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Thursday, October 30, 2008

Halloween

I was fully prepared to not celebrate Halloween this year. I had asked an acquaintance who lived in Europe a couple of years ago if Europeans celebrated Halloween, and she said "minimally." I asked if I would need Halloween costumes and she said "no." So, along with most everything else I own, the Halloween costumes and decorations went into storage when we moved here. About 2 weeks ago I found out that there would be a Halloween party at church, but I figured I could scrape together a couple of costumes from stuff that we had in the house (pirates was my original idea) and so I wasn't too worried about it. Then came the note from Brayden's class. They were having a Halloween party and the kids were supposed to dress up. The hardest part was that I was given 1 days' notice. Now, in the states, in the suburbs, with a car, 1 day would be plenty. But here, in a place that hardly has any Halloween stuff anyway? In the city? With no car? I had no idea where to even begin. To make a very long story short, it took Charlotte and I 6 hours and many metro rides to find a costume for the boys. I tried sticking to the pirate theme, but couldn't even really find the components I was thinking of. In the end, H&M became hero of the day by stocking Spiderman costumes, muscles and all. I felt, for once in my life, that I could officially enter myself into the Mother of the Year contest for finding costumes in 1 day (assuming the year started and ended that day....) I don't know what it is about muscle-suits that are so hilarious on little boys, but I love them.


The boys and I made ghost and bat sugar cookies for Brayden's party (yay for being able to bring homemade stuff to school!) and in all it turned out great. The boys wore their costumes again for the church Halloween party and Charlotte was running a fever that night so she never even dressed up. Hopefully she'll never ask for a Halloween picture of herself from 2008. :>

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading others posts about Halloween and seeing all of the fun, creative costumes, and appreciate that even though our store-bought-costume-wearing-candy-eating-halloweening-days came and went quickly, I still get to vicariously enjoy the Halloween season.

Posted Later: I forgot to mention something VERY funny about Halloween here...Belgian Halloween is all about scary stuff. I noticed that a lot of kids aren't dressing up as Thomas the Train or anything fluffy, they are all vampires with blood, or scary masks, etc. Brayden's teacher (mind you he is in the equivalent of Kindergarten) dressed up as the ghost from the Scream movies. Not only that, but she jumped out at each child as they walked into the classroom yelling "BOO!" Admittedly, I myself was a bit taken aback, but I also love the fact that you would NEVER see that in the States. It's little things like that that keep our lives interesting around here. :>

12 comments:

Aundrea said...

The boys look awesome! How cool that they still let you bring homemade treats to school:)

Jenny said...

love it! i didn't know H&M had costumes! i agree that little muscle suits are so cute and hilarious on little boys.

Francis Family said...

The boys look so cute with their bulging biceps! That is awesome that you can bake cookies for the school party. I can't even slice apples at home and take them...they have to be packages apples from the store. Dumb!

Unknown said...

The boys look so cute in their costumes. Xande is Spiderman too this year. It looks like you guys are enjoying Europe, keep posting pics I love to see where you guys have been on your European travels!

Tammy and Mike said...

I am still laughing about the school teacher. What a memorable Halloween for you all! I love it! Happy Halloween!!! (The spiderman costumes are great!)

Anonymous said...

that's awesome... I wouldn't have thought anything different for Halloween as apposed to the states. Guess I just really like it. But i'm glad you found something awesome for them.

House of Mellor said...

That is pretty darn funny!

Sonnet said...

Wow lucky you to have pulled it all off! 6 hours with Charlotte & all sounds tireing!

Jess said...

What little hotties, I am proud to claim them as my nephew's! Where did they get such bulging biceps?

The Main Family said...

Super Cute Boys!! You should get the mother of the year award just for being their mom!! Sounds like your trip was a success and it is fun to hear how others spend the halloween season! Thanks for sharing. Doug and I look at your blog and finally got ours up. Address is: djmain2.blogspot.com if you want to look at it.

Bob and Julie said...

Amazing!!! You definitely get the mother of the year award from me!! Not only did you pull off the costumes....but you made treats on top of it all!! Absolutely amazing!! I am so impressed with how buff your boys are looking. You'll have to send me their work out regimen!! Ha!...That's great that they let the kids dress up at school! I can just picture the teacher jumping out and saying "boo"....kind of funny to me. Although I know it's scary for younger kids...but still...what a nut! :)

Anonymous said...

those costumes are awesome! :) Love the muscle suits!! Too bad about Charlotte being sick...why is it that kids always get sick when visitors are there, or it is a holiday?!!? Hope you guys are doing great...thanks for all the updates, I love reading about your adventures!