Halloween in the Highlands
If you ever want the full-blown, all-American Halloween experience, come to Atlanta! More specifically, come to the Virginia Highlands.
For weeks, we have been hearing from other parents that the Highlands is a great place to trick-or-treat. I’d say that’s an understatement! I’ve never been to a neighborhood that puts this much effort (or money!) into the decorations, costumes, and candy. People handing out candy seemed so enthusiastic about it that I felt almost guilty if our kids skipped a few houses here or there. Folks were waiting on their porches, many of them dressed up themselves. Jack-o-lanterns were far more than a simple carved face. We literally could have spent 3-4 hours and come home with bags and bags of candy. As it was, we spent about an hour at one-year-old pace and nearly filled up two entire plastic pumpkins with goodies. . . more than enough for our little trick-or-treaters!
For our family, Halloween festivities this month included visiting a pumpkin patch with Oma and Opa a few weekends ago, complete with hayride, inflatable haunted house, petting zoo, face painting, crazy maze, and a pumpkin patch. (Most of our pictures of this were taken with a different camera and aren’t available to me right now.)
Simona and I also did a little festive arts-and-crafts project of making ghosts to hang up in the kids’ room. I’m NOT usually the crafty, creative type, so this was a bit of me trying to stretch myself. We kept it simple and both had fun.
Grandma came to town for several days last week, so we made it to a local “fall festival,” which, though not necessarily Halloween-themed, was still fun. We also carved our pumpkin while she was here.
Simona’s class had a Halloween party on Friday, but tonight was the BIG night. We ate an early dinner and got all dressed up for trick-or-treating fun. The kids wore the costumes Grandma made for them last year, with Simona dressed as an orange and white horse and Andreas dressed as a jack-o-lantern. Simona requested that Caleb dress up as a cowboy to go along with her horse, and he graciously obliged.
As you can see, there were MOBS of families going door to door.
The decorations were intense.
Some houses even handed out “treats” for the (non-pregnant) grown-ups.
Andreas got into the spirit, learning a robust vocabulary of Happy Haween!, Good Light!, Thanks!, Trick-treat, and, at one house, even, “Got it!” after he grabbed a piece of candy. The most fascinating part to him was looking at all of the candles glowing inside the jack-o-lanterns. Simona liked the variety of decorations but was surprisingly shy in her interactions with the adults.
The kids have plenty of “loot” to keep them candy-saturated for some time to come. And Caleb and I have been given strict orders from Simona NOT to eat any of her candy, but to help ourselves to Andreas’s.
Definitely a Halloween to remember.
