Let’s just set the stage on a few issues re: Halloween. Pumpkins, costumes, & trick-or-treating. We just want our kids to have a normal state-side like spooky experience. But, you see, its a bit hard when you live on a tropical island. Oh, the joys of living in paradise.
Pumpkins: Get them while their hot, because they don’t last long . There are lots of pumpkin carving parties on this island, and you don’t want to show up empty handed. One year, The Fisherman showed up with an acorn squash. BUT- don’t carve your gourd until a week before All Hallow’s Eve, because, well, the obvious. It will just shrivel in this heat and humidity (tip- spray the meat with Pam after you have carved to keep longer!) Lat year, I remember those gourds going for $15 at FoodTown. This year, Cost U Less had them for $9 and Plaza for $8. How does that compare stateside, I wonder? (yes, there are also watermelons in there!)
Costumes, My Way: My kids are still too young to understand the concept of trick-or-treating, , but not to young for me to dress up and send up to strangers asking for candy. In fact, I live for this stuff. And because I have WAY too much time on my hands (ya, right), I drive my family crazy trying to compile the PERFECT costumes for the least amount of money. In 2007 when SC was 11 mos old, I just HAPPENED to stumble across a dog costume, YES a dog costume on clearence at StupidK for $3. I just bought a red onesie and VIOLA! She’s a Devil!
2008: I decided SC wanted to be a black cat. Easy enough. Black leotard fashioned with some white felt for the chest. Felt ears adheared onto some hair clips, black leggings,a black boa for a tail and black eyeliner for whiskers. VIOLA! She’s a Cat!
2009: wait for it…wait for it…Little Bo Peep and YOU guessed it, SJ is her lost sheep. His costume was super easy. White onesie with a black lil’ felt tail sewed on. White baby stocking cap with felt ears sewed on. SC’s took some scrounging up. Why couldn’t I just buy one, you ask? That would be way too easy. And she’d end up looking like every other hooker-ish Little Bo Peep costume I saw online. I ended up re-working a white dress in her closet with pink rick-rack. Found a hat for $3 on clearance at StupidK. Found ruffle socks and black tap shoes at the thrift store (I have a feeling I am going to regret those tap shoes when she finds out how much noise they make). A little ribbon here, some bows there….I just needed a shepherd’s hook, aka, wooden cane. I had been compiling this costume for several weeks and no luck with a cane. Even had my thrift store friends be on the look out for one. This week….the perfect wooden cane was presented to me at the thrift store. It was smooth and super worn. I thought about the person who it belonged to (dead or alive). Bet they never thought their cane would transform into a beautiful shepherd’s hook with some bells and ribbon! VIOLA! Little Bo Peep! (Lost sheep was sleeping when I took this. Will post later)
And, finally, what to do with our costumed kidlets (not adults)? Here is “a selection” of our Halloween options, in no particular order:
1. Trunk Or Treating at Country Day School: (you’re gonna love this) Parents park their cars tailgate style in the parking lot of Country Day School while the kids go from “trunk to trunk” asking for goodies. I have never been and am not knocking it. Hope to go one day. I have LOTS of goodies in my trunk, like jumper cables and empty beer bottles. I think this is a very safe idea for the kids. They get to dress up and have fun.
2. AZ Fall Festival: We drove past this chaos last year and it looked like so much fun. Like something out of a story book. Kids running down a path underneath a gazilion twinkle lights. Dressed like monsters, ballerinas, ninjas. From what I could see from the road. It looked like an old fashioned small town festival. And it was PACKED!
3. Haunted-ville @ Ag Fair Grounds: Sounds like fun for the older kids. There’s a chance here of it turning into a real life masacre once it gets dark and late. Hey, I am just sayin….
4. Trick-or-treating at one of the compounds at Hovensa (compound=gated stateside-like neighborhood where every house looks the same and they have central AC. Bitches). You see, not just anyone can take their kidlets all costumed up begging for candy from strangers (which, again, by the way, seems to go against everything we teach our children, never talk to strangers who offfer candy…). You have to know someone who lives in the compound, or know someone who knows someone…and they have to put you and your kids on a list. Rumor has it it is the shiznit. The residents go all out with decor. Just like in America! YEEEHAW!!!
When you live on a tropical island, you just can’t walk out your front door and go house to house trick or treating. First, I think the local Caribbean population is not really sure what Halloween is and why Americans feel the need to dress up and stash candy. Not a biggie. Second, with the crime issue and leary-ness of masked people showing up at your house, NOBODY wants to open thier front door. And third, houses don’t exist down a street in a nice straight line. You’re lucky if you can even see down a street and even luckier if you can get up or down a driveway in your four-wheel drive vehicle.
Its not as easy as you think to have a “normal” Halloween when you live on a tropical island. But, just like everything else that is a challenge and different from stateside living, isn’t that why you want to live in paradeise, anyway? To get away from how things are done in the states????
We hope everyone has a happy and safe Halloween, no mater what your plans are! We know someone who knows someone………
What started out as a “simple paper mache project” turned out to be Mommy’s mindless, stress outlet. See, when we were in Texas, SC spotted an enormous bat hanging in the eaves at the Alecci House; a gift from a grandparent, who no doubt paid at least 80% less than anything I could do or figure out how to get it on island. Not wanting to pay big bucks to buy/ship/ or give Kmart any more money than I possibly have to, I thought, We Can Make something like that. Of course I did.
