i am not sure why it is exactly that hosting halloween parties, and in particular hosting them at our house, has become such a tradition for our family. it may very well be my own doing; when i first moved to turkey halloween was barely known and certainly not very celebrated. turks, in general, can have trouble letting lose and often worry about appearances, so the concept of dressing up and acting silly, funny, or spooky is not necessarily an easy one to feel fully comfortable with. but as the popularity of halloween has grown, and as children have come to love it more and more, adults have gotten on the halloween train too! (after alegra’s friends had all gone home erim and i actually went to a grown-up party where costumes were required! i have to say, it was the perfect ending to day…)
the party at our house in the afternoon was a ton of fun! most of the girls came home with alegra so they were all able to get into costume together and even that was a lot of fun. we had a wonderful lady come to do makeup so we ended up with seriously spooky vampires, zombies, witches and ghosts… scary and spooky is very in with the third grade crowd although i am happy to say we also had a very cute cat, a bright orange pumpkin, and our very own youtuber (who by the way stayed in costume throughout the entire party- speaking and reacting the way the youtuber she was portraying might- i was very impressed).
no eksioglu party would be complete without some art activities, of course. treat bags decorated with sharpies for our trick-or-treating treasure hunt; pipe cleaner and plastic spider rings decorated with beads as a spooky accessory; and finally, tinker tray mini pumpkins. the girls loved the pumpkin decorating; especially when i told them they could use as much glitter glue as they wanted! luckily the weather was beautiful, so we were able to the arts and crafts outdoors, making me even more relaxed about the copious use of sticky glitter products!
after a quick meal of hot dog “fingers”, “pumpkin” tangerines, “ghost” bananas, and delicious cupcakes we were finally ready for the most exciting part of the party- the trick-or-treating treasure hunt!! erim, asya and alara came home just in time to help with this part which was lovely as the girls split up into four groups, witches, pumpkins, ghosts and zombies, and took off running to all corners of our compound. along with a good amount of candy, of course, the clues led them to some different themed treats like googly eye glasses, witches’ fingers and light-up skull yoyos! the final clue led the whole gang back to the house for some more trampoline time and a little bit of halloweeny tv.
as always, the moms who were able to join were a big part of the fun too. some came in costume, lots helped with the spooking, and those that could helped with the activities too. one mother’s costume was so complete that we hardly recognized her when she walked in the door!
although the girls and i are often sad to not have the chance to go trick-or-treating “american style”; i have to say that we have been lucky to find, at each stage, a community of friends who have been willing to go along with our shenanigans, get dressed up, act silly and spooky, and get into the carefree spirit of the day. even though every year i think this might be the last halloween party, each year the beginning of october finds me sitting down with a pen and paper and starting my halloween party planning. i think that if alegra ever feels as though she is too old for a party, i am likely to just go right ahead with an adult party…maybe even complete with adult appropriate arts and crafts activities! but for now, i am thrilled to have all the little ghosts and ghouls and cats and bats to entertain 🙂
a certain slant of light 