Halloween 2008

My apologies for not updating the blog much lately. I bought my sister's iMac (which is a desktop) with the aim of learning how to edit DVDs and do all the fancy publishing stuff that a Mac can do - but of course I can't figure it out at all! I just downloaded over 150 photos, rotated them, organised them into folders, and then when I went to import them (as you'll see below) I couldn't access all the altered photos for some reason. So, please turn your heads sideways when looking at the photo of our little Cinderella. Also, these photos were supposed to be in the complete opposite order, so let me work backwards!

Halloween is a VERY big deal in the US. Apparently it is now the second most lucrative holiday, besides Christmas, in the retail sector. In fact, all over our posh little neck of the woods there were signs advertising professional Halloween lights and decorating services for your home. Needless to say, we didn't hire their services! We had spoken to Sydney for a few weeks about Halloween, how you Trick-or-Treat, pumpkins, etc - we even watched the new Ni-Hao Kai Lan special on Halloween; but honestly, we thought she would burst out crying and run in the other direction as soon as she saw the kids walking around in costumes. Boy were we wrong.

As you can see from the friendly witch above, she was LOVING it! And why shouldn't she - on at least five occasions she was told "Oh, you're so cute, have another piece of candy". And we only went to about 15-20 houses! Did they not realise that Mommy and Daddy were going to be eating most of it; not the cute little Cinderella! :) 

She had a great time. She marched up to the doors (or was carried), knocked on them and yelled out "Trick or Treat". She even said "thank you" each time. We actually went to a different neighbourhood to go trick-or-treating as we had been told that our street doesn't really get many people (and who can blame them, I wouldn't want to walk up our mountain if I didn't have to). It was total madness - kids everywhere, all the houses decorated, people dressed up to hand out the candy. Just wonderful.

Our little dinosaur-dragon-alligator even went along for the ride. He actually fell asleep in the car on the way (poor little guy) as it was 6pm and his bedtime. He woke up straight away though and by the fifth house was screaming in joy at all the sites and sounds. He even kept his hat on to complete the outfit. We had a good time.