Over the years, October has become more of one of my favorite months. It's a time where dressing up in a costume and eating lots of candy is acceptable. I have many fond memories celebrating Halloween with my sister Anh and my brother Phong growing up. Our festivities never had much glitz and glamour, but we somehow managed to have lots of fun, and have lots of laughs.
Every year, we would go to the local grocery store and buy a pumpkin to carve. We hardly ever went to the pumpkin patches to get our pumpkins because my Mom thought it wasn't very cost effective. In any case, it really didn't matter where we got our pumpkins, as long as everyone had one to call their own. Every pumpkin I've had since, whether it was from the grocery store or the pumpkin patch, has always been cherished.
The three of us would line the kitchen floor with newspaper, and then use the normal kitchen knives to carve our pumpkins. In retrospect, this probably wasn't the safest thing to use, but this was before pumpkin carving kits became popular. All of us still have our fingers intact, so no harm no foul right? Anh was very skilled carving with a kitchen knife; her designs were so creative, and her pumpkins looked really amazing. On the other hand, my pumpkins tended to be disproportionate and looked disfigured. I've gotten much better at carving through the years (with the help of Pumpkin Masters of course) so I think I'd give Anh a run for her money now.
Afterwards, we would get dressed in our Halloween costumes. Our parents didn't buy us new Halloween costumes every year, and normally we just used the same one until we outgrew it. If I remember right, I believe I had the same witch costume for at least 5 years! We definitely wanted new costumes, but we assumed that everyone else wore the same one every year too so it wasn't that big of a deal. You can imagine my disappointment when I found out that most children have new costumes every year. Boy, were we young and naive.
Halloween 1999.
Next, we would grab our pillowcases and then go trick-o-treating around the neighborhood. Our neighborhood had lots of kids so it was really exciting seeing everyone out. Most of our neighbors gave out candy, and even though we never filled our pillowcases to the top, we always hoped that the next year would be different. When we were done trick-o-treating, we would pour our candy out into the living room and separate our favorites, and trade candy with each other. My favorites were always the chocolates, and to this day, it still is, especially dark chocolate.
I absolutely love October, and these memories will always be close to my heart. I hope everyone had a spooktacular Halloween!
Disneyland, Anaheim, CA
Besties in front of Disneyland Railroad.
In Town Square, there's an enormous 12 foot tall Micky Mouse
jack-o-lantern complete with pumpkin ears. So cute!
Zero clearly loves me more than Jamie.
Double trouble at Sleep Beauty's Castle.
Jack Skellington from Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas
gave the Haunted Mansion a Christmas makeover.
I couldn't resist having a chocolate frozen banana.
Splash Mountain is based off the Disney film Song of the South.
The 53 foot drop was terrifying!
It was mesmerizing watching Micky's Soundsational Parade.
My video games skills were finally put to good use.
Lemos Farm, Half Moon Bay, CA
Wait, that's not Kristine's hand, that's Kylie!
Pumpkin paradise.
Phong catching up on his sleep.
David and Kylie photobombing.
Airing out my smelly shoe. Phong is not amused!
43rd Annual Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival, Half Moon Bay, CA
The Pumpkin Festival was created by the Main Street Committee for
Beautification in 1970 as a means for restoring historic downtown Half Moon Bay.
Looking good Kristine!
The pumpkin ice cream was divine.
The pumpkin mac 'n' cheese was flavored with pumpkin pie spices and topped with pumpkin seeds.
Farmer Mike is "The Picasso of Pumpkin Carvers."
Half Moon Bay's Great Pumpkin is a mosaic sculpture by artist Pester Hazel.
It measures 11 ft high, 12 ft long, and weighs 10,000 pounds.
Repetto's Pumpkins, Half Moon Bay, CA
Phong loves pun-kins.
Ahoy, Mateys!
I'm not sure what Kylie is trying to do, but she seems to be having lots of fun.
Newport Beach, CA
Gauchos reunited!
Mary Poppins, librarian, bar maiden, Alice in Wonderland, and the Fox
are all ready for a ladies night on the town.
The ultimate photo booth fun.
Frazier Park, CA
Flower power.
Watcha gonna do when they come for you?
Don't mess with Natasha!
Burbank, CA
It's time to get down to pumpkin carving business.
After a few hours, our mission was accomplished.
We're so talented!
Forneris Farms, Mission Hills, CA
In order to find the way out of the 4 acre corn maze, we had to solve silly cornundrum riddles.
We're so corny.
What an awesome pumpkin bounce house!
I like the strong and silent type.
There were lots of cool variety of pumpkins.
Baths are overrated anyways.
The sunflowers were the size of my head.
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