Early Halloween

Benjamin's teacher asked me to come talk to the kids about Halloween, since I'm the token American. I agreed (still don't know how to say "no" to anyone, plus I feel like we need to "prove" that we aren't just blowing off school even though we are taking the boys out for 10 days to go to the US in November). We had to do it this week, since now the kids are on "All Saints' Day Vacation" until November 3rd. 

So Thursday, the boys helped me prepare by carving their pumpkins. (Or whatever the heck kind of squashes these are, some translation sites say "chestnut flavored pumpkin.") I went to two different grocery stores and the vegetable market, and didn't find anything better than these. Anyway, they were pretty small, but we managed.

Then yesterday, I dressed up as a witch to go talk to his class. I told them a little bit about the origins of Halloween, and we talked about costumes, and decorations, and games. I showed them some pictures of pumpkin patches, kids dressed up in costumes, and carved jack o'lanterns. Then I read them a Halloween story a friend sent us last year. 

And then we got to the best part - pumpkin cookies! 

Benjamin did NOT like my witch's hat. It had black and white hair attached to it, which he insisted I cut off, and he thought that was a *little* better. I painted my fingernails blue, and he did NOT care for that either. But he did finally warm up to the hat: 

And he was very pleased about me coming to his school... the evening before, we had this conversation in the car: 

Benjamin: I am very lucky, because my mommy knows ALL about Halloween. The other kids are not lucky. I am lucky times a thousand.
Me: Well, maybe their mommies know about other things I don't know about.
Benjamin, thinking: Christmas? Do you know about Christmas?
Me: Well, yes...
Benjamin: You know EVERYthing! 

Ahhhh I am going to savor that one for a long time! Maybe I should print it up and frame it, and just point it out to him when he gets to be a teenager.