Halloween 2015

Halloween runs a close second for favorite Holiday in our family (Christmas being number one!).  And the good news is that every year the Brits seem to embrace it a bit more.  My estimate is that about 1 in every 4 house celebrates, with some decoration, usually a pumpkin and lights on so that the kids know where to trick or treat. C decorated Elvis this year and made him into a "weredeer":

We picked up pumpkins when we had our family photoshoot at Garson's Farm in Esher:


And J and the kids carved the pumpkins the night before Halloween.  K was definitely not into pumpkin guts while C dug right in:

C & K begged to have a Halloween party and I was happy to oblige (and it was certainly easier with Halloween falling on on Saturday).  Luckily I was back in the states in September so I was able to load up on decorations and party goodies.  While the UK is slowly coming around to Halloween, there is nowhere near the breadth and creativity of stuff.

C planned to reprise her birthday outfit to be a PowerPuff Girl for halloween.  So of course, on Oct 30th, her PowerPuff dress was nowhere to be found. After turning her room upside down and with C on the verge of tears I agreed to make another.  Luckily we had some extra t-shirts and black fabric from her birthday so there I was Halloween morning stitching together the pieces.  The things we do. I also found some PP girls socks when I was in the US which nicely completed the outfit.  (And of course we found the original a day later hanging where else but in her closet!)
K decided he wanted to be a vampire, mostly because he wanted to wear fangs and have his face painted.

At the party we played a game of bingo and made spooky eyes out of toilet paper roll cardboard and neon necklaces which we put in the windows. I also took the kids upstairs for a spooky touch-and-feel session.  Some of the kids weren't scared a bit and others ran out of the room before we even began.  The boys were sneaky and kept taking their masks off to see what they they were touching.

For dinner we served mummy pizza's and hotdogs which were a hit.  And ribs for the parents. For dessert, our traditional spider web cupcakes.


The kids couldn't wait to go trick-or-treating and luckily a few parents stayed so that we could manage the group in the neighborhood.  I stayed behind to give out candy and got quite a few compliments on our decorations along the lines of "the Americans always have the best".  In fact, our newest edition to the outside decor was a moving, moaning zombie that scared the crap out of a couple of kids when they accidentally touched him.  At the time J couldn't believe that I was prioritizing the zombie for hand-luggage on our flight from NY back to UK but in the end we were all happy he made it.

 

Hope you all had a Happy Halloween!  We sure did.