DOUBLE TREAT




Halloween 2004 was a much-anticipated holiday at the Sereno residence.

This year, I made sure to get my costumes early, jumping on a Spiderman costume I encountered at WalMart weeks before October. It was size 4-6, perfect for my son Lance. I wanted to get a Power Rangers costume for Troy, but unfortunately, there was none in his size. I vowed to look for a size 2-4 one elsewhere, but every place I looked had nothing but the next size up.

The buildup to Halloween was exacerbated by Lance's kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Ortega, who kept sending home ghost, pumpkin and scarecrow themed homework as soon as Fall kicked in. She even sent home a poem for Lance to memorize:

Jack o' lantern, big and scary
Some are sad and some are merry
Some are big and some are small
And some don't have no teeth at all!

I noticed that the word "big" was used twice, and I wasn't too happy about the double negative in the last line, but I guess grammar rules, like all other rules, were made to be broken. Besides, the poem was catchy enough that even Troy was reciting it within days, so I spared Mrs. Ortega the technicality.

Halloween anticipation reached a fever pitch when Lance's kindergarten class went on a field trip to Farmer Woody's Pumpkin Patch in nearby Salida, CA. The children's families were allowed to come, so Troy, Reanna and I followed the big yellow school bus in our little white minivan.

The field trip was held last October 18, a date of great significance for me because it also happened to be my Dad's fifth death anniversary. After recounting my Halloween ghost stories, I was almost sure my Dad would be making his presence felt in the pumpkin patch, in his usual non-threatening way, of course.

I wasn't disappointed. I took the next picture at Farmer Woody's petting zoo. If you click on it to enlarge it, you'll see a perfect orb hovering about Troy's head.




I saw that orb upon reviewing my shot, immediately after taking the picture. It was only a few seconds ago however, when I enlarged the picture myself in my computer, that I noticed a second, smaller orb suspended above Lance, almost perfectly hidden in the tractor wheel.

After noticing that second orb, I gave all my other pictures a second look, and found another orb, located at the exact same spot where the smaller orb was, only bigger this time.




Seeing this picture now, there is no doubt in my mind: Daddy took that field trip with us. He was, in fact, posing for pictures with his grandsons.

My mind wanders years back, to the day Daddy gave us a big surprise for Halloween. I must've been in fourth or fifth grade. Daddy told me and my sister, Maya, to get dressed and then he proceeded to take us on a trip up North to Pampanga. Daddy kept our destination a surprise until we were actually there: Clark Air Base, which was still a U.S. military base at the time.

Daddy took us first to the cafeteria, where we had the best meatloaf with mashed potatoes and gravy we'd ever tasted in our lives, washed down with a curious-tasting soft drink called "Dr. Pepper". It was our first taste of "authentic American fare", and we loved it.

After our meal, we thought we were going back home. Little did we know that Daddy had the entire evening planned for us. He had a friend who lived in the base who had two daughters our age. They lent us masks (since we didn't have costumes on) and together, all four of us girls joined other kids of American servicemen as they went trick or treating around the base.

I couldn't believe how much candy we got. At that time, imported (or "PX") candy was still hard to come by, and there I was with a year's supply of Sugar Daddies, Fruit Stripes, jelly beans, candy corn, and enough M&Ms, Three Musketeers, Milky Way, Mars and Hershey bars to set me down the road to CHOCOHOLISM for the rest of my life.

It was my first trick or treating experience, and by far my most memorable. After that, I went through a whole "Halloween" phase, borrowing all the Halloween books in the library that I could find, even naming a black kitten I found "Halloween". To this day, I am still an encyclopedia on little-known facts about the holiday. Did you know, for instance, that Halloween, or All Hallows Even, originated from the druids and Celts, and during that time, jack-o'-lanterns were made out of turnips instead of pumpkins?

Pumpkins...pumpkins! I am brought back to the present, and my sons' trip to the pumpkin patch. Lance and Troy had a field day. Lance's class went on a hay ride, followed by a visit to the corn maze. Then came the petting zoo, which I already mentioned, where my two boys squealed with delight at handling the various baby farm animals. There was also a huge turkey that seemed to be stalking Lance, but that's another story altogether.


