Halloween

I was told that the French, at least here in Marseille, don't really celebrate Halloween. If you live in a neighborhood, sometimes there is trick-or-treating. Otherwise it's something more for young adults dressing up and going to bars...

The girls of course were sad not to trick-or-treat, so I promised them a little Halloween party (just the 4 of us!) We made Halloween cupcakes, decorated the walls with pictures of pumpkins and witches, and danced to the Monster Mash. So, imagine our surprise when around 6:00 our doorbell rings - and it's a group of 5 kids trick-or-treating! It was one of Alana's friends from school who lives in our complex, and it turns out they came to our apt since they knew Alana lived there. So of course the girls looked at me pleading...can WE go trick-or-treating, too?! Sure, why not! We had no costumes, so we quickly improvised with their ballet leotards and some jewelry. We're on the 8th floor, so I said we could go to a few floors in our building, then one other building....

BUT - apparently trick-or-treating does not usually happen here, those kids were the exception! Keep in mind most of the residents of our complex are older, retired folks. They were not exactly prepared for strange kids knocking at their doors! But it was a blast! We had a few older people who had no candy, but gave my kids BOXES of cookies! Another lady tried giving them 10 Euros, but I wouldn't let them take it. Another gave some coins. They came home with quite an odd collection! We really only knocked on a few doors, but it was a great way to meet our neighbors, and they just loved the girls! Oh, and of course did not have pumpkins for trick-or-treating, so we improvised with bread baskets. Yes, my kids went trick-or-treating with bread baskets...see Alexa's in the picture!