…thanks to Judy Dykstra-Brown for hosting the Numbers Game Photo Challenge https://judydykstrabrown.com/2025/01/19/the-numbers-game-57-jan-20-2025-please-play-along/
I love typing in the number into the search box on my photos page. I never know what’s going to come up. Try it, it’s a lot of fun.
It’s so cool when some of photos actually have the number 178 in them. Can you find it?
…thanks to Judy for hosting the Numbers Game https://judydykstrabrown.com/2024/04/21/the-numbers-game-18-apr-22-2024/
…thanks to Amanda for bringing back The Friendly Friday Photo Challenge
This week’s theme is anything lined up in a row.
….thanks Cee for hosting this week’s Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge
Pollinating Purple Flowers
Parents
Pumpkins
Parade
Produce
Walking around the neighbourhood before Hallowe’en night I noticed that more and more people are decorating their homes using inflatable monsters, pumpkins and ghosts.
But the best inflatables were the costumes. This one taken at school was the best.
On Hallowe’en Day we had our traditional parade at school. Students and teachers dressed up for the occasion and parents watched from the sidelines.
On Hallowe’en evening the conditions were perfect. There were lots of children and parents on the street but very few crossed the intersection to make their way to our block. We even walked out to the sidewalk and hailed people to walk a little further. It was tough competing with the flaming pumpkins up the road. Three pumpkins were hollowed out, carved and then doused with kerosene. Someone said that there were toilet paper rolls inside the pumpkins.
….a fun day at school but not so nice this evening for the trick or treaters
Day 5 of my Book Fair had to end on Hallowe’en. Getting dressed up, lots of candy, sick children and very excited children and last minute purchases made for a very exhausting day. Pretty much every child dresses up for Hallowe’en and so do most of the staff at our school. At the end of the day we have our parade where the entire student body walks through the school and then outside around the the property. Unfortunately it rained all day so we had indoor recesses and we tried to keep the children calm with a movie during lunch. The rain had let up a little bit towards the end of the day so we decided to brave it and take the parade outside.
My friend L and I led the school throughout the halls and then around the school. Every year we try to come up with new costumes and when I saw this idea on Pinterest I knew that it was the costume for us. It was also extremely easy to put together and we had fun making the kids and parents try to figure out what we were. We dressed up as the Black Eyed Peas. 
Here are a some pictures that I can share with you. The parents do an amazing job decorating the school and many classes took the time to decorate pumpkins.
It’s almost 8:00 and I’ve only had one knock on the door. Even my husband’s fabulous pumpkin isn’t attracting children to come up our walkway. Too much rain. I guess I’ll be taking a lot of candy back to school.
…..or as it is more commonly known, Caribana Toronto
Today my husband and I got on our bikes and headed east toward the city. Trust me when I say that there was no better way to get around today than on your bike. The Gardiner is still under construction and Lakeshore Blvd. was closed for the Caribana Parade.
We decided to make a number of stops on our journey today. First, we parked our bikes at the Humber Bay Farmers’ Market and picked up some kale, flowers for my aunt and the best samosas in the city.
We continued along the bike path, heading east and turned north on Windemere and then east again along the Queensway. Traffic was already backing up and we passed numerous cars as we sailed through on the bike lanes. When the bike lanes ended we were at our destination anyway so our trip to the hospital was smooth sailing all the way.
Our second stop was at St. Joe’s to visit my aunt. We gave her the small bouquet of flowers that we picked up at the market and we spent about an hour with her. I’ve really been enjoying these chats with her. Outside the hospital the sounds from the Carnival were bouncing off the walls but inside, especially in her room it was very quiet.
When we returned to our bikes after the visit my husband was having second thoughts about going to the parade. I convinced him to humour me for at least a 30 minute stay down by the parade. We headed west and then south towards Sunnyside Park. Lakeshore Blvd. was like a parking lot as people waited to get onto the Queensway.
As soon as we hit the park I suggested that we sit in the shade and eat our lunch of samosas and mango chutney. They were delicious. After cleaning up we got back on the bikes but now even moving on the bikes was slowed down by the pedestrian traffic heading toward the parade. To my husband’s credit (he hates crowds) he offered to park the bikes and sit with them while I made my way to the parade so that I could get some photographs.
I didn’t have to walk far but I do think that most of the parade had already passed by but there were still some interesting floats and sights to be seen. At one point I found myself on the other side of the fence where most people were standing. There were other people there as well and I was able to get pretty close to the floats. On my way back I realized that I had walked into a secure area, which the police were barring people from entering. Like I said earlier I wasn’t the only one and no one said anything to me or for that matter anyone else about being where I was.
The place was jumping and the music was so loud that when I stood in front of the speakers I could feel the sound bouncing off my chest. It was a party and the women of all ages, shapes and sizes were scantily dressed in feathery, glittery and shiny bits of fabric. The colours were amazing.
Along the parade route people were selling souvenirs, consisting of Caribbean flags, umbrellas with flag motifs, and t-shirts. Vendors were also selling island food and a couple of men were peeling stalks of sugar cane with large knives for people to purchase and eat.
The parade is only one of many events that happen this weekend. The real party starts later today. As for me I’m happy to have finally experienced a little bit of Caribana and I won’t be fighting my way through traffic to participate in any of the remaining festivities. According to Strava, we rode for 20k today and supposedly I burned off 2300 calories. Is that even possible?????
….it poured down all day and just before our Hallowe’en parade was to start it stopped
The only thing worse than indoor recess all day is indoor recess on Hallowe’en. The kids are already excited and when they can’t run off that excitement during recess it’s hard to keep them focused on their work. On top of that the book fair is still going but I have to admit that business was considerably slower today.
Someone was looking out for us today because just before our parade was scheduled to start the rain stopped. Hooray! We didn’t have to parade up and down the halls but we actually got to go outside and show off our costumes for the parents and the community.
Some of the costumes this year were very creative. The homemade ones are always the best. Here are a few that I can share with you.
The teachers at our school also get into the spirit of Hallowe’en.
Unfortunately when I got home tonight it started to rain again. I managed to carve the pumpkin but only 16 children came to the door. They actually didn’t even come to the door. My husband and I stood out in the rain and took the candy to the few children that walked past our house. A very sad Hallowe’en night indeed.
Mama Cormier 