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Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Halloween in Turkey

Last night we went to a pumpkin carving party hosted by some of our friends. We had a great time! It was fun for the kids to participate in an American tradition here in Turkey. It was the first time for Jacob and Anna Grace to ever carve a pumpkin!

We do have pumpkins here but they are these greenish-gray kind.

Short, squatty, and very bumpy.

Our friends bought 30 pumpkins from the base commissary for us to carve. They were actual American orange pumpkins!


Anna Grace shows off her goopy hands after cleaning out the inside of her pumpkin!


Will watches as pumpkins are carved.


Erica and her friend look to be quite grossed out by the messiness of it all!


Jacob and a friend punch out a pirate ship pattern onto their pumpkin.


Brian takes a turn trying to make something that resembles a pirate ship after the boys give up.


Jacob and AG showing off their masterpieces.


About half of the kids who were there! I think there were 22 total!


The pumpkins made quite a show lined up on the driveway!


Will and friends made their pumpkin vomiting.


Erica and friend made a haunted house.


AG and friend made a ghostly face.


Jacob and friend (with quite a bit of help from Brian) made a pirate ship.

We also had a yummy dinner of lasagna, salad, green beans, and garlic bread. There was a pumpkin roll, chocolate cake, and chocolate chip cookies.

After dinner the kids all got to pick a prize for all their hard pumpkin carving work. Will chose a box of Frankenberry cereal. Jacob chose a big bag of chocolate and vanilla marshmallows. Anna Grace chose a package of chocolate chip cookie mix with cookie cutters. Erica chose some Halloween themed cups. A great time was had by all.


Oh...and yep...I took a picture of the inside of their extra refrigerator. I think the kids loved the American sodas just as much as the pumpkin carving!

14 comments:

Domestic Goddess said...

Now THAT looks like fun. Those are some cute pumpkins!
Heck, I'm impressed by all that soda!

Anonymous said...

Cool!

We saw pumpkins like those at the pumpkin patch here in Texas, but I can't remember what they called them. They sort of look like the "Fairy Tale" pumpkin we have, except ours looks more brownish.

Great pictures! Glad you all had some fun!

Anonymous said...

That looks like such a fun time! Every kid should experience the sensations that pumpkin carving brings! Pretty soon all those American sodas will be mundane but fun for now for them to be so exotic.

Mamadallama

Memarie Lane said...

i think those green ones are kinda cool.

Sra said...

Fun! When I was in my high school band, we would all carve pumpkins every Halloween, and then line the stage with them for our Halloween concert. It was great fun!

Anonymous said...

How fun!

LiteralDan said...

Has anyone told the Turks their pumpkins are inside-out??

As for the orange pumpkins, our carvings are way better than anything I've ever boringly made.

Anonymous said...

That's funny. :-) We have an extra fridge and that's almost exactly what it looks like! Full of sodas!

Anonymous said...

i just love jack-o-lanterns! you sure do seem to have lots of yummy meals....

Anonymous said...

You guys seem to be alternating between savoring the Turkish culture while you can and readying yourself for home. That's pretty cool.

Rhonda said...

What a great treat for the kids. Our best friends just left to live in France and they live for the times they get to go to the American Base and bring back DIET COKE! Haha.

Lost In Splendor said...

Their pumpkins aren't bright orange? That seems so strange to me. Those pumpkins look awesome though. That is a tradition I didn't get to take part of this year. I love all the photos!

Brian said...

Lasagna and pumpkin carving! Sweet! I didn't get any pumpkins this year... :(

Natalie said...

domestic goddess - it was a blast! i love those times of community here. i love the soda too!

charlie girl - thanks. it was lots of fun.

mamadallama - it was fun. i am glad the kids got to do it this year. nice introduction into american culture!

memarie lane - they are pretty cool. thankfully we can buy them already cut up so if i want pumpkin for anything i can just buy pieces.

sra - i loved how they all looked lined up like that. i'm sure your concerts looked awesome!

reluctant housewife - yep, it was!

literaldan - i'm not sure. i'll tell them you said so. some of the kids were so creative!

supersmartkooger - i know! we had one like that in america, too!

friyet - we do have a lot of yummy meals. i can't wait to get back to america and have some of their yummy food!

citizen of the world - yep...that is what we are doing!

rhonda - it was a great treat for the kids! they all loved the root beer and dr. pepper!

sparkliesunshine - i know. strange, huh! i had no idea there were pumpkins that looked like that until we moved here!

brian - the lasagna was way better smelling than the pumpkins!

lynn - hi!