A British Halloween

Just isn't the same as an American one. Halloween isn't that big here and many kids and adults alike do not participate. I read somewhere that some folks consider it 'begging'. Little kids having lots of fun "begging" for candy. That's right.

We still made the effort though. On Saturday we took the train out to Windsor to visit with KK and Chiara and participate in Windsor's Halloween party. There was a pumpkin carving station where the girls drew faces

and J & KK did the cutting.

C also did the supervising.

The finished product with a 'C' nose:

There was also a magic show and people coming around handing out candy and balloons. Here are the girls getting their sugar high.

And waiting for the magic show to start

K spent most of the time chasing a balloon up and down the walk.

Ever since last year's 'family farm' costumes,

C has wanted to be a cow. There isn't the equivalent of a michael's or joanne's craft store in London so after a few false starts, I finally found a store - John Lewis, my new favorite - that sells fabric & crafts. While cow's don't normally wear tutu's, I thought it would be fun for C. And make Sandra Boynton proud.

K got to wear C's pig costume from last year. He looks cute in pink! (nice crack, eh?)

On Halloween night itself, the 'participating' houses put pumpkins out front. On my way home from work I walked down a neighboring block to scope our route and was dissappointed to find only 1 or 2 houses out of about 50 with pumpkins out. Luckily our street and the next one over has a few more expats so the kids were able to visit a handful of houses for treats.

Here is Miss Cow and Mr. Pig ready to head out:

Knocking at a couple of doors.

C couldn't understand why this pumpkin was sick.

When we got back home, the kids had fun counting their candy. They even shared some with J and I.

Oddly enough we got more trick or treaters at our door here than in CA. And J kept remarking how polite the kids were (not ours grant you, just the ones knocking).