Happy Halloween

Three years waiting for Halloween. I don't get all crazy about it but I do like Halloween. Living in Montana not near anyone, we would have to trick or treat by car. And wear a coat. And my mom didn't bother much with costumes of any caliber (although I have some pics of me very little in very cute bunny and clown suits) since hardly anyone saw us. And she wouldn't drive us into town so we could trick or treat like normal kids.

One year we spent Halloween at my aunt's house in California and my eyes were opened. THIS is what trick or treating was all about. It was heavenly--warm weather, tons of people in the neighborhood, lots of kids running everywhere. I loved every minute of it. So living in Bloomington, which is such a quintessential suburb, was great. We had cul-de-sacs so the kids could run in a pack up and down with the adults standing at the entrance of each road, making the kids think they were completely on their own. They often had to stop at the house to dump their bags and make space for round 2. I can't sew but I can do a mean job with duct tape and a glue gun. Witness my finest creation, made for the last Halloween we celebrated in Minnesota, and the little nuggets the last time they donned the Halloween garb!

We didn't celebrate Halloween in Tanzania. I think it was because a lot of missionaries don't believe in celebrating it, and so many Tanzanians have very strong ideas and beliefs about witchcraft that it just passed us by and we really didn't notice.

But it is a big thing here--including carving pumpkins. I generously let Mark take the lead on that, since he left for Malaysia this morning and was going to miss all the Halloween fun. Isn't that nice of me?

The pumpkins here were short and wide and not gooey on the inside. They made for interesting faces.

And....they're off! The kids were very very very very excited to go. Noah took off with a group of friends, Cameron took his phone and went off with a group, and Ava and I went with her friend Bella and her mom and the dogs. Like the very best mom I am I took only this picture.

A lot of kids tricked and treated. About every 5th house or so had candy, and the kids filled their plastic pumpkins. They got some familiar candy, and some things we'll just have to try to see what they are. Both Ava and Noah had a long week and were really tired going into it anyway, so they were willing to call it a haul pretty quickly, but they had a great time. All of them soundly proclaimed that trick or treating in their Bloomington neighborhood with their friends was the gold standard, but that this was pretty cool, too!

Candy update: Interesting haul. Some kind of cracker with a picture of a shrimp on it...after opening it, it smelled like a long-deceased shrimp. The cat liked them, though. Indeterminate forms of chewy things. Cough drops--not one or two but whole packages of Halls. Green tea flavored. A great flavor for tea, but not cough drops. Or ice cream, toothpaste, or gum. Also, rum ball and port wine cordials, with I think real liquor in them. Also Listerine breath strips. And a package of Costco trail mix. Go figure.