Spooky, spooky! It's our first Halloween!

 

We had a fabulous time bringing little Z out for his first trick-or-treat at Taylor Street, Millbrae yesterday! The houses along this stretch were known to be kids-friendly at Halloween, and they were indeed nicely done up with lights, tombstones, cobwebs, witches and ghosts. Families were just sitting on their steps, distributing sweets to hordes of kids.

The atmosphere got better after 6.30pm, as the skies turned dark and older kids started to arrive. One of the houses erected a giant enclosed black tent on the front lawn (supposedly a haunted house), and loads of kids were heard screaming inside. I peeped in and saw skeletons and gory masks accentuated by green light. No wonder this stretch of road attracts so many kids at Halloween - applaud these folks for their efforts!

(Side track: Halfway through our Halloween walk, Mom called and asked what I was doing. I explained that I was with my friend, bringing her kid out to get candies. Mom asked if I told him the real meaning behind Halloween - that we shouldn't be celebrating ghosts/witches/evil souls. I said he is too young to understand but his mom will explain to him that there's nothing to be afraid of, since it's all fake! Judging by Z's reaction, however, he was indeed a little scared. On second thoughts, it was fun for us to watch little Z in his airplane suit, walking up timidly to get his treat. But I couldn't tell if he found it fun or frightening or confusing. Whoops.)

We retreated to Wendy's place for dinner, where we were joined by a drag queen KTV papasan, a Japanese soldier, a minecraft, and... a basketball player. Panda was so sad that we didn't consider him for the group photo. We rejected his basketball player costume, because that was what he wore yesterday to watch the warriors games! He was appealing to us the entire evening, saying he wore track pants and brought a basketball. But we happily grouped him with Wendy (carrot/pumpkin wannabe) and Lawrence (just home clothes). 

Oh! I forgot to mention that I was quite proud of myself, for throwing together the leopard costume at the last minute! I only decided to dress up around 4 plus, and barely had 45 minutes to get ready. Rummaged through the wardrobe for clothes, made felt ears and tail, put on make-up. All in less than an hour.

The effect was worth the effort. And worth having my hair hot glue-gunned to the felt accidentally, in my hurry to get the ears done. Talk about a craft mess! Jo and Wendy said I looked more like Aki Mat Yoyo from their childhood Malay programme. Oh well, they are cute too!

The day before we had a pumpkin carving session at Jo and Vic's place. They were the 'experts', having a grand total of one carving experience when none of us had any. So they taught us how to dig out the seeds, scrape the insides till it's smooth and 1-inch thin, and design the funny face before poking the knife in. It's fun but it's also hard work. I can't imagine kids doing this all alone! I had to hold the heavy pumpkin with one hand and wiggle the knife with the other. All the time I was thinking I might slash my wrist by accident, and we would have a really bloody Halloween. 

Fortunately, no humans or animals were hurt during the process, and we had decent looking Jack-O-Lanterns at the end of the day. Cutest award goes to Wendy's Mr. Potato/Pumpkin head!

So we accomplished much for our first Halloween event - carved pumpkin lanterns, dressed up in costumes, went for trick-or treat. As usual, I'm really thankful for the fun-loving friends around us.

Happy Halloween to us!