Happy Halloween!

I was disappointed I couldn't get one of the three kids, but I'm lucky I got this...

Is the weather ever nice on Halloween? The weather was great all day, right until dinner time, then the skies opened up. It started as a drizzle but turned into a full on downpour.

Halloween night is always the same. A completely mad rush at dinner time - trying to get everyone fed, make sure the candy is ready, pumpkins lit, kids dressed for trick or treating, dog corralled - so we're ready to roll when it's go time. The kids were so excited and pumped up from eating treats from Wyatt's school party, that no one wanted dinner so I gave up.  Trick or treat in our neighborhood is from 6-8 but the doorbell started ringing at 5:30. They came in droves. I had a major stash prepared this year so I was ready for them.

Wyatt was a little scared when he saw the kids in the masks and started having second thoughts about going out, but Dayven was able to talk him into it. He mustered up the courage and headed out, pep talking himself all the way down the sidewalk "It's just pretend.... it's not real....". He was off before I even had a chance to get a picture of all of them together. It was really raining by then, so Dayven took the big kids out while Tate and I stayed home to answer the door. Tate was so fired up when he realized he'd only been dressed up and invited outside for a photo op. He threw a major fit and flung himself on the floor. He started stomping around the dining room and rearranging furniture to further drive his point home. He tried to escape again when I answered the door for more trick or treaters and went into full on tantrum mode in the foyer when I stopped him in with a group of mortified onlookers. It was like a rabid Curious George. It was just too rainy and crowded out and Dayven had his hands full with the other two. There will be other years, Tate. I felt bad not handing out candy to the other kids so I stayed back home. I missed seeing the kids out doing their thing so we'll have to figure out a better solution next year. Our neighbor who left their bowl on the porch said the entire bowl got dumped in the first kid's bag so that idea doesn't work.

He pushed this chair all the way into the kitchen, because that's what you do when you're mad.

I had to step over him to pass out candy for the next 10 minutes. Finally he gave up and moved on.

They made it up our street and the next cul-de-sac down before heading back home. Their pumpkins were full. I noticed most kids have abandoned pumpkins in favor of pillow cases. I guess we can't fit enough artificial dye and high fructose corn syrup in the tiny pumpkins. Ok, I'm sorry, my post won't be about that. I squelched my inner food critic for the night and let them enjoy themselves. Hadley is a sweets junkie and couldn't get enough. Wyatt said the candy was too sweet and asked for an apple instead. This guy!  I think they like the idea more than anything. I secretly pitched a few of the really sugary dyed items, but left the chocolate bars and chips of course.

Argh, Mateys! Captain Jack Sparrow...

It was fun to see everyone dressed up and chat with the neighbors as they came to the door. When the kids got home, they loved racing to the door everytime the doorbell rang to see the costumes. They might have liked that more than the actual trick or treating. We were amazed how many kids knew Wyatt, kids we'd never met. One princess said "Hi Wyatt!" and started talking to him. He paused and asked "WHO are you??" She said "I'm Brooke, your bus buddy!!" meaning they sit together every day on the bus. We laughed about that one for a while. I guess the princess costume threw him.

I'd estimate we had about 100 kids, of all ages. The girls were most polite and chatty. Pretty much all were dressed up. Everyone loved the pumpkins and commented on them. They were even coming from the next neighborhood over. We gave out juice boxes and when those ran out, we moved on to fruit snacks. I was cracking up when Wyatt put some fruit snacks in their bag and said "Be careful guys! They have corn syrup!" My poor kids are so corrupted. I had a few full size candy bars that I gave to the big kids on our street. Even the freshman were out. It was a great night but I'm glad it's over. Later in the night we had an awful storm and lost power for a couple of hours. The wind was so bad we had to collect our Halloween decorations from the neighbor's yard the next day. Thankfully a little rain was all we had to contend with.

Trick or treat!

He loved going through the kids' loot.

He smelled everything, yelled something in his language and threw them down.

We lost count of how many pieces this one ate.

All nice and dry in their glow-in-the-dark PJs.