Halloween in the Bahamas

 

Wyatt, our bounty hunter. I realize this costume won't be winning any authenticity awards anytime soon, but I'm pretty proud of it. It's the first time I've ever really come up with an original costume. His helmet and jet pack were made of paper mache. I used packing paper and cardboard from moving boxes to make them. His vest is the one we bought to use in lieu of a car seat. We decided on camo pants to give it a bit of a military look. His snow boots would have worked better, but they are now under his bed in a small space behind the drawers. You have to pull the mattress and box spring off, then pull up the slats to get to them. Yeah, we weren't quite that ambitious yesterday.

And Oscar, who went as a soccer player. Sadly, we had to nix the turtle costume. He refused to wear anything that wasn't real clothes. He did, however, proudly announce at every house, "I a soccer player!" He's wearing his pumpkin bucket on his head because Wyatt discovered awhile ago that he could see out the eyes if he pulled it low enough. He taught Oscar that it was fun to wear them as "helmets". 

Ah, brothers. They keep us entertained!

Trick or treating this year was interesting. Oliver received an email a week or so ago with all the rules. There were hours set for it, and parts of housing were considered off-limits. If you lived in the family areas and wanted to participate, you just had to leave your porch light on. No one was supposed to knock on doors with the lights out.

I really liked this approach. Living on Bangor base in Washington, we were always inundated with kids from both the base and in town who would come on base for their trick or treating. The street was crowded with kids, and we typically had to hang a sign stating we had no candy or they would ring your bell until late. Here, all we had to do was turn out the light when the candy was gone.

They allowed the Bahamian employees to bring kids on base to participate. This was good because there are only about 40 kids that live here. It was interesting, though, to see how many of them didn't quite understand the concept. A lot of them weren't wearing costumes, and they rarely said "Trick or treat!" when they came to the door.

A lot of people really got into it here. They decked out their trailer and sat outside waiting for the kids to come by. One family had even built a small haunted house out of a screen house and blankets. Fake smoke was billowing out of it, and a guy in a mask was handing out candy in there. I never saw the inside, though, because Oscar took one look at it and screamed. I'm pretty sure Wyatt would have gone in there as we've taken him to a haunted house every year before now, but he wasn't going to do it alone. So, the masked man came out and handed them their candy.

One of the more amusing things about trick or treating here, though, were all the people who used their golf carts. They would drive down the street, let out the kids to hit up a few trailers, then drive on to the next set. Most people walked, us included, and we really didn't have to worry about cars. There are more golf carts on base than cars, and a lot of people who own cars have golf carts, too.

The boys filled their pumpkin buckets be the end of the third street, so Wyatt decided he was done. I was okay with this as I'd been carrying both Oscar and his full pumpkin the entire way. I didn't bring the stroller because I thought he would walk a good part of it. He was pretty freaked out by all the costumes and spooky decorations, though, so he wouldn't let me put him down. Oliver had stayed behind to give out candy in his pirate get-up (he had no shirt, so I'm not going to post it, but it was hilarious), so I wasn't able to get a break from carrying Oscar the entire 45 minutes we were out. My arms were shaking by the time we got back to the trailer.

All in all, it was a lot of fun. Definitely our most interesting Halloween to date, however. It was also the first Halloween that had me sweating by the end of the evening.