Halloween in Vientiane

The answer is no, they do not celebrate Halloween in Laos. However, there are a lot of ex-pats here and Halloween is celebrated by British and Australian people, though maybe not to the same extent as Americans. So, I volunteered to host the Thursday morning playgroup on Halloween. I did it with the help of Marissa. Her husband is new to project Matt's working on, so I was able to buy costumes from Amazon, send them to Marissa in the States and have them in time. It was awesome. She also brought Halloween decorations from Wal-Mart that really made the house feel festive. And we made green punch (kiwi juice and sprite) and cupcakes. It was a good time. Also, there was a party at an international school here that we attended. They got to trick or treat at 7 doors there on Halloween, and at 5 doors two days before at Matt's coworker's apartments. They didn't get a ton of candy, of course, but that is totally fine! And the kids love their costumes so much that they have been wearing them ever since!

 

Bobby actually pretends to push a button on his arm and shoot his laser even without a Buzz costume, so this was really fun for him.

Batman climbing a tree at the international school.

Wonder Woman in the background is me... I found a t-shirt that came with a cape and headband, so I dressed up, too.

As we were leaving the school, I saw this bike. There's a seat on the back! That means there is 7-10-year-old kid giving another kid a ride! It's amazing. And now there's no wonder how they are able to balance their entire family or the entire inventory for their fruit and vegetable cart on the back of a mo-ped. Very impressive!

Lounging in the batsuit.

Sleeping in the Buzz costume.

The day after Halloween, it was "Fancy Dress Day" at Scott's school. He was supposed to dress as what he wishes to be when he grows up, with strict instructions to discourage superhero costumes. We bought a little Kung Fu outfit in Hong Kong and thought he could dress as a ninja or martial arts instructor. He told me he wanted to be Batman, the Flash, a cooker (chef?), all sorts of things. But finally one day on the way to school he said he would like to fix iPads for a living. I thought, "That's easy!" We even had an Apple sticker to put on his shirt! And luckily, he could still mostly fit into a 12M blue shirt. And he looks so cute as an Apple Genius/iPad fixer. When he got home from school, he wanted to be Batman for a while, and then put on his Apple costume again, but Teak had already put it in the wash because she found it on the kitchen counter. Scott was devastated! What a funny kid.

Good night, Batman!