Halloween for everyone was a little different than normal this year, but it was especially so for our family.

While kids do dress up here in Italy, there isn’t trick-or-treating or big parties like how people celebrate in America. And finding a pumpkin? Forget it. We did manage to find two at completely different stores though, one of which cost 27 Euros. 😳 Definitely the most we have ever paid for a pumpkin but worth it to make this seem as close to the normal holiday as possible for our girls.

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Last Halloween, Eva had already decided on our group costume for this year: pirates! ☠ So we got everything ordered once we got to Italy. The 5 of us were pirates, my Mom was a pirate’s parrot and my Dad was Captain Hook’s croc.

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To replace the absence of trick-or-treating we had to get creative. So I made a treasure map that would direct Eva to various X marks the spots around the apartment where she would find buried pirate treasure.

Livvy can’t participate too much but we carried her around for as long as she could go. She also hates getting changed (she has lost most of her arm control the past few months) so getting her in and out of a costume is a challenge and she did not want to be in it for very long since it was a hotter fabric. But we made sure she still got some smiles in, and enjoyed a little chocolate candy too.

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Dave and Keira also got dressed up at the hospital, and the nurses and doctors loved it!

After the treasure hunt was over, Eva declared it the best Halloween ever! 🤗 And now, she is already working on our costume ideas for next year.

Happy Halloween from all of us to all of you! Hope it was a safe and happy one for everyone! 🎃💜☠