Jane's addiction (Amelia Jane that is)

Halloween is definitely an American holiday, even if it does trace its roots back to western Europe and the Celtic/Gaelic festival celebrating the end of the harvest. Why? Because America commercialized it and made it the holiday it is today. It is slowly making inroads into the Aussie psyche...emphasis on slowly :) Anyway, read the preceding post and you'll get the back story courtesy of Kimberly.

We decided we better take advantage of this celebration of Americana by also introducing our Australian friends to two of our favourite childhood treats as part of their introduction to Halloween: JELL-O® Jigglers® and Chex® Muddy Buddies® (as the goodness of Chex hasn't crossed the Pacific, we use the closest alternative, AU/NZ Kellog's Crispix Honey)

The jigglers were taken by the kiddies as little more than a toy to be "jiggled" (and not eaten), and the muddy buddies were avoided by all (you may recall a previous blog post referencing a lady in the ward commenting to Kim about American's fascination with cereal, and now here we were pawning cereal off as some sort of desert...and of course she had to be in attendance watching us prove her point. Nice.)

But I digress...needless to say we had a jack-o'-lantern pale full of leftover muddy buddies. I (against Kim's better judgement), acquainted lil' Amelia with the tasty morsels (I had to shove one literally into her mouth for her to even try it), and she has not been the same carrot top since.

She constantly runs over to the fridge (where we safely keep them locked up), pointing to her mouth (kid sign language Kimbo taught her), muttering "moh buh-ee's" ("more [muddy] buddies" - with the tone going way up on that last syllable).

When we don't give in to her sweet little voice, she throws things, begins screaming hysterically, and slaps the face of the fridge. "Buh-eees!!!!" She'll keep crying until one of us mentions them, and then she immediately ceases the crying, smiles, and runs over to the fridge and waits (we figured out rather quickly it was a rather fake facade).

Kim gets agro at me for playing mind games with her, like saying "muddy buddies?", and when she smiles and turns her back to run to the fridge to get some, I run in the opposite direction and hide from her (Kim does admit its fun to do tho, to Amelia's obvious dismay).

Anyway, the moral of this endless drivel is, NEVER make your kids Muddy Buddies!