halloween

 I know I said I was going to be good about blogging, but then we moved to an even smaller apartment...the good part is that it saves us $2000 a month in rent, the bad part is that there is a sheer curtain between us and the girls so I just sit quietly in the dark during their naps and in the evenings- it's pretty hard to do normal things like watch TV or get on a bright computer. But I decided I should dedicate an hour or so to recording my thoughts on being out here and organize photos. So here I am, newly resolved to blog yet again and sitting on a pillow on the floor of our "kitchen" where bright lights are allowed. Halloween is the only time-sensitive event that I feel needs to be shared before thanksgiving is over, so I'm starting with that and backtracking later.
Yes, I've felt bad leaving the land that I love during my ultimate favorite months of October-December. I just don't want my children to miss out on any any of the special things that I grew up loving, it's so fun being able to share all of those things with them. I didn't really have many expectations for Halloween in Hong Kong. Since I was so worried about missing out I decided to make them new witch hats and snap a couple pictures the day before we left to Hong Kong. (have I mentioned how bad I am at prioritizing? I hadn't even started packing clothes yet..)

Cute right? Even though last year's witch shoot was a little more thought out.

 I just gave 'em a couple chocolate chips and let them do their thing.

 I didn't think it would be possible for them to be cuter witches than they were last year, but somehow they keep getting cuter.

After I started seeing all the halloween decor pop up all over Hong Kong I realized how silly I was trying to do anything back at home in September. Our little apartment got festive quick as soon as I saw halloween decorations for sale.

All the markets were filled with fun chinese lanterns, hair wigs, masks and costumes- all at a fraction of the price you'd pay in the states. I just know in a year or two I'm going to be kicking myself for not buying a fun masquerade mask and a couple wigs..

Our ward had a Halloween party, which was fun. They started with a costume parade.

 I didn't figure out our costumes till a couple hours before- I'd been excited to make their costumes, but with no sewing machine I realized store bought was the only way to go this year. Plus, I found a children's large snow white costume so I could squeeze in the fun with the girls too!

 Pretty sure I had more fun than they did, but I think they still enjoyed it.

 Here they are thinking, "doesn't this ritual involve receiving candy?"

 Then they had lots of rooms with games which intimidated our girls for some reason, they wouldn't go near one thing.

 They clung to us, which worked well for taking a picture at least. I made Brad dress up and put eye liner on him as we came off the metro, I'm glad I'm better at putting on my own liner than that...

 The party was so late we had to leave before the trick-or-treating began. As you can see, the girls were pretty dejected missing out on the candy.

 We got a lot of looks from people as we walked home- pretty sure the smiles were because the girls are too cute, the judgey facey were for me being too old to play dress ups. Most people don't get Halloween here though, and we threw them off since it was several days before. Either way, just a few "princesses" walkin' down the street with a pirate... :)

The malls around us got all decked out for halloween too (we live within a 5 min walk from at least 10 malls). Since my mom was in town we went over to times square one morning to take a few pictures.

 This is kind of what I envision with them sweeping.

 We had to work a long time to get June up to this comfort level though, the statues creeped her out.

 Lyla ran around obliviously, by the time June warmed up Lyla had already begun to loose interest and was trying to run off.

 I love the caution you can see in June here, it's so "her"- she wouldn't let go of my mom for at least 15 minutes.

 Hence my mom in a lot of pictures, they had fun with grandma! :)

 It was kinda a big deal when June finally touched something.

 Cooperative Lyla.

Turning to me to find out what's the deal with that guy.

 I don't know why I adore this picture of Lyla sweeping as all the passerbys try to get around her. Maybe because there are real sweepers like this out all the time trying to keep the streets clean. Maybe because I'm in love with those little brooms. Maybe just because it's Lyla.

Then on the actual day of Halloween we went to Disneyland, which was a total blast of course! They did a halloween parade and skeleton jack sounded even creepier singing in cantonese. The moon was so spooky looked like part of a back drop. All the disney characters dressed up in costumes and we tried our best to prevent the girls from having any nightmares. And they handed out marshmallows filled with jam. They were good though, don't doubt disney!

 the crew.

 They also hand out A LOT of stickers at HK disneyland- June was way into it.

 Happy Halloween!

 Just what I wanted, fun memories and a few pictures to remember it with.

All in all I think the girls had a successful halloween experience, even though we were never actually able to trick or treat- and we didn't eat much candy. There's always a next year! (and probably only one fun Hong Kong Halloween) :(