3 days of Halloween

This year, Halloween lands on a Sunday. Manila has found  way to spread the holiday (is it really a holiday?) over the span of 3 days.

FRIDAY
The village we live in had their Halloween parade in the park followed by trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. Since my dad's siblings all live in the same area (genius move by my grandparents to gift each of my uncles and aunts with a parcel of land near each other) we had a family merienda/dinner together. My cousin had her three kids there too and we all went around the village together. There were grand aunts and uncles who each came bearing pre-packed goodie bags, so the kids didn't have to walk all the way to their houses.

Hubby and Hero

Ty wore the fish hoodie I made for his Christmas show in his school last year. It finally fit well enough that his tail didn't drag on the ground. Hero was dressed in a ladybug dress handed down from her cousin in the states. I wanted both of them in homemade costumes, but she is a difficult one to measure and fit!

SATURDAY

We stayed home to rest all morning, anticipating a frenzied and nap-less afternoon at my friends daughter's birthday. The party was autumn harvest themed and the kids were asked to come in costumes. Ty begged to be in the Woody (from Toy Story) costume I'd made him. I was originally planning to have him in his store-bought train costume, but decided against it. My friend is a crafty mom, and I thought it would be nice to have him in a home made outfit. As the kids had lunch, I realized that Hero only had cowgirl pants and a plaid shirt as a costume. I was sure she wouldn't wear her hat, so I whipped out the glue gun and made her a vest. I think it came out very well.

With Tita Yen at Marion's party

After making the vest, I ran off to Landmark Department Store (5 minute walk from the house) to get a shadowbox for little Marion's present. I had been working on this sampler on and off for a few weeks and was finally happy with it. I got home, cut up a sheet of scrapbooking paper for the background and it was done. Phew.

I can't seem to rotate this...

The party was so much fun! They had old Charlie Brown cartoons playing on a big screen, coloring pages, and carnival games. I loved that there were fresh apples to snack on and a photobooth to goof around in. It was a simple, non-competitive, and not overly stimulating (for the kids) party. They played with soap bubbles, and danced with each other. There was a table of goodies (stickers, crayons, rubber ducks, and scratch-off leaves) that kept the kids entertained.

After the party ended at around 5:30, we headed over to another friend's house where he was hosting our church group's costume party. The house had been decked out in the creepiest decorations. There was a casket in the front yard, horror movies projected onto the living room wall, spiderwebs everywhere, and the entryway was illuminated by black light. I was worried that the kids would be scared but after the kid's room filled with orange and black balloons, they forgot all about the creepy stuff.

We didn't get to stay long because we were all tired. I miss partying like a single girl sometimes.

SUNDAY
Needless to say, we were exhausted the next morning. We lazed around for a while and hubby and I forgot we'd promised to have lunch at his brother's house in Alabang... and that we'd cook quesadillas. So we rushed off to the grocery while the yayas bathed and dressed the kids. We got the ingredients and headed home to pick up the kids. When we got home, one of the yays told me that the kids didn't have costumes for that afternoon's round of trick-or-treat.

It's really just a decorated apron.

So I grabbed my ever-faithful glue gun, all my felt and a few other things, and we headed off to Alabang. We got there a bit before 1 and I started making Hero's costume first. The simplest thing I could come up with was a flower pot. I wanted to make something feminine because she'd been mistaken for a boy so many times the day before.

I'd originally made plans to make Ty a cookie jar, but when he saw the red felt, he insisted on being a car. Not bad for 30 minutes of rushing, I think.

Since Alabang is such a gigantic village and the houses are pretty far apart, we hopped in my bro-in-law's van and picked houses where we knew the people, or less populated (with kids) areas. One of my BIL's neighbors is a movie producer so he usually gets props and decorated the front of his house witht hem. They had a big Alice in Wonderland setup this year.

Thi kids with their Achis (big sisters)

I loved the house with the 4 moms who were sipping wine as they gave bottles of soap bubbles to the kids with nicer costumes and Mentos to the kids without costumes. Hehe, my kids got bubbles. There was another house where the whole place had life-sized cutouts of horror movie baddies (Freddie, Jason, Chuckie and the Clown from It) peeking out from the bushes, and a huge "Bates Motel : vaccancy" sign over the garage. I wish I'd gotten a picture of it, it was obvious they'd put a lot of thought into it. There was a "We have candy, ring doorbell if you dare!" sign by the front gate.  We didn't dare.

So now the long Halloween weekend is over. Ty hasn't quite gotten used to the idea of Christmas coming up next. Hero is just happy she gets to wear her ladybug outfit whenever she wants.