Happy Halloween

(Chris's pumpkin creation)

So, this weekend was Halloween weekend and this year more than any other we celebrated. We started off last week actually with a mascarad party at the kid's preschool. (Why an entire week early, I'm not sure...). Sofia loved dressing up like a princess and Samuel a pirate. Then this Friday, we joined all the other American families in the area for our annual trick-or-treating party.

There's this family in our ward who sends out flyers every year to their neighbors saying that if they want to be part of trick-or-treating then they should put out a candle or pumpkin outside so the kids know which houses to go to. It ends up being maybe every 3rd house or so that has a pumpkin out, but it's really fun for the kids to get to go around door to door. This time Sofia wanted to be Pipi Longstockings and Samuel...a pirate.

Sofia thought the entire idea behind trick-or-treating was completely fascinating. "You mean, I say, 'trick-or-treating' and then what?" "And then you put up your bag and they put candy in it." "They put candy in my bag because I say 'trick-or-treating?'" "Yep!" "Then can I eat the candy?" "Yep, then the candy's yours" "And I don't have to give it back?" "No, Sofia then it's yours and you can eat as much as you want tonight." :) Keep in mind, this is an especially novel idea since our kids usually don't get to eat candy...she just couldn't understand why we all of a sudden went door to door and got candy for free that we could eat! After the first door, she thought it was over and in her little innocent mind, she would've been totally satisfied. However, when I explained that we got to go to another house, she couldn't believe her luck! And then another one after that. At one point she said, "wow, I like this trick-or-treating, this is too much candy!!!"

Needless to say, they had their fair share that night. Saturday was Chris's birthday (the big 2-9) and in the afternoon we were invited over to farfar and farmor's for some more trick-or-treating. This time Sofia wanted to be an Indian and Samuel....a pirate :). (He sticks to what he likes). It was fun getting together with the cousins and seeing everyone dress up. Halloween is not very big at all over here, but it's slowly making it's way and it's fun for me to be able to give that to my kids and let them experience a bit of America clear over here in Sweden.