This is Halloween

Halloween has been a weekend long event culminating tonight with a lovely festival and trick or treating! Friday night was Trunk or Treat at Eve's school. Initially I thought this might be lame, but it was awesome. The families all come together and make these super cool trunk/van/tent displays and give out candy. The PTO does a haunted house, which did not scare the pants off of her, and we had a super fun evening.

Saturday we went to Turtle Bay and aside from Eve going with a classmate and getting the cute mini pumpkins, I was totally underwhelmed as were the girls. CRH and I enjoyed people watching but it was less than epic.

Today, Eve had a Halloween parade at school and came home with a bag of goodies. I picked her up and took her to a Fall Festival at a local ranch. It was fabulous! They do an entirely free event and it was busy but not so crowded that you couldn't do everything. We ate a lovely dinner, played games, got balloon animals, and had her face painted. They had popcorn, cotton candy, and tons of candy. After the festival, we headed to Waialua and trick or treated along the seashore. AWESOME FUN! At one point, Eve got the song from The Nightmare Before Christmas stuck in her head and was walking around singing " Kidnap the Santy Claws, beat him with a stick". It was a riot.

The people in Waialua went all out and we went through several haunted houses and met up with a friend of hers for a few trick or treating stops. On the way home, we hit one more neighborhood for extra fun and candy. She came home pooped, but we sat on the floor and sorted through all of her loot and ate a good portion!

Happy Halloween!!

Haunted Lagoon

Every year the Polynesian Cultural Center does a Haunted Lagoon ride. We used to live right across the street, but the lines were insanely long and I thought it would terrify Eve. She didn't seem overly interested because the Laie Lady, who is the main feature, scared her in the posters.

This year, she showed incredible interest and pushed and pushed to go. I agreed and bought Fast Passes on PlayHawaii.com. Incidentally, it was worth every penny for those (which was only $5 more than the regular kama'aina rate) because we went right through it with no lines and no wait time. I was happy to have spent the extra $10 as we passed Disney World style lines.

So I need to back it up, Eve worked herself up pretty well on the way over. She started psyching herself out and when we got there it was dark and cloudy. A perfect night for such an event, if you were not 8 and terrified. We went through 2 haunted houses on the way to the canoe and she clung tighter and tighter to me. In the super short wait for the canoe, I asked again for like the millionth time if she really wanted to go and she said she did. When I called for reservations and asked about the keiki ride, the lady said they recommend it for ages 5 and under. Clearly, she didn't know Eve Hart.

We get into the canoe and sit rather awkwardly in the middle because I thought she would feel the safest. A couple got on and we moved over slightly, but they rearranged and I resumed our middle spot. She got right into my lap and insisted my arms were wrapped tightly around her and off we went. Bless her heart, I've never seen her more terrified in her whole life. She was literally shaking, but to her credit she did not hide her face in me or anything. It was kinda spooky and very well done. Lots of action, lots of people jumping out of the lagoon at the boat, a ton of creepy kids (think The Ring), and great atmosphere to make it spooky. She watched it all and even noted some of the things (smoke bubbles) that she liked in the end. Her most favorite part being the end. She raced off that boat with speed I've never seen from her.


It was a fun kick off to the holiday (for me), but she has confirmed that she would NOT like to do it next year. We have some fun events planned the weekend before Halloween that revolve around costumes, candy, and bounce houses...no more haunted houses!