Catching Up: Halloween

Celebrating Halloween was a bit different this year in that we had no one else to celebrate with, not because of Covid, but because we're the only Americans here right now.  Kenyans don't celebrate Halloween, so it was just our family trying to mark the occasion.  The boys really wanted to celebrate and had been talking about it for weeks.  So we did the best we could to make it a fun and special day.

First off: donuts!  I usually make raised donuts, but these cinnamon sugar donuts were baked and soooo delicious.  And they were way easier to make.  We will definitely be doing these again sometime!

Next up: pumpkin carving.  I had to plan ahead to get orange pumpkins because we can only get green pumpkins here.  We picked these up in Nairobi awhile ago and saved them for Halloween day.  The small size kept the mess to a minimum, plus they all fit onto our kitchen counter that way.

On a side note, we had Chogoria's resident black cat around all day.  He's actually been around constantly since the last Americans left (who were the only ones to give him much attention).  Now that they're gone, he's latched onto us.  He's a really nice cat and has always been around the compound, and we kinda keep an eye on him now.  Everyone calls him Usiku, which is the Swahili word for "night" and it felt appropriate to have him milling around on Halloween!

Finally, the most important part of the day: costumes!  We gotta get real creative over here, so this is what we came up with.  Two dragons and a werewolf.

a night fury 

(from How to Train Your Dragon)

a nadder head 

(also from How to Train Your Dragon)

a werewolf

I came up with a couple relay races on the spot, just to give a festive tone to the afternoon.  They thought it was great.  I mean, who doesn't love a relay race?

And then we got really really creative and did trick-or-treating in the house.  We had four doors that we could use as "houses" and the boys shuffled back and forth between them, where Eli and I were waiting with candy.  And by golly, they loved it!  Eli and I wore various superhero masks as the boys came trick-or-treating and they thought it was hilarious that we had on a different mask each time.  I love these ages when they are so easily satisfied with such simple fun!

And we finished the night with a viewing of the Wild Kratts Halloween episode.  It was a great day overall and we definitely made some memories!