//Living// 2012 Halloween!

 Being their second Halloween here in Canada, the kids now have a very clear idea of what to expect. In fact they've been looking forward to Halloween right after the one last year! I was answering them "How long till Halloween? Well, 11 months." That's how much anticipation there was.

This photo was taken at the school's annual Halloween Howl. Elementary kids don't really do "dances", so this once a year night out and dress up event at the school really gets everyone to make their best effort.

We began our Halloween-making on a weekend in early October. We started by doing a cut-and-paste piece for the little window besides our front door. I knew when we moved in that I won't make a custom blind for that window, that was where we would be making our seasonal creations! The little piece looked cute from the outside, and with the lights casting in, looked pretty neat from the inside too!

Of course we won't skip making a LEGO decoration piece. See those spooky eyes peeking from behind? 

Then of course there was the pumpkin patch. We did the famous Richmond pumpkin patch last year, and that was good enough for me. Essentially it was the pumpking that mattered, I wasn't about to fight in the mud with the weather being even wetter than last year. Got our pumpkin picked in 3 minutes in West Vancouver! Although it wasn't until the day before Halloween I realized that we didn't even carve them! Well I've made quite an effort at this year's Halloween too, so I think we're good with leaving them uncarved and sitting on the porch looking orangy and autumn-y. 

What's Halloween without a costume? Kai-Chi's got her Cinderella dress since she was about 2, and finally this year she can fit into them without appearing like she's in a large bag, so that's that. We had a much longer discussion with Kai-Yu about what he could be.

We didn't like any of the cheap costumes at the stores and I sure wasn't going to spend a fortune on something that was probably going to be worn only once. So I quickly scanned through the house to see what material we could possibly utilize to make his costume, and BINGO! "Kai-Yu, how would you like to be a robot?" "Certainly!" Out with the IKEA dining chair boxes I saved, and on with our robot-making project.

After cutting the box in half and carving some holes in them, the costume was basically done. The painting and decorating was a piece of cake. Oh how I love making something so simple yet creates a great effect!

The robot looks so funny! But our son is the fun guy to everyone, so he really enjoyed being in the costume! And he's always in character when he's in it. Can't get anything from him except  some "beep's" and "boink's".

Definitely the most eye-catching costume at school this year, he really deserved this trophy. The first one he's ever got too!

 Of course our little princess played her part so well too. All her natural grace and ballet training came into place. Such a precious little darling!

At the after school Tae Kwon Do class, everyone was allowed to wear their costume. Kai-Yu was a little upset because he knew he couldn't really kick and punch as a robot, so I whipped out my face painting crayons and transformed him into a zombie in 3 minutes. Then he was very much a zombie doing TKD. What a cute kid.

Whatever we did to decorate our house was nothing compare to some very devoted Halloweeners and their homes. I was not about to put creepy ghost figures and skeletons at my door step, but I did find these whimsical wall decals at the Chinese supermarket. These are probably generic Halloween stuff, but they looked so oriental, like the window paper art we do for Chinese New Year! I doubt they picked it out because they found it looking oriental, but it worked perfect!

Can't conclude a Halloween without trick-or-treating. The rain was definitely not in our favor, but luckily we've moved to a neighborhood consists of townhouses, so we scored what we needed in less than 20 minutes! The kids were very content with a small bag of goodies.

Halloween sure is something that gets the parents to work like crazy. I can just hear them asking me in a couple of days, "Mom, how long 'til the next Halloween?"