(Playing with the piglets.)


(That Billy Goat's about to butt you, Lance!)


(Troy pets the spotty calf.)


After that, Lance and Troy got to drive a tractor...


(Lance drives a John Deere.)


(Now it's Troy's turn.)


...before choosing their own pumpkins.


(Knee-deep in pumpkins.)


(Troy got a BIG one!)


(Lance lines up with his pumpkin, marked "Lorenzo".)


Then everyone had a picnic lunch out in the field. The parents were instructed to pack a sack lunch for their kids, but I might have overdone it a bit. My little family occupied a corner of the spread tarpaulin, sharing ham sandwiches, cinnamon bread sticks, circus animal crackers, apples, bananas, juice and pistachio nuts. Mrs. Ortega's eyes widened when she saw our spread, but she looked the other way and wisely kept her silence.

After eating, Lance and Troy posed for pictures before getting ready to leave.







Amazingly, when I asked them what it was they enjoyed most about their trip to the Pumpkin Patch, both of them said it was jumping on the bales of hay.


(Lance takes a leap...)


(...with Troy on his tail.)


This is why I love the magic of childhood, which suffuses even the simplest activities and makes them FUN! Sadly, someone who obviously does NOT have a grasp on this concept ran away with Lance's pumpkin, even though his name was emblazoned on it, with black marker, no less.

But children are forgiving, and Lance went back to choose another pumpkin without any fuss. This time, he wisened up, choosing a much smaller pumpkin so he could take it with him wherever he went. And he DID, keeping a close eye on it the whole time.

Alas, both pumpkins didn't end up jack-o'-lanterns as Mommy considers these to be fire hazards. We still have both pumpkins, the smaller one in Lance's desk and the bigger one in our garage, fully functional as a doorstop.

The days on the calendar went swiftly by like the falling leaves of autumn until finally...IT WAS HALLOWEEN!

Shortly before sunset, I layered my boys' clothing, starting with t-shirts under their warm pajamas.




Then I bundled them up in their costumes. I had long given up on finding Troy a Power Rangers costume in his size. Instead, I recycled Lance's old Bob the Builder costume, and dressed him up as a SCARECROW!




Looking at this picture, I can almost hear my boys utter those timeless words...

"Trick or treat!"


(See those pajamas peeking out from behind?)


Lance and Troy were so excited, going from house to house, carrying their glow sticks and watching their buckets fill up with candy. Lance, being almost 5, is already a veteran at this. Through the years he's been a bumblebee, Po the Teletubby, Bob the Builder and a firefighter. This year, he was in full Spiderman gear, from head (mask) to toe (glow-in-the-dark Spidey shoes), but he got rid of the mask when he got outside because he couldn't see much.

Troy, on the other hand, is still new to the experience. It isn't his first time though. Two years ago, he donned Lance's baby bumblebee costume and went trick-or-treating, following his kuya in his stroller, and last year he was Thomas the Tank Engine at our church's Fall Festival.

Since the phrase "trick or treat" was generally frowned upon in church, Troy never really got to say it until THIS year, but it didn't take him long to warm up to the concept. Pretty soon, he was joining his big brother, Lance, ringing doorbells, waiting patiently untiil someone appeared, saying "trick or treat!" in chorus with his kuya, and eagerly extending his bucket in anticipation.

Towards the end of the session, however, Troy, in true three-year-old fashion, cut through the bullsh*t. Instead of saying "trick or treat", he simply said "CANDY!" and people generally complied.

We knew he was getting tired when he started asking "now can I have my candy?" after every house we visited. When Lance started complaining he was cold, we knew it was time to stop. So we piled into Vanna, our minivan, and proceeded to McDonald's to fill their tummies in anticipation of the coming candy onslaught.


(Halloween dinner at McDonald's.)


Alas, the candy onslaught never came. The buildup to it was so exhausting, both of my boys fell fast asleep before we even got home.

And so Daddy carried them up to their beds, (with visions of sugar bombs dancing in their heads), their teeth unbrushed, but just for tonight.

With Mommy about to take the serious task of closely examining EACH piece of candy to weed out the questionable ones, we figured it was time to heed that old adage...

Let sleeping children lie.