Halloween happened

Last year we arrived hereto week after Halloween and the neighbor kids were still talking about how much fun it is to live at the American Club for halloween- from 20 houses in a row giving out candy, to the trunk or treat in the parking lot to the haunted house at the club- apparently it's an epic time. 

But you know, it's 2020 and covid and all- so none of that could happen. So we all had to go to plan B, and then even plan C. As it is, living in a country that doesn't celebrate halloween always takes a lot of advanced planning to create halloween for the kids. And even this year in America people were having to plan and get creative...

What mattered this year were costumes and friends. 

Thankfully we ordered the costumes early, and even though Tate's too a long time to show up, it showed up!

The embassy had a costume contest- one of their contact-free halloween fun ideas- and for their age group, Macy got 1st place and Tate got 2nd place!

Because trick or treating needed to be contact free, the embassy gave each family small bags to fill with candy- and getting all those suckers filled (with candy I ordered on line from America back in late August) was a family affair- 

And the Mrs. Rockwell cookies got made- 

This was my 15th year in a row making them, and we got to share them with 6 new families, and on a new continent! Who would have thought that this small town treat from my childhood go so far? And I loved that Kristen and Lauren both sent me pictures that week of their families making them too!

Ahhhh, what to carve? The bright orange pumpkins typically used for jack o' lanterns are close to $20 each here- yet pineapples are only $1 each! So we got creative- 

It was a bit stickier than a pumpkin, but both the pineapple and watermelons gave us so much fruit and juice for the week ahead!

There is a learning curve with pineapples... 

Macy went with a fun posh design-

Tate went with Oogie Boogie from The Nightmare Before Christmas, which we'd just watched!

Brian's second pineapple was much better- 

We joined our friends at a neighboring compound and set up in their garage to be one of the stations giving out candy- 

Tate and Ben were supposed to set up at an empty house here, but instead ended up just putting a table in the street and giving out candy at the other compound too. It worked!

A new twist on our old costumes this year-

Someone lost his shoes-

trick or treat!

smell my feet! 

Anna and Macy- 

Tate and Ben-

The gang- wait where is Tate?

These looked incredible in the dark! 

And what might be the best part of halloween-

Ben slept over and the neighbors came to join in on the candy sort, swap, barter!

A couple days after Halloween, I began putting all the decorations away and I lost track of time and needed to leave. So I asked Tate to finish up for me, explaining that everything needed to fit carefully into the two buckets. He said he would do it and I left feeling joyous feelings of independence mixed with a bit or righteousness that I was raising great kid. 

Well, I got home and Tate said, "I just couldn't fit the ghost in." And the ghost is huge, so I knew it would take some rearranging to get him in, but no big deal really, as I just SO appreciated the help.

Next thing I see is all this junk that didn't make it into either box, just on the floor next to the boxes- 

Me: So Tate, what about all this stuff?

Tate: well, yeah that stuff wouldn't fit too. 

 

Sigh. Guess I'm not there just yet with this kid...