Hallowe'en is officially my favorite!

So, I have been tinkering with the idea for the past month or so that Halloween might in fact be my favorite Holiday. The fireworks all month long might have helped to boost the tally towards Halloween, but last night definitely confirmed it. Halloween, is my most favorite holiday. I don't think a year will pass that I won't wish to be back in Belfast on Halloween... Maybe when I am 80 and the love of fancy dress has passed, but until then...

This week is half-term at all the schools, so all the kids are out, running amuck! The kids on the street have rung our bell more times than I can even count. The week has been better than I anticipated. I was afraid of being bored, not having my schools projects to attend. It has been nice to have the roomies home more, and also Halloween was a good time consumer! Alison and I had a great time making our 'fancy dress' on Monday. Through Fortwilliam and Macrory, I have a membership to the Play Resource Centre here, that goes to get all kinds of scraps from all the industry in Belfast. All kinds of creative craft materials are available for free to members, from silver cardstock to yarn, fabric, etc. Alison and I both made our costumes for free, costing us only the time and energy to walk to Play Resource. How amazing. Most of the fancy dress here is store bought, so it was fun to have an original costume. Lauren was a black eyed pea, an idea from my mum. We had a great Halloween day, I worked at Newington in the morning, then hung out that afternoon getting ready for the evening. I must confess, I saw the clock every hour Monday night, as I couldn't sleep because I was excited about Halloween! Oh, I still have some little kid tendencies! Haha.

We got all dressed, gave out a tiny bit of chocolate to our two sets of trick-or-treaters, all kids from the street whom we know, then headed down to the city centre for the city sponsored events. We were the only people dressed up on the bus to city centre and the crowd kinda laughed as we got on, I am sure we looked pretty funny. As we stood waiting for the bus, we saw fireworks in three different places right above us, and many more in the distance. It was a constant pop of fireworks across the city all night. It was amazing! As I sit writing this, someone in North Belfast must have some left over, I can hear them, but sadly can't see them. The car park where the events took place was packed with people, many not dressed up. It was kinda sad to see so many people not celebrating, especially the kids. You better believe my kids will have amazing costumes until they go to university. haha. The best part about the event was the range of age there. There were adorable babies, high schoolers, families, and old people. I think that you can call your city-wide event a success when all parts of the community are involved and feel welcomed.

We saw crazy fire dancers and jugglers and tons of people on stilts. It was pretty sweet. There was a band playing on a stage, who honestly were not very good. Belfast should have gotten someone more well known or who played popular songs. It would have been more fun for all. The fireworks were amazing, lasting 25 minutes. I was freezing in just my leggings, but it was worth it. There was even a new kinda firework that I have never seen before. It make a huge sparkle in a circle shape, like looking at a chandelier with lots of little lights! They were amazing and needless to say, my favorite.

Alison and I then went on to the Limelight bar to meet up with a friend of hers from her community project. We waited in the que for a long time and had the pleasure of fireworks to entertain us. The costumes at the Limelight were so entertaining, though still most were store bought. We found a Where's Waldo, who here is Where's Willy. And I met a group of superhero's who were all friends from University. We had a good time hanging out with them, dancing, and watching Neil swordfight with his light-saver (he was a Jedi) any time he was challenged or could challenge anyone with a sword (or sword like object). It was good craic and I wish every night could be like Halloween! I hope yours was just as festive, although I know you're jealous that you didn't seem millions of fireworks!

There are more pictures on Webshots, and yes, I am wearing pants outside of my trousers!
xoxo