halloween-time 2018

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it was so, so, so fun to watch moses start to really understand and enjoy halloween this year. at the beginning of the month he learned about trick-or-treating and decided on his costume (and was very definitive about what his baby brother should dress up as, as well!). he was so excited to visit a pumpkin patch and was fascinated by pumpkin carving. and then on the big day he added the word “spooky” to his vocabulary and could hardly contain his joy as we headed out to trick-or-treat.

halloween is not a big holiday in the uk, although it seems to be becoming a bigger deal in london. now that we had a child old enough to really appreciate it all, i'm excited to celebrate more heartily next year. here's some snippets of halloween fun around here:

we traveled two hours each way to a pumpkin patch outside of the city, and met up with some friends there. it was quite the trek, but it was fun. moses loved playing in the big piles of hay and haystacks and picked out a tiny pumpkin for us to bring home.
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we had some fun playing in the leaves in kensington gardens to commemorate my dad's birthday (jumping in the leaves is his very beloved and always honored birthday tradition):
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we carved pumpkins with some friends. (this picture below is not a great one of ian, haha, but i wanted to capture and remember moses peering inside the pumpkins, so curious and excited! and that's not gabriel on ian's lap, it's our friends' little boy ;) )
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moses requested one smiley face with five teeth and one surprised face. so that's what he got!
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gabey baby's first halloween!
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we enjoyed little snippets of halloweeny-ness and pretty foliage around the city:
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and were all so excited about dressing up. moses chose costumes based on his two favourite animals. gabriel got to go to a pre-halloween party for the youth at church with dad (ian was "dressed up" as a zookeeper with gabriel the giraffe strapped on him, ha!) and moses got to go to joy school in his costume (here's a little elephant waiting for the bus on the way home):
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on 31 october, i saw more christmas decorations than halloween decorations around london ... but also walked past this house that looked spookishly autumnal:
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and on halloween night i made a valiant effort trying to get a cute picture of both boys in their costumes. moses was just trying to be in zoo-animal character while gabriel sat there a bit stunned by his wired-on-halloween-excitement brother :)
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there are a few pockets of neighborhoods in london that do trick-or-treating. lucky for us - one of them is just around the corner from our flat. some of the houses were super decked out and the atmosphere was so fun! moses was thrilled about it all and it was so fun to walk with him up to doors to say trick or treat! it was already completely dark when we headed out (curses to daylight savings time!!) and it was pretty crowded (and so exciting) so i wasn't able to capture much of our trick-or-treating fun in pictures. i'm sad that people put up their awesome decorations only for one night! i did catch a few leftovers on my run this morning (pic on the right)...
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after trick-or-treating (moses was done after less than ten houses because he just wanted to eat his treats already! ;) ) we went to a little halloween party our neighbor friends threw. as we walked we passed a stranger that said, "ahhh, it's a three headed monster!" when he saw ian with gabriel on his chest and moses on his shoulders. haha!
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moses was so amused by the eating-a-donut-off-a-string game, and the pinata at the party! it was such a fun night.

i think halloween for our little family is just going to get busier and more fun with each passing year! bring it on!

Comments

  1. What an adorable 3 headed monster! Just too cute!

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  2.  "i'm excited to celebrate more heartily next year." as in "because we're moving back to the States" or "because Mo is older"?

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  3. Whilst more people celebrate Halloween in the UK than ever before, I don't think it will ever be as big as in America as it's too close to Bonfire Night. Remember remember.... :)

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    Replies
    1. ...The 5th of November. Light up the sky with Standard fireworks:)

      That is from a tv ad from years ago.

      Even tho I think Halloween is fun, I really hope it never takes over from Bonfire Night.

      Some people moan about the noise etc but I hope we keep this great British tradition going.



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