I tell you what, we had to put some EFFORT into this Halloween. First of all, I brought up the idea that we could potentially do something special for the kids here for Halloween with the apartment association head which jump-started a trick-or-treating plan. Then, we drove all over Seoul looking for pumpkins and finally, after a few days of casual searching, found a tiny store that sold them. It was NOT easy--no pumpkin patches here, people. Last year, when I was in Pusan for a few days in November, I remember seeing trucks piled with pumpkins for sale, but nothing this year. Good thing we were determined. Carving this sucker was not easy, either. It had a lot more 'hills and valleys' than your average American pumpkin and was not as tall. But, after Oliver and Ronan told the pumpkin they loved it, we carved it into a 'scary, happy face.'
Below, the pumpkin looks out on the cold, rainy day. The organizer of the trick-or-treating called to say that, due to the heavy rain, we might move trick-or-treating to Sunday. I was like, you can't MOVE Halloween to ANOTHER day. But, I lost the good fight and other moms decided to try again on Sunday. The kids were a bit bummed. Plus, we had invited a friend to come over and join the festivities. We still had some things planned at home, though, so it was not all lost.
We made candy apples. This was some hard-core DIY-ing. I had to go the underground markets in Namdaemun, buy peanuts and caramels, and, luckily, found someone on the street selling a little manual veggie/nut crushing thingie. Snapped that one up as I had envisioned myself with a mortar and pestle.
Below, the nut-crushing thingie that saved me hours of 'fun.'
The kids helped unwrap each caramel and we melted them with a little milk in the microwave for two minutes. Stirred the melted hot caramel quickly and then rolled the apples into which we had stuck chopsticks (couldn't find popsicle sticks) in the caramel quickly (we learned real soon this had to be done fast or the caramel would semi-solidify and make coating in caramel near impossible) and then rolled the caramelled apples in the nuts.
The results weren't pretty, but, man, they tasted awesome.
After decorating with some "Happy Halloween" Balloons we found at Emart, the kids watched Goosebumps episodes on YouTube while waiting for their friend to arrive. They were actually really good sports about the trick-or-treating cancellation, although I know they were bummed.
After dinner, the kids dressed in costume and we did a little mock trick-or-treating inside. Each adult hid in a room and jumped out to surprise the kids when the kids knocked on the door. It was a descent substitute for the real thing.
I tell you what, we had to put some EFFORT into this Halloween. First of all, I brought up the idea that we could potentially do something special for the kids here for Halloween with the apartment association head which jump-started a trick-or-treating plan. Then, we drove all over Seoul looking for pumpkins and finally, after a few days of casual searching, found a tiny store that sold them. It was NOT easy--no pumpkin patches here, people. Last year, when I was in Pusan for a few days in November, I remember seeing trucks piled with pumpkins for sale, but nothing this year. Good thing we were determined. Carving this sucker was not easy, either. It had a lot more 'hills and valleys' than your average American pumpkin and was not as tall. But, after Oliver and Ronan told the pumpkin they loved it, we carved it into a 'scary, happy face.'
Below, the pumpkin looks out on the cold, rainy day. The organizer of the trick-or-treating called to say that, due to the heavy rain, we might move trick-or-treating to Sunday. I was like, you can't MOVE Halloween to ANOTHER day. But, I lost the good fight and other moms decided to try again on Sunday. The kids were a bit bummed. Plus, we had invited a friend to come over and join the festivities. We still had some things planned at home, though, so it was not all lost.
We made candy apples. This was some hard-core DIY-ing. I had to go the underground markets in Namdaemun, buy peanuts and caramels, and, luckily, found someone on the street selling a little manual veggie/nut crushing thingie. Snapped that one up as I had envisioned myself with a mortar and pestle.
Below, the nut-crushing thingie that saved me hours of 'fun.'
The kids helped unwrap each caramel and we melted them with a little milk in the microwave for two minutes. Stirred the melted hot caramel quickly and then rolled the apples into which we had stuck chopsticks (couldn't find popsicle sticks) in the caramel quickly (we learned real soon this had to be done fast or the caramel would semi-solidify and make coating in caramel near impossible) and then rolled the caramelled apples in the nuts.
The results weren't pretty, but, man, they tasted awesome.
After decorating with some "Happy Halloween" Balloons we found at Emart, the kids watched Goosebumps episodes on YouTube while waiting for their friend to arrive. They were actually really good sports about the trick-or-treating cancellation, although I know they were bummed.
After dinner, the kids dressed in costume and we did a little mock trick-or-treating inside. Each adult hid in a room and jumped out to surprise the kids when the kids knocked on the door. It was a descent substitute for the real thing.
The kids sat down to sort their stashes before diving into some popcorn and candied applies while watching our scary movie selection, "Monster House." The kids' friend discovered that popcorn would stick on the outside of the candied apple and that the taste was not bad as well.
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