Halloween Festivities

Even though we live in a country that doesn't embrace Halloween quite like the US does, we still managed to get in plenty of Halloween fun! Unfortunately, I was horrible at getting pictures of the events so some of these pictures I "stole" (with permission, of course) from my friend Elizabeth's blog. Glad someone cared enough to take pics of my kids! :)

We began a few days early with a party at church. Last year Jonas was terrified of his costume - even though it was Mickey Mouse, his favorite character. So when this year rolled around I wasn't exactly anxious to put a lot of time or money into another one and thankfully Mickey still fit like a dream...so Mickey it was! This year he loved it! I painted his nose which he especially liked. He was a little overwhelmed at the party but seemed to really enjoy going from car to car in the 'car park' collecting candy. He even knows he can't eat the vast majority but he still has fun looking through his candy. Here he is with his friend "J" or shall I call him Handy Manny? They had fun going around together.

Clara wanted to be a witch this year and was a very lovely one! She really enjoys getting her face painted and almost always wants a butterfly. She had fun at the party with her friends and went around the parking lot with her cute friend "E" who was an actual butterfly...aren't they cute together?

The next night was the Halloween Carnival on base. There were lots of crafts and games for the children and of course we stood in line for another butterfly face painting. This time, the painter was practically professional. It was the most amazing thing I've ever seen. After the carnival we went to eat dinner with Elizabeth and her family before starting the trick-or-treating on base. As the children were playing and the adults were finishing up dinner, the power went out which the children found especially spooky. As we drove back to base, the weather went from bad to much much worse!! As soon as we stepped out of the car the wind went crazy and the rain became freezing cold sleetish stuff! Only a few houses were still passing out candy which was fine by us. We ran to about three houses before deciding that we were out of our minds and headed back to the cars. On our way, a house we had already visited called us over. He wanted to get rid of the rest of his candy and get inside. He gave the kids huge handfuls and we ended up with completely full pumpkins even though we only went to 4 houses...and the bonus was that most of his candy was Swedish Fish which Jonas can eat - lucky boy!

Here we are wet and cold (and no, I can't quite do up my rain jacket anymore, so that didn't exactly help)...

Now about that professional butterfly? I never got a picture of it before the elements attacked...so this is the best I have. If you can't tell, the black paint even ran into her hair causing quite a mess.

Our final festivity was our annual Halloween dinner Saturday night. We have always had friends over for soup and spooky side dishes before trick-or-treating but since it is a bit different this year, we decided to still have the dinner part and invite some friends over. The children had a lot of fun running around playing and we enjoyed good company.

For me, that was enough and I was happy to move past Halloween. For Jonas? No way. He is still talking about "ween ween" and his "puuma" (which is never said without throwing both hands in the air for effect). He wants his pumpkin to go everywhere he goes. This was tricky when he wanted to crawl or walk...so he came up with these following options all by himself.

I think it is so creative and typically Jonas. I even found him looking at books (which he had been doing for about 40 minutes) with his pumpkin around his neck. I'm not really sure how he could see the pages, but it didn't seem to bother him.

There was also the night this past week when we got home in the evening and the house was pitch black. After setting Jonas down, everyone got busy doing something. A few minutes later Devin went into the front room, turned on the light and guess who was there? Jonas, who had crawled his way through the dark across the room, found his pumpkin and was sitting happily with it on his shoulder. He has this sense for where it is in the house and will do whatever it takes to get to it. The funny thing is he doesn't even eat the candy in it unless we give him some so I'm not quite sure what the fascination is all about.

Then there is this favorite of mine...Clara reading him his bedtime story while he insists on wearing his Mickey gloves and clenching tightly his beloved pumpkin.

Anyway, another successful Halloween and until next year, goodbye from one scary witch...anybody want to come visit us for Halloween next year? Sure looks fun, huh?