Happy Halloween!!!

Craig did the girls make-up this time! He did a better job than me!


For Halloween we went to the most amazing party hostessed by my friend Lucy. She has a beautiful 3 story home in Echo Park. Our group was mostly Waldorf home schoolers so we planned some pretty fun stuff! It started with a DELICIOUS pot luck. My favorite was a thai dish that was squash (Kombucha and Castillo?) in a coconut curry sauce over jasmine rice. Wow. There were enchiladas, chili, salad and much more.

The kids hardly wanted to eat because they just wanted to play and jump on the trampoline! This house is amazing with two levels of backyard.

Lucy planned a very detailed itinerary for the party. After eating, we had a little circle time where we sang some songs and recited some Halloween verses that we all use in our curriculum. Then we went inside and I told a very simple explanation of what "Dia de los Muertos" is.

I had put together a simple altar (on Lucy's beautiful mirrored table) with pictures of loved ones who have passed on, papel picado, a sugar skull, marigolds (cempasuchil) and candles. I talked about how the day is a celebration of life and remembering those we love.

Next, Elizabeth told a story about a witch and the spell she would recite as she stirred her brew.

Then we went all the way down to the lower part of the yard and sang "The 12 hours of Halloween" to the tune of "The 12 days of Christmas."


Then our treasure hunt began. The kids had their bags and we handed them each a treat. Lucy had planned a different verse or little story and a treat for different places all around her house. The next place was when the "La Diabla" threw candy to the kids off the balcony. I'm not sure where each place was because I had to station myself up in the attic to hand out my little cellophane-wrapped sugar skulls. But there were 2 or 3 treats in different rooms in between. The last treasure was my FAVORITE! Cute little baby gnomes in little seed pods that Claudia made. The girls LOVE them.

So after the treasure hunt, all the dads took the kids trick or treating while us moms rested from our hard work.  It was really nice.  Thankfully, they only did about 10 houses.  

Then us adults hung out while the kids played and we ended up staying until almost midnight!!

My girls had such a wonderful time. The kids made up a silly play and came down and performed it for us.

When we got home, we left out all our candy that hadn't been eaten for the candy fairy.  This morning we found a new game called "Fairy Finds" on our doorstep!