I had this crazy idea to spend Halloween in America. Eleri has never spent Halloween in the States and Emersyn was two the last time she trick-or treated on our street. The girls have a long weekend after Halloween to only miss three days of school. Grandma and Grandpa were in California for a visit. Free flights with miles equals bad seats. We left Shanghai on Saturday morning to arrive in SF on Saturday morning – it is always a repeat of the day when we fly to SF.

The girls had decided they wanted to surprise everyone. We told Andy as he had the job of keeping the secret and to pick us up at the airport. Nancy also knew to keep Mimi and Papa close to home – no weekend away in Tahoe. We survived the bad seats in the back of the plane. Andy took us home to surprise Terri, Grandma and Grandpa. We dropped our luggage off at Terri & Andy’s house so the girls and I could hide in the back of the truck under a blanket. Andy told Terri, Grandma and Grandpa he needed help getting a big box and he needed help from everyone. They were all so surprised to see us and speechless as it was so unexpected for us to be home at this time. Then, the girls and I went up to Mimi & Papa’s house. Mimi was just as surprised to see us…and speechless. Papa had been out running errands, but return for us to give him a big hug.

First on the crazy week plan was Half Moon Bay to the pumpkin patches. I took Emersyn to the pumpkin patches all the time before we moved to Asia. Mimi and Papa were not able to join us as they had a wedding reception for a friend’s daughter later in the afternoon. Mimi and Papa did join us for lunch at one of our favorite places, Aqui’s. Andy had shared the story how he was the unpopular one last weekend. Terri, Grandma and Grandpa all wanted to go last weekend to the pumpkin patches, but Andy made up some excuses why they couldn’t go.

This is Eleri sleeping on the way to Half Moon Bay. We all used the time to get a few zz’s before the day’s fun.

Terri and Andy picked Arata’s Farm since they visit many of the pumpkin patches in Half Moon Bay every Halloween and knew which one would be best.

First on the afternoon of fun was the maze. It was $8 per person and $12 at night with a flashlight – that would be fun.

Emersyn wanted to do teams to see which team could get out the fastest. Andy and Emersyn were a team and they took off running. Grandma, Grandpa, Terri and I let Eleri lead our team. She was having fun until we kept finding ourselves back at the entrance. There was a brown jacket on the top of the wall at one point in the maze. I knew when we came back to that brown jacket, we were in trouble – heading back to the entrance. We would laugh, but both Terri and I commented we were tried of seeing that brown jacket!

Another Dead End

When we came back to the entrance for about the 6th time, Eleri wanted to quit. Then, we saw Andy and Emersyn at the entrance thinking maybe they were having the same problem. Nope, they had completed the maze in 15 minutes. Emersyn also saw the Minatare to get a golden pumpkin. They got LUCKY!! We talked them into coming with us. Of course Andy wanted to join the fun, but we had to convince Emersyn it would be fun. Sure enough these two had troubles finding the way out again. Emersyn said we were bad luck!! We did get past the first section with their help – it was a straw gate. When it was close, it was hard to see you could go through it. The gate must had been open for them – lucky, I tell you!!

We did walk past a couple emergency exits (the same emergency exits more than once), but we didn’t want the easy way out. At one point, we lost Grandpa. I thought we wouldn’t find him, but we did. He fell behind when a big group cut him off and he didn’t see which way we turned.

Towards the end, Eleri was looking for a ride. Since she is still light, she managed to get one.

We finally found the exit. it took us one hour and 15 minutes. We had a blast!!

After we were out of the maze, we climbed the lookout tower to see the maze. The maze for this year was called “The Whale of a Tale”. Now, we can see why it took us over an hour to get out. The maze would be fun at night with flash lights, but a challenge!

Next, we went to the haunted barn. It was $5 per person to walk through the barn. It was not worth the money. We walked through the barn in less than 5 minutes. So, we were off to find pumpkins. Both girls wanted their own wheel barrels. Eleri was loading her barrel up with big pumpkins.

After searching in the field, we went back to the piles of pumpkins at the main gate.

Emersyn was searching for the “perfect” little pumpkin.

Grandma and Grandpa spoiled the girls by buying ALL their pumpkins – it was $80 worth of pumpkins. I guess they were making up for past years! We left Grandpa in charge of watching our pumpkins while we set out for a bit more fun. Eleri wanted to ride the ponies.

It was $5 to ride the pony for about five times around the small track – but Eleri had fun.

On Sunday, we hit the farmer’s market in town. After buying up all kinds of ORGANIC fruits and vegetables, we wonder down to the Apple Store and then grabbed some lunch. It was a beautiful fall day. We ate at Main Street Burger to sit outside to enjoy the sunshine. This is our Sunday morning routine whenever we are home.

A typical lazy Sunday afternoon – the girls were playing with the kids across the street. We were also doing last minute costume buying. Terri, Grandma and I did some of my shopping as I do have a list, as always. The evening was for carving all the many pumpkins we acquired at the pumpkin patch. Andy and the girls started the task together, but the girls tired early leaving the work to Andy. Andy was the carver and I was put in charge of the pumpkin seeds. The girls were amazed by the difference in pumpkins from America to Asia. The Asia pumpkins don’t have many “guts”. I didn’t get a photo of our master craver, Andy, but I did get a photo of a few of his pumpkin creations.

