Happy Halloween!

Hello and Happy Halloween everyone! What a fun few days we have had going to celebrations, dressing up and eating far too many sweets..

Samudra has been learning about Halloween at school for the past few weeks and has been singing about ghosts and goblins and asking every day if it’s Halloween or not yet, but I wasn’t really into the idea of it as it was never a tradition we celebrated in Australia. Last year was the first time in my life I had dressed up and did it just for the kids and it was so much fun… but this year was even more amazing!

I first read about the America Club 8 years ago when I arrived in Jakarta and remembered reading that you cannot enter unless you have a membership or know someone there, so I put it out of my mind and forgot it existed until it came to Halloween this year and I heard they were having a party last Saturday. WOW! The American Club sure knows how to throw an awesome party… there were decorations everywhere, costume parade competitions and everyone had gone to so much effort to dress up, Trunk or treat, where all the kids scored loads of lollies into their goodie bags from some amazing (and frightening) characters… and lastly the Haunted House, where Samudra screamed crying as soon as we entered so we had to run through the maze to get out as fast as possible and even I felt scared because he was absolutely terrified in there!

The next day we attended another fantastic fundraising party held by the amazing team and our good friends at Rachel House, who provide palliative care to sick kids throughout Jakarta. Their party was at Up In Smoke in Kuningan and included a delicious lunch and lots of games and activities for kids – Samudra ended up with yet another full goodie bag of lollies, a photo, Halloween cupcake and hat he had decorated in the craft corner. A fantastic party and we both had a great time there celebrating for an amazing cause.

Today being Halloween, Samudra’s school held more celebrations and all the kids looked adorable. This year they asked parents to make home made costumes so I gave that task to Putra and Samudra so they could have a project together. They made a dinosaur costume out of cardboard and sticky tape, which I later modified and painted with Samudra and after alot of initial drama, he actually loved wearing it to school today! The older kids put on a play they had written about the meaning of Halloween, they had a home made costume competition and more trick or treat..

So with full bellies and wide smiles, we would like to wish you all a Happy Halloween for another year and thanks Jakarta for more fun adventures and places to explore.. and a huge Halloween Birthday shout out to my little bro Dan! Hope you’re having a spooktacular day celebrating – we miss you!