Thursday, October 31, 2013

Boo!




Last week Thursday we took the kids Trick or Treating. Yes, I do know that it is an entire week too early but there is a reason for it.  Halloween is not bit in Belgium, yet. But because there is an ever growing expat community things like Trick or Treating is growing. Plus, have you ever heard of a kid who didn’t like getting free candy.

So as far as I know some years ago a couple of American moms who all lived in a specific area decide to organize it for their kids. Other parents heard about it and it grew and grew. This year I heard that more than 200 kids took part.

It is super organized. In September you get an email reminding you that it is nearly that time of the year. 3 Weeks before the night you get another email with the link to enroll before the cut-off date.  There is an entry fee of 15 euro per child. Every child will then get a wrist band and you get a map of all the houses which will be taking part. The 15 euro is to pay the houses which are taking part for the candy and a percentage of the money also goes towards charity.

There are 3 entry points in the area and the streets are closed off and only kids with wrist bands are allowed in.  You can easily tell which houses are taking part since they all have orange balloons outside.  Some of them really make a lot of effort with their decorations.

There is also a free hot chocolate stand and this year there was a mini concert at the end of one of the streets. They had put up a stage and a couple of high school kids did a mini thriller dance show.

After wards Noreen and I took the kids to McDonalds for dinner and to swap out their sweets, cause Alannah wanted marshmallows and I told my kids that I wanted their reeses cups. (I love them but you only get them in a couple of stores here not to mention what they cost!)






Tonight we have a massive party planned at the pub.  I don’t expect them to close before 5 tomorrow morning … but the kids and I will be having a quiet evening at home watching scary movies.

Hope you have a super spooky Halloween!

6 comments:

  1. Wow, sounds like a lot of work to set up that trick-or-treating system - but I'm sure it's worth it! Sounds like it's super-well-organized!!

    Have fun watching scary movies tonight :) That will be a fun evening for you & the kids!

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  2. That's really neat that some of the moms got together to do that! Sounds like a lot of fun :D

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  3. That is so awesome......super glad you have a good group there to keep the Halloween spirit alive. Enjoy your movies!

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  4. Dang - that really is organized! Paying the parents for the candy and everything! I've never heard of anything like that, but it's genius for an area that otherwise wouldn't participate in the holiday. Lex didn't have much luck last night getting candy, but she had fun running around the neighborhoods in costume with her friends!

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  5. oh, I am so glad you guys got to go! so fun!! And are peanut butter cups your favorite??? They are here!! I will have to keep that in mind : )

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  6. I wish our neighborhoods were that organized! I love that you found out about this and can give your kids this experience. It really is fun!

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