These are the pumpkins from the pumpkin plants Nancy gave the girls. They planted them this last summer with Papa.

Our house was decorated with Terri and Andy’s Halloween decorations. Our house has not been decorated in almost ten years. Their decorations work well in our front yard. We received many complements on the decorations.

For Halloween, Eleri went as a disco girl.

Emersyn was a dark angel. We had to find the wings on Sunday with ALL the other last minute costume shoppers.

We had to take a photo of “Old Man Skittle’s” car. This car was worth 3 points over the summer when we were playing skittles with Kate.

Halloween on our street was everything I remembered it to be and more. The street is closed off to cars at 4pm. One neighbor has tacos to serve in the front yard. Another neighbor is serving wine and beer. While another neighbor arranged for a popcorn vendor to serve bags to the kids.

Terri and Andy have a tradition of friends joining them to help with the candy and fun. We were running late from our afternoon of last minute details, of course. We were rushed to get kids’ in costumes, prepare for dinner guests and trick-or-treaters. Mimi made homemade soups that made the kitchen smell delightfully like Fall. And, the soup was very tasty.

Luckily, I got a few photos of the girls. Once they joined the gang across the street, we didn’t see them all night. They had a blast. I had wanted to get a photo of the gang of kids, but it was a busy night is my excuse.

I walked down the street to run into old friends, Jeff and Barb. Barb had said she saw Emmy and was surprised to see her. It was fun to catch-up with them.

Nancy came over after her neighborhood children made a visit to her house. She jumped in to help with the candy. Andy’s friends came later since it was a Monday work day. They took over the candy duty after they filled their tummies. It was a fun night. Terri and Andy count the kids with a counter. There were 1, 515 kids – a record high.

Andy’s friend, Lien, came as the owl from Harry Potter. Her husband, Andy, came as Harry. Our Andy was wearing the costume towards the end of the night.

Eleri tired first of the trick-or-treat fun. The gang brought her home while they continued. When Emersyn got home, she ran across the street for the “candy trade”. The 12 hour flight was so worth the fun we had on Halloween.

I thought this was a fun photo as Eleri is our jack-o-lanter with no teeth.

Emersyn wanted to pose with the pumpkin, too.

Eleri LOVES to play with the train set. She really doesn’t play with the trains, she loves to build the tracks. She will build all across the family room. Then, she will change the tracks and add more. We all step over her train track creation for a few days before she is asked to put them away.

We spent the week enjoying family. On Wednesday, the girls had their special day with Mimi and Papa. They enjoyed lunch, a movie and a shop at Hicklebee’s bookstore. With online book purchases, we are losing the good old fashion book store. I am still missing Border’s in our town. I enjoy Hicklebee Children’s Book Store to still have the pleasure of touching and looking through the book. Of course, the girls spent too much time in the book store, but they had fun. Mimi purchased some Christmas presents for the girls. Emmy’s only compliant was she would have to wait to read her books. We ended the day with dinner at our house.

I did ALL my Christmas shopping while we were home. Eleri and Emersyn wrote their letters to Santa. Eleri was asking why we had to write so early. Emersyn knowing about Santa takes her job serious of “keeping the spirit alive” for Eleri. She wrote her letter and explain to Eleri we need to get them off early because we want to ask Santa to visit us before the 24th. She agreed to that!

The girls visit Barns & Noble book store with Terri, Grandma and Grandpa. They all bought the girls MORE book – books to read now. I think I went back with 20 pounds of books. However, I am not complaining as reading is wonderful. We have book stores in Shanghai, but not many with good English books for children. Emersyn reads about a book a week. Eleri is struggling with her reading so I am more than happy to encourage her.

On Saturday night, our last night in town, we had promised the girls dinner at TGIF. We have seen two movies that have referred to TGIF and Katy Perry mentions it in one of her songs. We haven’t been to TGIF in years. It was the last night, so we invited the kids across the street. With Terri, Andy, Grandma, Grandpa, Mimi, Papa and all the kids, we had a crew of 13. Everyone had fun.

Margaret, Emersyn, Sophie, Izzy, Eleri & Sam

When we got home, I needed to finish the final pack. The girls played with the kids before hitting the showers. While they were in the showers, we lost power. The girls were screaming. They are not used to losing power. We lived in Hong Kong with typhoons and we never lost power. Here, we lose power at any storm. The difference of wires above ground to below ground. We found the flashlights and everyone went to bed. The electricity came back on around midnight along with all the lights left on. We were all happy it was short so we could reset the clocks for airport runs and Grandpa could use his oxygen machine. The girls were worried about him.

Grandma and Grandpa were on an early flight out of SF to fly home. Andy took them to the airport with plans to meet us two hours later. I did a final email check to discover our flight was delayed another two hours. We decided to drive to Palo Alto for pizza. Andy drove from SF airport to meet us. Also, Mimi and Papa joined us for pizza and the final good-bye at the airport.

With our delayed plane and 14 hour flight (which did seem long), we arrived back in Shanghai at 10:30pm. It was close to midnight when I tucked everyone into bed. Everyone was up early and ready for school. When we were home, we didn’t work on getting adjusted to the time zone. On average, we were going to bed close to midnight to sleep in past ten.

It was a crazy idea with no regrets. We all had a very memorable time with family and friends.