

[Snowy]

For some bizarre reason they start early round here. Didn't used to bother me until I had Dan, he would've been 4 weeks old. I remember just getting him to sleep and trying to have a doze myself - then the doorbell started going! I could've cried! So now I put a sign up every year - and they do respect it.

 

But I am absolutely awful to Carol singers It's usually just a couple of children and they start singing 'We wish you a merry Christmas'. I tell them they will only get something if they can sing me a proper carol, then I stand and wait for them to complete it before I give them anything OH thinks I'm cruel.

[xScrunchee]

Snowy-that made me laugh. My whole family do that too

 

When I was a little girl I used to go to the door with my Grandad when the carol singers came. They would start mumbling 'We wish you a merry christmas' and my Grandad would tell them that that's not a 'carol'. They would then start 'Jingle Bells' and he would say that that wasn't a carol neither. They would stand there looking quite miffed and he would have to suggest carols that they could sing. If they managed a carol (or at least part of one)-he would give them the money!!

[missuscluck]

we have our friends round from up the street with their kids and also our older neighbours round for pumpkin soup, hot dogs and cakes. The kids all go trick or treating to pre arranged welcome people and then we come back for eats. Their is going to be 12 adults and 10 kids so should be fun. It is turning into a regular event. Katie and I will be carving the pumkins tonight ready so we can make the soup.

[chelsea]

we go totally mad at halloween.

 

We decorate the whole of the outside of the house. We have life size tombs and grave stones on the front lawn with skeletons appearing to come out the ground. Hanging ghouls, and ghosts. Some of our "props" have lit up colour changing eyes (which look fab in the dark) I have a creepy door curtain over the porch which the kids have to walk through to get through the front door. Hubby has expertly carved 10 pumpkins today and he has also made a "dead body" out of old clothes and plastic bags and a halloween mask to hang from the bedroom window (like its been hung ).

 

I have bagged up 60 individual sweet bags for the kiddies (I had 50 kids call last year!) and we have a couldron in the hallway and a green light bulb for the hall. And we have a CD of scarey halloween sounds and screams to play outside the front door!!

 

hubby has took tomorrow off work to decorate!!!

[Chicken Licken]

I am not a fan. I don't mind the little ones but the older hoody variety can be a bit threatening. I gave my tutor group a letter from the local police about halloween behaviour! It is their busiest night of the year for anti social behaviour. As the local youff have already stolen my car aerial and done their best to unwire my neighbours sky TV I shall be pretending to be out!! It doesn't make me a bad person - just a tired one who works with teens all day long!!

[Tina C]

We will be trick or treating locally for an hour. Just finished making Layla's weeping Angel costume - amazing what you can to with cardboard, grey paint and an old pair of school trousers. She then spent half an hour in front of the mirro practising various poses and evil faces.

 

We don't go over the top on Halloween because we are doing bonfire and (quietish) fireworks with guests on Monday - apolgies to all the firework haters but I loved it as a child and I still do (again we don't go mad, just a few pretties and sparklers and a guy for the bonfire.

[RubyMurray]

Hi all,

 

I have 3 kids so I can't get away with hiding with the lights off - yet!

 

My sons 10 and will be dressed as a skelly-bob, my 8 year old daughter will be a witch and my 5 year old daughter will be a black and purple bat (but she actually thinks she's a cat, but I'm not telling her she's wrong otherwise she'll turn into the witch!)

 

We have some great neighbours that join in with the 'spirit' and the kids then have to visit the dentist the following week - Ha! Ha!

 

Have fun, Dyan (RubyMurray)

[bronze]

All the young children (with parents) get together dressed up and go trick or treating and go round the houses. Thing is the only houses we go to tend to have someone in the party or be a known conspirator like someones grandparents.

[Popcorn]

I'm all for celerating Haloween, and I think it's a great idea to get children inviolved in making costumes, baking cakes and having a party at home or in the village hall etc.

 

I'm against Trick or Treating on the door step though. I do go and buy a bag of sweets for the children that knock our door (and they are always accompanied by an adult who we generally know from our area) but it's not something I would do or would be comfortable with. I'd much rather have a party at home for the children, and play games etc.

[Rona]

Happy Halloween everyone. Sounds like some of you have great parties planned. I shall have some treats for any little ones that come early as soon as it gets dark but after that will be hiding.

When I was a child, we had to 'sing, say or penny pay' before we got a treat and there was no question of playing tricks on anyone. Don't know if that was a Scottish custom or just the era (late 50s). Loved dooking for apples and trying to eat sticky syrupy/treacley scones on a string. I think we had to do the scones first then the apples as that would wash the sticky mess of our faces.

Happy days

[Guest]

I'm all for celebrating Halloween

What exactly is being celebrated?

 

This isn't a pointed question, I'm genuinely interested to know. It will come as no surprise to people that we don't subscribe to anything Halloween here. We will be celebrating All Hallows and remembering All Souls though.