Halloween was pretty chill this year. My cousin Nancy hosted another party this year. She teamed up with a co-worker and used his house. Some of the cousins came out too.

The costumes:

No, we didn’t plan this out. The costumes were just convenient and easy to put together.

Adrian and Alexis as Diego and Dora; too bad you can’t see her really cute backpack… or Adrian’s purse satchel.

He’s not Clark Kent, he’s Calvin Ellis, Superman in Earth-23. Ellis is black. (I love it when he shows off his geeky side.)

Ingrid made a great sorceress.

I got worried when Nancy (R2-D2 in a tutu) started getting near the fire pit. Tutus are flammable, right?

Tony has had that mask forever. He used to scare me with it when I was a kid over 20 years ago.

Superheroes gotta eat.

And stay hydrated.

As for the day of, I went on a run in the neighborhood, checked out the decorations and dodged trick-or-treaters. A lot of people put up cool decorations and people drive in to the area. Despite seeing a bunch of trick-or-treaters a few blocks away, no one actually came to our apartment. Oh well, more candy for us.

How neat is this picture? That’s my brother Adrian attempting to make me the Victor Ortiz to his Floyd Mayweather.

I wanted another chance to wear my costume and celebrate Halloween. After work on Monday, I went for a short run and wore an orange tutu. I ran down whatever street in my neighborhood that seemed to have the most trick-or-treaters or nicely decorated homes. My favorite Halloween display featured a scary yard transformed filled with GOP presidential candidates in Emerald City, well Iowa City. All the candidates’ faces were taped over scarecrows and the door had a sign urging kids to knock for handouts.

They even had a cute tea party set-up. I didn’t get any trick-or-treaters at my apartment, but did see lots of kids out in the neighborhood and many homeowners decorated their homes or played Halloween music.

Later, Sean and I had tacos and drove over to West Hollywood. I wanted a chance to wear my costume again and also wanted to finally check out the Halloween madness in West Hollywood. It’s so close and I’ve never gone because the crowds and parking hassle intimidate me. Now that I’ve checked it out, it’s out of my system. It’s just way too crowded. I’m fine with large crowds at concerts or marches. At least in marches the crowd is moving in one direction and I always feel like I have an out. There were several moments on Santa Monica Boulevard where I felt trapped and could barely move. I’m fine with just checking out photos on the LA blogs. As for parking, that was easy only because we were willing to park in Beverly Hills and walks the rest of the way (about a mile). We stuck around for an hour before going home and watching Monday night TV.

At least I did see some impressive costumes. The best was the two women doing a tableau of The Two Fridas. They got all the details down in their costumes. I can’t imagine they did much walking. I’ve seen plenty of Frida Kahlo costumes, but never seen anyone go through such effort to really bring one of her self portraits to life.

I also liked the woman dressed up as La Virgen de Guadalupe.

As for Día de los Muertos, I skipped out on those events and honored my loved ones who have passed with a simple prayer. That feels more meaningful to me than dressing up, painting my face and buying lots of sugar-skull printed stuff at one of the many festivals in LA.

El Chapulín Colorado was one of the very first costumes I ever blogged about for the Halloween on a Budget series. I’m bringing it back because I decided it’d be the easiest costume for me to put together. I had everything in my closet save for the pair of yellow shorts.

Here’s what I recommended for the costume in 2007 along with my 2011 additions or omissions (in italics):

1. Red hoodie sweater (optional: a Chapulín Colorado t-shirt, but you still need to cover your arms)
I used my Chapulín Colorado t-shirt and layered it over a red long-sleeved shirt. I don’t have a red hoodie.

2. Some yellow fabric (felt would work) to make the heart and CH emblem
I didn’t need this since my t-shirt is already printed with the Chapulín Colorado emblem.

3. Bright yellow shorts
I found a cheap pair at one of those mall stores that sell no-name brand basics.

4. Red opaque tights
I bought a pair a couple of years ago at Target. Since I never wear them due to their brightness, they were still in good condition.

5. Antenitas de vinil, or red antennae with a yellow and red ball on the end (I found a pair at the 99 cents store, but they fit tight since they’re made for kids)
I don’t know what happened to my 99 cents store antennae. I made a pair with a $1 headband from the swap meet, yellow pipe cleaners glued to red fuzzy balls. I had the latter materials in my arts & craft box. I’ve been wanting to do this costume for a few years so I had the materials as a backup.

6. Red and yellow sneakers (like these)
I still have my Asics Tigers, but if I didn’t, I would have worn my red Chucks.

7. El chipote chillón (the red and yellow hammer)
Don’t have one. Less to hold while at Halloween parties!

8. Steady stream of famous phrases
The back of my shirt is printed with “no contaban con mi astucia!” That’s all I have.

9. I added a tiny pair of red and yellow earrings with a heart on them.