halloween

i'm not really into halloween. i guess that's because i think of it as an american tradition (in the philippines, we have completely different traditions for this time of the year.) and, by the time i came here, i was already a teenager so dressing up was not something i wanted to do (and i'm not such a big fan of candy anway).

this year, since i'm living with my sister's family, i knew i'd be involved in halloween festivities somehow. when my niece went to buy her costume, i went with her and my sister. my niece ended up buying a feather mask for her costume. we thought it would be fun if all three of us wore various feather masks, so my sister and i bought ones for ourselves, too. (pics below.)

since i'm working in a university, i figured that there'd be some people in costumes and such so i brought my camera. i happened to be in the student union mailing my ballot, and i chanced upon these amazing carved pumpkins. i believe this was for a competition.





later in the morning, after my vietnamese class, i found waldo.

i saw a few people in costumes in the library, but i didn't take any more pictures (too busy working).

when i got home, they were just waiting for me. so i hurriedly ate dinner. we had our little photo op outside the house. here are the girls:

we headed over to redondo beach, where my nephew's boy scout troop had a halloween maze/ fundraiser.

we went in the maze first before heading out trick or treating around the neighborhood. we found my nephew:

after the maze, we went trick-or-treating--6 kids and 4 adults. there were a lot of people out. and a lot of the houses were decorated. i was surprised. i've never really seen so many trick-or-treaters. and my niece told me they have more people in their neighborhood!

that neighborhood has some nice houses. i tried to take pictures, but they didn't come out too well. i was able to take pictures of this house with the crazy yard. one passerby said that the owner does this for every occasion!

i didn't really take pictures of the trick-or-treaters. (that would just be weird.) but i did take this one.

after a lot of walking (over an hour, for sure), we went back to the maze. my nephew was taking a break from working the maze. he apparently changed from being in the dot room to the kitchen.

we were supposed to go to another maze at my nephew's dojo, but he was having too much fun working the maze. so we left him there, and we went home. that was an experience.