27 October 2014

#Halloween Carnival 2014 at Verdana

After weeks of preparing Riley's costume (I only work on it during my spare time, like 30 minutes a day), he will finally get to wear it in public. He had some dry run on wearing it inside the house just so he can get accustomed to the feel of carrying it on his shoulders. And so far, it was a success. He almost broke it apart but after a few strengthening tricks (double-sided tape and glue were my best friends) all of its parts held on after a few rough handling.

Happily wearing his Thomas the train costume!

This year, we took part in the #halloween festivities in my relatives' village in Laguna. We attended last year and found it satisfying so we decided to go there again this year. I would probably try other places next year like in Fun Ranch or the hotel parties but since Riley is still young, I did not want him to get crushed in the crowd in those places.

This is giving me a heart attack...

It was held in the village clubhouse and since we were quite early, we spent our energy in the nearby playground. It is very seldom that Riley experiences playing in an outdoor playground. Aside from the play area in Alabang Town Center, this is only the second time he was able to run around an actual playground.

Love the bright red pants from Mothercare

We were seated up front so the kids will have more room to walk or dance around. They were playing Pharell Williams' Happy song and since he loves this song, he was dancing in the front with his balloon sword. So cute!

The theme this year is Halloween Carnival and they had face painting, balloon sculptures, photo booth and was hosted by McDonalds. They served the one piece chicken meal with rice (the chicken was mostly skin so thumbs down for this). There was a nachos booth but you had to pay additional for that. I find that the food choices were lacking this year. They had ice cream last year and with the heat that afternoon, it would have been a hit. The loot bag was better this year though as they gave away happy meal toys (doraemon and scooby doo) and kiddie giveaways from a pharmaceutical company (sample medicines, flash cards, origami paper, kiddie chopsticks, lunch bag, pouch, and pens).

Grimace and Ronald Mcdonald made an appearance and boy, was Riley scared! He jumped into my lap when he saw them come out. And take note he was still wearing his costume so imagine the chaos! We had to step out of the covered area just so he would stop crying. After seeing the 'scary' mascots, he would not go down from my arms. He kept telling me he only wanted to be carried. Oh dear...

Still in shock from seeing the 'scary' mascots
He quickly wore his costume again when he saw another boy wearing a truck costume. Riley said he wanted to go racing with him and kept following the boy around the place (even though the other boy did not want to play with him).

When they were announcing that the costume contest was about to begin, Riley promptly stepped out of his costume and ran to the pool area. I tried to coax him to wear it again and have him line up the judging area but he was having none of it. Sigh. Better try our luck next year!

After the event, we were divided into two groups and started trick or treating. It was fine for the first two blocks. But since Riley did not want to walk or ride his stroller, we had no choice but to carry him while going around the village. And we did that for almost two hours! Luckily, my husband was there to carry him too or else I would have gone home early. If we are doing this again next year, I would definitely consider bringing a car with us because it was just too tiring to walk around the village.

He only walked one block and we carried him all the way

Riley may still be young to really enjoy this holiday but I think he had fun. He loved choosing which candy to take, he carried his pumpkin filled with treats, and did not even want us to touch his loot!

He did not stop taking from the candy bag until his pumpkin was full

Even though we were so tired, it was all worth it seeing how he enjoyed himself. Me munching on the candies while Riley was sleeping is just an added bonus! Ha!

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