Wordless Wednesday - Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween

Wordless Wednesday - What is it?

Halloween in Review 2010

Usually I am Miss Halloween. I decorate inside and out, we start watching the Halloween movies in September so that we will have time to watch them all before the big day. Back when we had a house in the states there were spiderwebs, black lights, ghosts, scarecrows, luminarias, a jack-o-lantern for each of us and a few extras just because I could. This year though Halloween just sort of snuck up on me. I don't know what happened. Pitiful really.

Somehow I didn't really realize it was almost Halloween until Friday the day of the embassy Halloween party. The boys (with a little pressure from Dad) agreed to wear costumes from years past so once again we had a pair of grim reapers, same as last year. Dakota was either a construction worker or one of the guys from the Village People you choose.



Nobody knows quite what Grayson was but he raided the dress up box and came out wearing a Safari hat from a friend's long ago birthday party party, Colin's old Venom costume from 3 years ago, and a bumble bee vest from Halloween 2004, he seemed pleased with his costume so I guess that's all that matters.


As for Dave and I we also raided the kid's dress up box and came out with two gorilla masks. We apparently have been watching way too much Dancing With the Stars becuase we thought we were being clever by dressing as Bristol Palin and her dance partner Mark Ballas a couple weeks ago when they did the jive to "Hey Hey We're the Monkees" while wearing gorilla suits.

One problem I am now pretty sure we are the only people in Malawi that actually watch Dancing With the Stars. By the end on the night I was getting tired of explaining out costumes. If you have to explain your costume it's a fail.




Our costumes may have been a fail but the embassy party was a success. There were games, costume contests, food and of course trick-or-treating. The kids came home with a bag of candy and big smiles.


Saturday was the International Women's Association of Malawi Bazaar which in no way had anything to do with Halloween but was a lot of fun. We gave each of the kids some money and let them shop around for some treasures. Alonzo came back with a huge plant with a flower taller than himself, Colin came back with a carved wooden letter opener shaped like a dagger and a couple of wooden elephants, and Grayson and Dakota came back with a pile of rocks and crystals from the gemology booth. David and I just bought some food and drinks.

Sunday, that would be Halloween Day, the only thing we did to celebrate was to make homemade caramel apples and watched Halloweentown. Somehow that was on the only Halloween movie we watched this year, we didn't even watch the Great Pumpkin. Next year I will get my act together and carve some jack-o-lanterns, put up some decorations, order costumes and candy and watch all the movies. Next up Thanksgiving. I better get my act together, I wonder if you can buy a turkey in Malawi?

Unfinished Business--Halloween 2009

OK so I know it is Christmas time but I still haven't posted the kids in their Halloween costumes so their Grandmother and Aunt Teri can see. With no further ado (or procrastination), here ya go!

Alonzo and Colin decided to be faceless phantoms. Funnily enough Colin's best friend back home had almost exactly the same costume only in all black. Great minds think alike, I guess. Dakota raided the kids dress up box to become a pirate after he tired of explaining his original costume Dakota Fanning. He made a paper fan and walked around fanning himself. Well, he thought it was funny. His girlfriend Josephine showed up as one of the ghostbusters complete with a soundtrack, somewhere she had hidden a speaker playing the theme song "Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters!" For Grayson we dragged out the cobra costume I made years ago for Colin made a few repairs and he was all set.

A close up of the cobra costume. I worked hard on it and he is the last of my babies to wear it. It will go back in the dress up box for a while longer, but before long even he will have outgrown it!

The day after Halloween we watched the Halloween Tree and learned a little about the history of Halloween. We also read about Dia de los Meurtos. We tried making our own pan de muerto, not very authentic but tasty anyway. Each person shaped their own skull and crossbones. I think they came out pretty well.

We also cut up the Jack-o-lanterns from the night before to make pumkin pie filling but before I could cook them the boys had to take one last picture.

Thanks, I think

The kids are on fall break this week and next. It is like spring break except, you know, in the the fall. They are destroying the house, running wild, and generally having fun. German weather being what it is the last day of school, when the kids were stuck inside, was absolutely gorgeous. The weather since then, not so much, so they have been basically trapped inside with me. This morning I was praying for more rain but of course it is totally dry, cloudy but dry. Why would I want more rain? Today is Tuesday. Tuesday means the Farmers Market is down in Dornbush.

The market is a short walk from our house. Short as in about a 15 minute walk, each way. The kids have been planning to go buy a pumpkin with their allowance. Generally I think it is great that they save and spend their own money BUT I know darn well who is carrying those pumpkins back home. Pumpkins are heavy. A 15 minute walk isn't that far unless you are carrying several heavy pumpkins and trying not to let 3 kids get run over along the way then suddenly it is a VERY long way. Still no rain so I eventually had to face facts and off we went to buy pumpkins. Colin of course picked out the biggest pumpkin he could find and negotiated the price. I reminded him that he needed to use his German. He did just long enough to ask "Spechren Sie Englisch?" then switched to English. Somehow that works better for the kids than me. I know darn well that same vender has told me "Nein!" to that exact same question in the past. Today surprise, surprise, the answer was "A little" followed by almost flawless English. GRRRR!

The vender told him the price per kilo then picked it up and estimated the price. I was trying desperately to tell Colin it was too expensive when Colin upended his little coin purse in the man's hand. The man helped Colin count out his money (Yes I let Colin deal with it on his own, he was the one who wanted the pumpkin not me) turned out that Colin was a little short. YAY! I almost did a happy dance but then the guy cut him a break AND threw in a second pumpkin for the same low low price. Thanks, I think. Colin can't stop talking about how he bought 2 big pumpkins with his own money, all by himself.

The other two boys did not bring their allowances so they were at my mercy for money. I only allowed them a small pumpkin or gourd. They were a little disappointed but got over it quickly when I pointed out their choices. Small pumpkin or No pumpkin. When put that way, small pumpkin it is.


Here are the boys with their prize pumpkins. In case you are wondering the boys weighed the pumpkins. The big one was 14 pounds. The freebie was 7 1/2 pounds and Alonzo and Grayson's were about a pound or two each.

I did end up carrying the big tan colored pumpkin home in my backpack and Grayson's little pumpkin because I was afraid it wouldn't make it home the way he swinging it around. Colin and Alonzo got to carry the other two pumpkins home. I had my hands full. In addition to the pumpkins I had several pounds of apples both for eating and making apple butter, pears, plums, grapefruit, a jar of white cream honey, and some flowers because after this I deserve them. Oh yeah and the boys got pastries. I stuck with the flowers. Less calories!


Here is the total haul from the market today. Whew! Getting all of that home counts as a work out.

Wordless Wednesday - Halloween In Review

Happy Halloween!