Halloween in the Alps

J, the kiddos and I spent a long weekend in Garmisch, which is near the Austrian border in Bavaria. The kiddos trick-or-treated at the base of the snow-capped Alps and enjoyed themselves immensely.

However, prior to road tripping to Bavaria, J and I participated in the Halloween festivities at the kiddos' schools.

Littlest's class hosted a Harvest Party, and children were invited to don a costume that could easily be worn over clothing. Since Littlest asked to be a mummy this year, we opted to use a princess dress out of our dress up bin as we'd only enough gauze for one wrapping. Incidentally, Littlest chose Belle's gown that Grandma made for Bop to wear to the Broadway Production of 'Beauty and The Beast' in New York several years ago.

At the Harvest Party, Littlest painted a pumpkin and gave it a most generous dusting of pink glitter; played pumpkin-themed carnival style games including pin the tail on the cat, a pumpkin roll, pumpkin ring toss, and a candy dig in a pile of hay; ate special halloween cupcakes (Unfortunately, the mothers who were present were given cupcakes with black icing that dyed our teeth a shade that made it appear as though the teeth were rotten. The stain remained on my teeth for several hours afterward. Much like the armadillo cake in Steel Magnolias, I found myself wondering over and over again how one makes black icing); and sat as several autumn themed stories were read. She left school with a hefty bag of treats.

Littlest with several of her preschool friends all of whom were Princesses or Ballerinas.

Logan didn't fare quite as well as Littlest in the candy department as his teacher arranged an afternoon of science projects centered on the pumpkin in lieu of a party. J and I volunteered to man a station to insure that Log did not inadvertently come into contact with a cut pumpkin. Each student was given a packet to carry from station to station in which they wrote their hypotheses surrounding the weight of a pumpkin, the rings on a pumpkin, its circumference, the number of seeds one could extract in a handful of pulp, and the density of the pumpkin. Log really enjoyed having both J and I present, and we were able to meet all of his school friends.

Like Log, Bop did not have a class party. Instead, she was given the assignment to create a monster and give a presentation that included its name, favorite food and experience in frightening children. Having found a craft book in the school's library, Bop and I settled on a vampire craft which incorporated two soap dispensers with the liquid dyed red, a black lawn bag cape, a paper plate face and ribbon. Having dyed the soap red which proved somewhat difficult to the soap's viscosity, the two dispensers were placed side by side, pump nuzzles facing the same direction, and bound a rubber band. We then tied the 'cape' around the neck of the dispensers and looped an orange polka dotted ribbon around the 'neck.' We cut the inner portion of a paper plate out of the rim and pressed it firmly against the dispenser nozzles causing the nozzles to pass through the styrofoam: makeshift fangs! Bop drew the perfunctory vampire face onto the paper plate, and Count Falkenstein (the name she chose) was born. His favorite food was blood oranges, if you wanted to know. Her classmates voted her project the best as she was able to conceal her hand behind the large paper plate face and depress the dispenser nozzles causing the red liquid to ooze through his 'fangs.' Bop gave her presentation wearing a cape Grandma made.

We trick or treated under a spooky full moon!

I lost the 'costume theme' battle this year, and the kiddos exerted their own taste: Log was a clone trooper (I mistakenly referred to him as a storm trooper and he was quick to correct me, but I have no idea as to the difference between the two), Bop was a witch as the zipper busted on her astronaut costume (I have no aptitude in the zipper repair department), and Littlest was a mummy.

Littlest's costume may be hard to judge by the pictures below, so I'll give the back story. Two months ago, Littlest declared that she wanted to be a mummy spurred on by our having rented a History Channel produced movie on Egypt from the library. While J was in the States on business, I asked him to purchase rolls of gauze for the costume, which he did. Unfortunately, he underestimated the amount of gauze needed, and Littlest ended up with scant wrappings.

J began wrapping her about the ankles and soon discovered that her torso would be badly wrapped. Unable to start again as he stapled the ends of the gauze together (we forgot to bring safety pins on our trip), he improvised and was able to wrap her torso several times and looped one length of gauze about her head. She was delighted with the results, but J and I knew that her homespun costume was pitiful at best and indiscernible at worst. Thankfully, she walked stiffly with arms outstretched which seemed to tip some people off as to what she was meant to be.

Wanting to trick or treat with her most favorite doll, who she'd dressed in a cheerleading outfit, Littlest looped some of her gauze around the doll's neck. I'm not sure if anyone knew what in the world she was supposed to be what with a doll swinging about her mid-section by a gauze rope, and many people looked at her quizzically. No matter, though, as the kids had fun going door to door begging for candy (mostly of the gummy variety). One home offered shots of liquor to the parents!