Halloween

With all the parties and fun occasions leading up to this day, I've almost forgotten to post the pictures from Halloween!  Actually, with all the fun of the day, I never actually took a picture of the kids in costume on Halloween, so here's one from the previous Saturday night!

Halloween was on a Monday this year, which meant school for all during the day (boo).  But our friend, Lisa, had the brilliant idea to have all the fun games we had planned for the rained-out Okinawa OktoberFest in the afternoon between the end of school and trick-or-treating.  So around 4:00 the festivities began.  We started with "pumpkin junkin" - decorating small pumpkins with all kinds of "junk" from around the house.  A fun way for kids to decorate a pumpkin without getting too messy!

Then we had the "bobbing for goya" - remember these games were based on an Okinawan twist to a traditional fall fest and goya is a totally Okinawan vegetable!  Emmy and London quickly became masters of this game.

Sam trying for a goya.

Got one!

Then there was the "Neko Hog Tie".  Our neighbors, Krimp and Dima, have a lovable, albeit spastic, chocolate lab named Neko (which, ironically, means cat in Japanese).  The game was to "release" Neko with his squeaky ball and have the kids chase him down.  Neko proved to be particularly adept at keeping the kids away!

Neko in costume!

Go get him!

Guess who won?  Emmy!

Finally we had the "sushi roll" - teams competed to roll one partner in a piece of astroturf and then roll them down a short hill.  The kids loved this game and could have played it all night.

Even Krimp had to have a turn!

Wrapping Krimp

Positioning the sushi roll...

And rolling her!

Finally, it was time to go in, put on costumes, have some dinner and prepare for trick-or-treating.  Stevie stayed home to pass out candy while I took the kids around.  We were only gone for an hour but managed to wrestle up 15 pounds of candy!!!!  Holy cow!

Trick or treat!

Heading home with the stash of candy.

When I came back, Stevie and some other neighbors were sitting outside enjoying the evening while passing out candy.  They came up with a brilliant plan for the older kids who came around (you know the ones - no costume and a pillow case...) - they made them sing for their candy!!!  Oh, how I would have liked to have seen that!

Spencer, Suzy, Sydney and Shawn - aka Goldilocks and the three bears

Chris as a "lawn ninja" (this is the way people dress when they do yardwork!)

Baby Zack as a sushi roll.

Happy Halloween!