All Halloweened out!

I would have to say that Halloween is not one of my favorite times of the year. Here in Japan it is taking off as a theme for shops to sell decorations and for English schools to have parties! Yesterday was the party for the English school I work at - I forgot to take very many pictures.... it was fun, but by the end of it I was ready for bed. Unfortunately I had to get all my clown make off off (sorry not one photo to prove I was actually a clown....) and rush off to a friend's shop that was having a Halloween event where you could make Halloween flower arrangements for free before I could go home and flop. Only I couldn't actually flop because I had to make 40 cupcakes for another Halloween party that I had to partly organise for a friend today. More and more Japanese people are trying to have Halloween parties, but they are the first to admit that they have no idea what a Halloween party is. So I get called in as an "expert".... having never really celebrated it in New Zealand I have no idea what I am talking about, but I can look very confident when I am talking about things I have no idea about! Today's party was also fun, but far too long! I think it was about 4 hours in the end... it was supposed to be two and a half... Games, making "eco" bags, trick or treating, decorating cupcakes etc.
This year Emily spent a lot of time making her costume. We didn't need to buy anything to be the "fairy" that she wanted to be - just let out the armpits of the dress she wore as a 5 year old and used some coat hangers and some pantyhose to make the wings. Masaki also managed a magician's outfit, but no real photos with him in the full thing - he is definitely not a "dresser-upper"! After having Halloween lessons at school etc. for the last few weeks as well as these two parties I am definitely all Halloweened out.... Here's hoping October comes around slowly next year.