Our Halloween extravaganza began at the start of this week when we carved a pumpkin as a family. The girls decided what they wanted the face to look like, and then I attempted to cut out their vision on the pumpkin. We had to improvize a bit because it was a lot easier said than done when trying to cut a pumpkin with a steak knife. I'll have to remember to add a pumpkin knife to my packing list for next year! When we opened the pumpkin, the girls were both really excited to see all of the seeds inside, but they had mixed reviews about actually sticking their hands in there. Taelyn was all about it and dug right in, helping me take out all the seeds. Kaelia, however, took one look at the sliminess and decided that she wanted nothing to do with that part, so she just watched. Afterward, both girls loved turning off the lights and watching the pumpkin glow in the dark.
The next night, Justin and the girls took the pumpkin seeds and fried them up in the kitchen. Taelyn wanted to do this part all by herself, so Justin gave her free liberty to salt the seeds. Needless to say, they were a bit too salty (I'm not sure there were any seeds in all that salt!), so I rinsed most of them afterwards to make them edible. Taelyn made sure to bring plenty to school the next day so she could share with her classmates and teacher.
On Wednesday, Taelyn had her school Halloween celebration. She dressed up as Princess Jasmine from Aladdin and walked in a little parade around campus where staff members passed out candy along the way. It was the school's version of trick-or-treating. Then Taelyn's class headed back to the classroom for a Halloween party. She had a great time. Once she got home, she also did a great job sharing her candy with her sister.
Finally, it was time to go trick-or-treating on Saturday night. We went to a nice housing complex that celebrates Halloween by decorating their houses, creating mazes and activities, and hands out candy to trick-or-treaters. Kaelia dressed up as a monkey because she wanted to use her costume from her recent school concert. Before heading over to the complex, we went to a friends house so that she could get her face painted as a monkey. Then she spent some time crawling around as if she were a monkey. At the last minute, Taelyn decided to do a quick costume change and put on a Cinderella dress. She said she didn't want her belly to be cold. We also joined our friends, and Arianna came dressed as a black cat.
Trick-or-treating was fun, but we definitely had to walk a bit to earn candy. The houses that participated were a little spread out; after about 1.5 hours, the girls had walked around 2.5-3 miles! They were a little tired at the end, but they thought it was worth it (and they don't really have anything else to compare it to). Their favorite house was one of the last ones that we went to where the girls had to walk in to a small, pitch-black garage that had neon lights inside. They couldn't really see anything, and to all of our surprises, they came out with full ice cream cones! That was a nice way for them to make the walk back to the car and call it a night.
We had a great Halloween week this year - especially considering that we got to celebrate when it is not really a South African holiday. The girls still came home with plenty of candy, and they didn't mind sharing with us!
