Post-Halloween

Same night, the children were excited over the bucket of sweets.

As I go through the sweets, I realize alot of the sweets can't be found here. So... they went to the extent of shipping it in?
When they both poured out the sweets from their container, I see a huge difference in quantity between two. I asked Athena how can she get more sweets when they both went to the same number of houses. When pried further if she took some from mei-mei; she gave me a smile - no wonder she was so helpful!!

Showered the kids and they both went to bed - immediately without any complaints.

I quickly went down to wash my car...so worried it'd collect spiders for Halloween.

Halloween

Halloween. I am far more excited than the children - I think! Finally I get to participate in one Halloween TT-ing after I was so close to doing it in the US 3 years ago.

I bought the costumes for the children early this month. And was contemplating if I should get one for myself. I don't mind spending the $$ on kids but if it's on me and I only get to wear it once I will consider. But I did think perhaps I should add in a little humour in my "costume" - which depicts me - THE DEVIL - with horns on my head; probably wear my red dress (if still fits and I don't end up looking like a slaughtered bloodied pig); and instead of the fork, I'd bring out the cane. *think think think*

And so.. it was only me daydreaming all the time, I didn't do anything until I had to do an emergency pop-by on Thursday after Ros's class to get Aricia another hat. MH came in her funkiest hairdo which I didn't ask her where she did her hair but... the salon must have high ceiling and where the hairstylist sits on the ladder. She told me there's a blue coloured hairdo as well, when I saw it - I realised it isn't as nice as MH's and moreover it was a male Elvis-lookalike hairdo.
I couldn't find what I wanted (of course lah! Last minute shopping) so ended up being a neko - cat. A big fat gluttony cat.

Athena chose this herself which sells only the hat and cape. In the picture it suggests wearing a full piece attire with stockings but I didn't follow coz' I didn't want to bring a complainy and whiny kid with me ("mummy... very itchy, very hot, not comfortable") . So in the weeks that follow, I thought a simple black top & bottom would be fine. But.... she don't have black clothes so had to get her some clothes. Her cheapest costume @ less than $20 then became the most expensive one.

I was spoilt for choice for my lil' Aricia. I wanted everything there. Pumpkin; spider; fairy. In the end, I chose this. It's for 12-18mths but I'm glad my girl is small-size, she can wear it. Only thing is she feels a little tight coz' she's tall for the costume. And she looks so pretty - a pretty witch!!

Fooling around with the witch hat I bought for Aricia

As for myself, I'm not a devil anymore but a cat. Read this, I'm a big black cat bringing two witches for tt-ing.
The children before the "begging for sweets" starts
When you get 4 people mad about snapping photos.. this is a must-take!
As we started off....the children
For the first few households, we were within minutes of each other. Then subsequently, MH and D were ahead of us (yah lah! they have co-operative kids. We have barbaric kids keep walking away from us. And mind you, alot of people say "you need 3 adults to 2 children", now between mom & me - we are 3 children to 2 adults. And worst still, when you have 2 young active kids. I was tired out!) - they probably covered more houses than we did.
Oh! The funny thing, in the earlier part - I caught in my video camera MH's hubby, D kept 'touching' his teeth. I think he had a toothache from all the biting & sucking (never brush teeth after his meals somemore!) blood.

I like to see lil' Aricia's expression after she gets her candies. She smiles..
First 2 houses, she was a lil' blur. But she finally got the idea that she needed to get some sweets. So what she did thereafter was to bring the bucket to the table for the host to fill up. Drop one sweet - still refuse to take bucket away. In this photo, she was tilting the bowl towards her so that she can help herself to it. And noticed alot of times to, she'd go next to the host. Sometimes she'll stretch out her palm as well. Cute!




Bringing up her bucket - boy! I can't even see her face here!
Some houses were simply decorated, 1 or 2 houses went to the extent. One house in particular had an ugly old witch sitting there and giving out candies. Played some hilarious Halloween music in the background. My lil' girl and Iggy were frightened.
It's a pity, you get to see illuminated decorations in the night but it just don't turn out nice on photos.





Some photos of the cute costumes. There were many more - a man in the Incredibles suit. A lady as Dorothy (Wizard of Oz), a fat Sumo girl, Ketchup & Mustard (when I asked them about Chilli, their reply was "not here") I wish I can go on snapping but I can't. I need to supervise the kids; I need to nag and shout at them. They don't have to wait till dark to hear ghosts calling - my nagging already sound like one!!











Aricia finally carried her black cat. This black cat was given to Athena by Dr Lori (from Ohio) in the autumn of 2005. Perfect combination with Aricia's dress.
This cat shakes her head. I am amazed that despite the economic down turn, some would still go to the extent of doing such decorations. But treats, I was told, are given sparingly unlike the previous years. Look at this photo-opportunity house!! Another house - a ugly witch was giving out candies..
In another house, I thought I saw some interesting props; thinking they're coffins and went in aiming my camera. To my laughter, I realise they were boxes - boxes that probably contained sweets. Haha! Noody noticed this crazy woman with the camera anyway.
We were tired, needed a break. Thanks to Aaron, he had some cold drinks and bread. So we took a break at a front of a vacant house. We rested and children came up "trick or treat". Oh my! We hate to disappoint them... but whatever gave them the ideas we were permanently there. I told A, we probably looked like some lost souls. Hmm... next year, better to bring some sweets to give out.

One caucasian took photos of Aricia on 3 different occasions. Once he took while I was changing her diapers, candid shots. I told him "she's going to be our future Miss Universe please don't tarnish her reputation". He smiled and I wondered if he caught the joke. He was walking around and snapping photos. At that time, I wish I have a SLR After that, 2 other strangers stopped by for photos with her.
In the evening too, she threw tantrum and was sitting in the middle of the road!!! And I was so afraid that people will trample on her.

Next year, I'm going to ask KZ to go with me so that I can take more photos.

Halloween 'treats'

Packed up the treats a week before.. 22nd October (to be exact) - very early (hee!)

Treats for Athena's YJC friends

Treats for Aricia's friends in Ros SchoolHouse & their siblings (suppose to give C's sister, A but another young girl, K was there - so I gave it to K instead)

Treats for Aricia's friends in Shichida

All bagged up with dates written on it to remind myself.
Notice I didn't pack anything for Athena's LCCC classmates - too many children

And how can I ever forget my own children ??

It's time for me to tricking (tricking the children to love me more) and treating (in a kind way) the children.

Happy Halloween to all!!