First of all, Joe's unit had a little shin-dig on Friday night - a Chili Cook-off for families. This was the first chance we had to meet other families in the unit, so we were excited. Unfortunately, they didn't have a great turnout. There were a handful of teenagers, and as for children younger than 12, our kids made up 66% of them (that means there were only 2 other kids under 12). Oh well, maybe we'll meet more people at the Christmas party.
Anyway, they had a costume parade for ALL the kids. It didn't take very long. My kids were just as cute as they could be in their costumes of Halloween pasts.
She's a good witch
Forgot his thunderbolt scar
Devestated when we lef the house without her matching purse
Would not hold still for a picture
They also had a costume contest for the adults. Only ONE lady dressed up, and she was a giant green M&M. She won the trophy. Actually, I did have my Superman shirt on, but either they didn't notice it, or they didn't think it was costumey enough. I suspect it was the former because I'm sure I would have been a contender otherwise. They also had a sack race for the kids. Of course teenagers are much too cool for sack races, so it was just the 6 younger kids. This was very funny, especially watching Alex try to jump in a sack that was twice as big as he was. Cora came in 2nd place by about 1/100th of a second, but she had a good time anyway. JT didn't even come close, but he still threw a nice fit about not getting the trophy.
Do you see the height Cora has? Very impressive
I did enter the chili cook-off, not with the intention of winning anything, but because it was a fund-raiser for the Christmas party, and they said they REALLY needed more entries. I guess that they thought that 15 entries was not enough.
I personally think that 15 entries was enough, especially since there was less than 50 people there, but I suppose they were expecting a lot more people. At least we had leftovers.....after we paid $1.50 each for a bowl of our own chili:)
I didn't win any of the prizes, which were bottles of wine. What is up with the military and alcohol anyway? Seriously....okay, I'd better not get up on that soapbox. The second thing I was looking forward to was a party we were invited to on Friday night with NO KIDS! It's been years since we've been to one of those. The couple who invited us is in our branch. Apparantly they love throwing big parties, and they especially love Halloween. They went all out. I can't imagine how long it took to plan and prepare it all.
A good time was had by all, and we actually stayed out LATE. It was like we were young again or something. Weird, I know.
There was a good turn out, mostly from our branch. Everyone had great costumes. Mine was a combination of 3 past costumes, and Joe was Count Dracula (minus the teeth).
A good time was had by all, and we actually stayed out LATE. It was like we were young again or something. Weird, I know.And then there was Saturday, Halloween. We decided to take the kids to the COEX mall (the largest mall in Asia) to see the aquarium there. Nothing says Halloween like an aquarium, right? First we had lunch at Sbarro's. They also have a TGIF there. Again, a good time was had by all, as seen below.
And I also liked the weird tank with the effeminate Spiderman. Too funny.
Lots of fun animals to see.
There was a fun area where they had made fish tanks out of all different things like a telephone booth, a traffic light, a toilet, and a bunch of other things. I especially like the one that had a computer screen inside the tank that had an aquarium screensaver on it.
And I also liked the weird tank with the effeminate Spiderman. Too funny.
Lots of fun animals to see.
We got to pet some star fish.
And everyone had to have a picture inside the shark's mouth.
And everyone had to have a picture inside the shark's mouth.
At the end, there was a wall for comments. You wrote it on a little yellow post-it note, and stuck it up there. There were a lot.
The subway ride home was an experience all on it's own. We have never seen the train so packed before. I think it might have been because it had started raining outside, so not as many people were walking. And let me just tell you, when I say packed, I mean like sardines. It was stifling. As we approached our station, we talked about how we were actually going to make it of the train. We had our two younger kids in the double stroller, and we were NOT by the doors (we had been pushed right into the middle of the crowd. I told Cora to hang onto me for dear life, and to do whatever it took to get off the train, including pushing. Joe had the stroller and JT, and I told him to be aggressive. When the train stopped, Joe actually yelled in Korean, "We have a stroller, and we need to get off right now." I kid you not, the crowd parted like the Red Sea, and Joe went right through and got off the train. But you know how after the Israelites passed through the Red Sea, it came down on the Egyptians? Well, Cora and I were the Egyptians. I guess everyone didn't realize that we were with the stroller people. We had a bit more trouble getting off, and the doors are only open for about 25 seconds. Luckily we made it.
When we got back to our subway station, it was pouring rain. Good thing you can buy umbrellas at the subway. We walked home, everyone getting there feet and pants soaked, as we contemplated what we would do about trick-or-treating in this tricky situation. You see, Koreans don't celebrate Halloween, so we can't very well trick-or-treat in our own apartment building. No, we would have to go to base and trick-or-treat there, all of which would be going door-to-door outside. Joe and I really did not feel like doing that in the rain, whether it was a down pour or a sprinkle. Total Halloween Scrooges, I know. Anyway, in the end I came up with a brilliant plan. Well, I thought it was brilliant - my kids tollerated it. I told them to go out our front door and into the hallway, and then I told them that I was going to close the door, and that they should try to trick-or-treat at our door. Huh? I closed the door - they knocked - I opened the door - they stood there unsure what to do - I prompted them to say there line - they said trick-or-treat - I gave them some candy (a bunch of left-over stuff I retrieved from the previous night's Halloween party) - I closed the door. We repeated this process several times. I pretended like I didn't them. I asked about their costumes, and complimented them. I said, "Happy Halloween" every time. They thought this was pretty funny. But did it make up for not ACTUALLY going trick-or-treating? No. And you can bet yout bottom dollar that I'm scared about it. I'm scared that come Monday, when they go back to school, everybody is going to be talking about Trick-or-Treating, and they're going to be like, "Well, we couldn't go because it was raining", and everybody else is going to be like, "Well, it wasn't really raining that bad, and we went", and they're going to be like, "We have the meanest parents in the whole world, and they ruined Halloween!" I don't know, but it could happen.
Anyway, we did try our best to help them have a good day. Aside from the aquarium and the pretend trick-or-treating, we also made cookies and popcorn, watched Halloween movies, and played Rock Band.
I ask you, how could it have been any better than that? Don't answer that question.
