Halloween

 

Happy Halloween!  Our first major holiday here in Beijing.  We have nothing of our own here yet, so I of course resorted to Taobao for everything Halloween!  I bought door decorations and costumes. Everything worked out well except Savannah's Sherlock Holmes hat was too small for her head (no surprise there because everything is small here in China and she can't even wear some of my baseball caps that fit me perfectly--she inherited dad's head size ;) ), and Bri's coat was too small.  But we just gave the light colored "fur" coat to Thomas and then ordered a different color and bigger size for Bri so they could both be the ridiculous Zoolander movie models.  We joked with Savannah that we should have just had her dress up like Napolean and wear her head side ways.

 

The day before Halloween, the embassy sponsored a Halloween party.  I knew my kids would now be the "older" kids, with not a lot of friends there their age.  But they wanted to go.  On our way out, Sally, our Ayi, gave us a Halloween box of candy.  So sweet and unexpected!

 

We caught the bus as a family for our first time together to get to the embassy.  We did get some looks on the bus from the locals, haha.Thomas and Savannah played the part of their costumes with Sherlock trying to stay discrete and Thomas modeling. :)

 

The kids got some candy and we enjoyed looking at all of the fun costumes.  Rhea ran around in her Little Red Riding Hood costume with some of the younger kids while T & S walked around a little bit before they decided to rent bikes and head home.  Nice that they're old enough that they can do that!Katie, a friend of Gordon and Katrina's in Sweden, has become a new friend of ours.  Her kids ran around with Henry & Charlotte in Sweden.  Small world in the Foreign Service! 

We also ran into the Baileys and little Gorilla Gordon along with a few of the Christensens. 

Bri and I walked enjoyed a walk home with Rhea.  Eating candy along the way of course.

The next day, on Halloween, Bri's jacket arrived with Savannah's hat.  Phew, just in time!  I walked in the front door to find Bri posing in his new gear, lol.  

We went to the dirt market for a few hours, and then returned home to get ready for trick or treating around our apartment complex and then to River Garden in Shunyi for the YW/YM church party.  I ordered Halloween candy a month ago, and it still hasn't shown up yet, so we had to buy some local candy to contribute to the trick or treating. 

Bryce and Drake C. along with Joseph B. who I didn't even recognize.

 

Here's the whole clan of youth that showed up for the YM/YW party!  27 kids and about 10 leaders!

Sister McOmber generously created a zillion fun minute to win-it games!  They lasted about 2 hours after she fed the kids soups and snacks.  She divided the kids into four teams and they played bowling with pumpkins, picking marshmallows up with chopsticks, loading cheerios onto a chopstick, eating donuts suspended on a string without hands, putting Oreos on your forehead and trying to get them into your mouth without your hands, mummy wrapping a person without breaking the toilet paper, loading dice onto a chopstick without them falling off, stacking cups, trying to get ping pong balls out of a kleenex box wrapped to your backside, carrying ping pong balls on a spoon with your mouth, etc.  She was amazing to come up with the supplies for all of these games!  The kids had a ball with the activities and being together! 

Rhea and Sister McOmber

 

 

 

Maya, Otto, & Brother Sevy

 

We felt lucky to have King George III from the Broadway play "Hamilton" come to our party. ;)

The party ended at 10:30pm, so by the time we got home and got to bed, it was 12am.  A long day of fun!  We're so grateful for the embassy community, apartment complex community, and our church community.  Especially that the kids have friends from church with whom they share similar values and goals.  We were alone in Angola, and only one of three families in Latvia, so this is a wonderful time to be here in Beijing with the kids in high school and friends to see every week at church.  We just have to figure out a way to get them together more often.  The next activity will be smore's around a campfire with games in Shunyi.  Those of us here in the city will have to figure out an activity for December I think!