Kids Carnival 2009: Tootsie Rolls and more! / Baby Names Spellings

Henry picked me up, and we spent the ride over mainly talking about Halloween / the time change / his nieces / the flu / trick-or-treating. I'm surprised that he never really did go from house to house... I did that till I was in Grade 7, and then we started Kids Night the next year at church. He also asked me whether I'd had Vietnamese coffee before - yup, I have! Apparently, he had his first today, and was telling me how BITTER it was: "How can you DRINK it?!" I joked that my brother would say he needed to switch to a durian shake, but he didn't like the idea much, haha.

When we got to church, I saw a bunch of people setting up and doing last-minute costumes. Dad saw Zoe and Phoebe pass by with a bunch of candy, and said that they would be the most popular people around, haha. William decided to be a Sparkie, and his uniform from years ago still fit! Andrew said that his was too heavy (he was a GOOD kid and earned lots of awards!), but he managed to wear it too. Joked around with Stanley, Margaret, Hien, Hannah, Bob, Darren, Vania, Vanessa, Jeremy Y., Julie S. as an Oreo, Julie C. (as a Blackberry), Emily and Mike (as purple and green grapes respectively - yay for balloons!), Angus, Phil, and others. Told Chrystal that I decided to be boring this year as usual... Henry had a doctor costume on, heh. John said that Ada and the kids were sick... too bad!

The kids looked SO cute with their costumes! Said hi to Jennifer, Auntie Kam (a nurse), Amos (a dragon rider!), Winnie, Megan, Connor (Eeyore!), Jordan, Johnny, Mira, Midora, Priscilla, John and Sophia, Anne and Olivia (fairy princesses!), Frances, Micah, Sabrina x2, Noah (a pumpkin), Benjamin (a lion), Stella, Jeff, Allison, Joshua, Nathaniel (a doctor like Daddy), Abigail, Daryl, Darren (Superman), Sean, Conor, John and Luke, and a bunch of others. There were a few new kids, of course... two of them were named Hovan and Heman - THOSE ARE NOT NAMES! I think Eric has a friend with the name Hovan, but that still doesn't make it a name! (and no, I don't think Heman has a sister named Shera / Shira)

Midway through the proceedings (I was busy helping the kids with their points and doling out prizes), Chris and Henry said that I might need to get another ride home, because Henry and John had to leave right then. After I asked Auntie Rebecca, I said I'd stay since she could give me a ride. (and I wanted a chance at some free candy... which I got later!) Brian told his brother Padraic to hurry up since he had to trick-or-treat later on. Wow, you're certainly maximizing your candy there! The older kids would probably do something like that, yeah... I would do the same thing, haha.

Saw Raymond dressed as a pirate (he has the pale skin for it :P), and Vivian as Bob the Tomato from VeggieTales. Viv said she was going through a lot of blueberries from the crepe-making yesterday, haha. When things wound down, EVERYONE got a chance at the Coffee Crisp / Dots / Aero / Smarties / Starburst / Fuzzy Peach / Swedish Berries / Sour Patch Kid / Tootsie Rolls (chocolate, lime, lemon, vanilla, cherry, and orange?!) / Fruit Mania / other candy leftovers in the huge bowls. Good thing we had some leftover paper bags, although I noted that a couple people had plastic bags - even better, haha! Told Anita that Steph had been very surprised and excited to hear her baby news, yay!

Alerted Auntie Rebecca that I was ready to go when Phil announced to the teens that pizza would be coming in a bit. I settled down outside to listen to Hannah, Natalie, Julie C., and Michelle talk about stuff: ex-boyfriends, "I HATE MY EX" groups on Facebook, and more. Michelle told the younger girls that she couldn't believe her mom had asked her if she'd had sex yet. When I heard that, I had to jump in and say I had a better story than that. I said that MY mom had once asked me whether I was PREGNANT just because I slept over at a male online friend's house once! They were laughing and going "OMG" about it when Auntie Rebecca asked if I were ready to go - yup, certainly! Michelle's 15, and the others are about 13, so maybe they're a little YOUNG - but at least I didn't get into graphic details. I was still mindful of my environment, after all. ;)

Auntie Rebecca and I discussed my Facebook activities, Facebook photos, moving being a pain with STUFF, her daughter Genevieve (whom we picked up), HER best friend having H1N1, NBC vice-presidents, English / Chinese divide in her fellowships, and more. She asked whether I had a boyfriend - nope, I broke up with my ex when he turned out to be not so good! Then she wondered whether Steph had a boyfriend - not yet, and I'm pretty sure on that one. She asked about Jon and Harmony, and wondered whether the "valuable" Eric and Jeremy had girlfriends yet, haha. "Red and Yellow, Black and White" indeed! Genevieve said it was NOT the night to drive tonight - oh, certainly not! Got home and talked to Eric H. for a bit... Nate will be in Hong Kong from early December to mid-January! Packed one Tootsie Roll each in a Ziploc bag for Amos, Amanda, Esther, Conor, David, and Evelyn. Might get some more on-sale candy tomorrow or in the days to come... we'll see!


Baby Names spellings?

Aliah or Alleah? Neither.
Breanna or Brianna? Brianna.
Micheal or Michael? Michael.
John or Jon? John.
Abigail or Abbigail? Abigail.
Addyson or Adison? Neither.
Micheala or Michaela? Michaela.
Lindsey or Lindsay? Lindsay.
Emily or Emalee? Emily.
Melonie or Melanie? Melanie.
Leah or Lea? Leah.
Rianna or Reanna? Neither.
Rhianna or Rihanna? Neither.
Ashlyn or Ashlen? Ashlyn.
Isabelle or Isabella? Isabella.
Bridget or Bridgit? Bridget.