Halloween and beyond..

Halloween was so nice it was sort of surreal. Who trick-or-treats in 60-ish degree weather in ND?? My entire childhood we made costumes specifically designed to fit over a snowsuit and boots. IF you were lucky. The unlucky kids wore their costume underneath and then wondered why they bothered dressing up in the first place. I imagine those people opening the door and handing out candy wondered the same, or perhaps assumed there really was no costume on anyway. They didn't care it turns out, they just wanted to hurry up and shut the door again before their furnace kicked in for the ump-teenth time that evening. The last time I remember a Halloween this nice was when I was in high school. A group of us, in an effort to save the world one penny at a time, trick-or-treated for UNICEF. We wore sweatshirts and rollerblades and went door to door asking for spare change. Some people believed we were hustling them (even though we had the official UNICEF cardboard change boxed), others were nice and gave us not only paper money, but candy for our efforts.


It was P.M.'s first time out and about. She did well and caught on faster than M,D., who still is more interested in checking out the carved pumpkins and Halloween decor than actually knocking on doors for free candy. We went with another family with whom A.M. has a best friend. The big kids were usually a block and a half ahead of us, while M.D., P.M. and I brought up the rear, occasionally skipping houses to keep up. Another thing....who lets the kids pick from the bowl??? Speed it up and hand it out!! M.D. takes ten minutes deciding which morsel of chocolate is best to his liking at each stop. Usually he takes something, then changes his mind and ALSO takes the other thing. Sneaky. Maybe this is intentional...

We carved pumpkins the night before with our neighbors. Her family has a big garden with pumpkins that do not cost $3.99 each. I did not purchase any, stupid stores!!! We had fun scooping pumpkin guts out on to paper lining the floor. I was tempted to place J.C. INSIDE a pumpkin for a picture, but the thought of cleaning orange guts off his cute outfit changed my mind.





On another note:

Sunday.....heard from the back seat of the car screamed quietly in mock fear from a plastic robot:"Ahhh, we're going to crash into the Bowflex store and the pumpkins are attacking the tomatoes and I'm sick of this Imperial March song!!!!" some day I will write a book of all I hear from the driver's seat.

On one more note:

I voted. I am unhappy with the outcome. I will say I told you so later.