Community

A few weeks back K-bao had her friends DL, NL and EL(whom she has been buddies with since birth) over to her place.

Of course, chaos quickly ensued as the kids jumped over the furniture, cut construction paper into millions of tiny pieces, and traded Halloween candy.

Group hug!

Group fobby pose!

The great Candy Expo

K-bao and C-bao are lucky to have fellow Christian brothers and sisters to grow up with, even if due to a little bit of distance they see each other far less regularly than we all would like them to. 

Gingerbread

A few weeks back, K-bao's school held their annual Winterfest, a school tradition that brings parents, students and friends of the school together to celebrate the community. Events include pet rescue information sessions such as Wags & Whiskers, book fairs where parents can purchase various books for classrooms and teachers, and of course the famous Gingerbread Workshop. 

In the Gingerbread Workshop, children decorate their own candied houses using the provided fresh gingerbread base, frosting, jelly beans, chocolate, twizzlers and other assorted sweets.

"Notice the three jelly beans I have in my mouth"

Sister C-bao somehow snuck her way into the workshop and convinced K-Pop and K-Mum to let her decorate her own house, which of course was a real triumph for the the little one.

Comparing the sugar volume of the various houses

Inevitably each year, just about as much candy is consumed as is used in decorating, and participants typically leave the workshop in a haze of sugary sweetness.

The big question for the K-folks, of course, is what in the world we are going to do with our 2 sugary gingerbread houses!

"All we need is sweet love, love love!"

Raggedy Ann

For Halloween this year, K-bao dressed up as Raggedy Ann, the iconic character created in the early 1900s. As in years past, the main point was of course the colorful wig.

One of the key advantages of this type of costume is the fact that K-bao is easy to spot in a crowd.

Later in the day, K-bao met up with one of her best friends to go Trick-or-Treating together. Here she is, along with sister C-bao, who dressed up as Ariel this year.

K-Pop donned a silly hat for the festivities, something neither K-bao nor her mother was particularly happy about.

At the end of the night, K-bao goes through her treasure trove item by item and negotiates trade terms with C-bao.

Feeling Brave

Donning her most ambitious costume yet - complete with a flaming red wig - K-bao is Merida, the girl who turns her mother into a bear.

"Don't stay out too long, or I'll really become a bear!" warned K-Mum, who was concerned the weather was too cold for prolonged trick-or-treating.

Along the way, K-bao bargained and negotiated her way into additional homes to visit, as well as specific candies she wanted to make sure were carved out from K-Pop's rule that "All candies collected belong to the entire family" (namely, any purple ones, any particularly large chocolates, or others with unusually attractive wrappers).

One thing's for sure, our little one certainly has the independence, strong-will and feisty nature shared by her character (which appears to be a common theme in her Halloween costumes).