The Dance and Family Fun Night

On Thursday night Coraline went to her first "night time" school dance.  (Every year she has participated in an elementary school "Dance-a-thon" fundraiser that involved all kids from kindergarten and up.  This is different.) She is on student council, so she helped decorate the gym and designed posters to put up around the school.  She is also more than a little nervous.  Do you remember your first junior high dance?  Wondering if anyone would ask you to dance? Kind of confused as to what it was all really about? The stress!

She had initially decided not to wear a Halloween costume to the Halloween dance.  After all, she is in middle school and costumes are EMBARRASSING.  However, the day of the dance she found out all student council members must wear a costume.  To compromise, she decided on cool color-sprayed hair, and face paint.

Purple and blue hair

The dress Coraline wore.

I went along to chaperone.  Since the school was encouraging everyone to dress up, I chose to dress up as the "Other Mother" from the movie Coraline (one of MY Coraline's favorite movies).  It worked out perfectly! I didn't need to worry about embarrassing my daughter because no one knew who I was, plus I had a great time scaring the kids!  Some of the braver ones came up to ask me how I got the buttons to stick to my eyes.  Eyelash glue! 

Other Mother and daughter selfie.

Coraline with a new friend at the dance. There is a line-up
for the canteen behind them.

It was a very enjoyable night.  The school was excellent about policing the kids and controlling who came in and out, and there were lots of chaperones on hand.  About 20 minutes before the dance ended someone pulled the fire alarm (Ah, middle school. You haven't changed.).  Everyone had to immediately go outside.  It was at least -15 and there is lots of snow on the ground. The schools here have employed a common-sense approach--due to the extreme cold, adults at the school are permitted to re-enter the school multiple times to pile outdoor items (coats, boots) onto dollies and pull the dollies into the parking lot so the kids can grab stuff to put on. This gets the kids out of the school and safely away from a fire, but then not die of hypothermia.

Halloween seems to be a Big Deal here in Iqaluit.  There are multiple events going on everywhere in town.  The high school hosts a haunted house event, the local inn has a craft/dress up night for little kids, the library is hosting a Halloween "Craft-a-thon", and the local bar is having a costume party. (I think it is so cold for long, holidays are seen as a great excuse to bundle up and and get out of the house.)

One of the things I've noticed is the elementary school in particular goes out of its way to make the kids feel like going to school means belonging to a special community. The principal, Sonja Lonsdale, is in large part responsible for making this happen. Joamie School (where Captain Jack Sparrow attends) also has a special Halloween event. I first heard about the Halloween Family Fun Night at the first day of school assembly.  Yep, back in September Sonja was already planning for Halloween.

Posing at the house before we left in his Ninja costume.

"Scary" ninja face paint. "Make it look like my face has
been slashed open, Mommy!"

There was a bake sale, canteen, cake walk, carnival style games, face painting, guess the weight of the pumpkin, 50/50 raffle, and more. There were hundreds of people there, and the school raised $6000.

A truly northern penny-auction.  Up for grabs is a
homemade parka to fit a 5 year old, and 2 pitsi,
dried arctic char. Tickets for these items were far
 more expensive than the tickets for lego sets, books,
or other more typical prizes.

Cupcake sale

CJS trying out the bowling game.

Many parents carrying their toddlers in amautis.

I won a cake at the cake walk!  Yay!

Coraline with friend. Notice the ulu on her sweatshirt?
Ulu's are the women's traditional tool for cutting and scraping
seal meat and blubber away from the skin.

So, next up: actual Halloween!  Also, in the news today: We have had yet another polar bear sighting.  I think its neat that they found its "stash" of frozen food.  I wonder if I will get to see one while we are up here?