We had our annual orgy of candy. The kids had fun. Never let it be said that Americans are not generous. My kids came home with piles of candy. It can definitely be said that Americans are wasteful.
Our trick or treat crew started out with 5 kids and three adults. (Link’s best friend and his parents came back to town for a visit and trick or treating.) By house three, the older kids were seriously out-distancing poor Patches. I stayed behind to walk more slowly with him, while the older kids dashed from house to house. Gleek got to be one of the older kids this year, much to her delight. Patches hit about 7 houses and then declared that his hands were cold. Since temperatures were already sub-freezing, I suggested that maybe he’d like to go home and eat his candy. I deposited him with Howard at the house, and went to catch up with the others. By the time I’d chased them down, Kiki had peeled off to stay with a group of girls and trick or treat with them. Then there were three. A few houses later, Gleek began complaining of the cold. She decided that going home sounded nice. I left Link to continue on with his friend and parents. They stayed out for another 20 minutes, then arrived back in the warm. Kiki was out much longer, but had loads of fun. (This paragraph has me wanting to compose a little poem ala 5 little ducks, only with 5 little trick or treaters.)
For me Halloween is exhausting. It goes like this: Scramble to get kids fed and costumed in the morning. Drop Link at school. More costume scramble. Drop Kiki and Gleek at school. Home for awhile. Kindergarten costume parade. Home for awhile. Pick up Gleek. School-wide costume parade. Home for awhile. Pick up Link from school. Home for awhile. Pick up Kiki from school. Drive to a friend’s company for a mini halloween event. Go back home. Scramble to feed the kids something with actual protien in it. Scramble to reassemble costumes, kids, buckets, & glow-sticks for trick or treating. Accompany kids for trick or treating. Go back home. Answer the door a lot. Negotiate with each child the amount of candy they can actually keep. Make tired and sugar-hyper children go to bed. No wonder I’m exhausted by the end of it all.
The one piece that I really enjoy is being outdoors at night. I love that everywhere we go in the neighborhood, we see people we know. I get to walk in the dark, feel the cool air, and wave to my friends, who are also accompanying their children. I love this neighborhood.
Final note: Did you know that if you take glowing glow-sticks and put them into the freezer, it slows the chemical reactions enough that they stop glowing? When you pull it out, the reactions start up again. My kids have made glow-sticks last for a week (or more) by pulling them out for an hour of after-dark play, then putting them back.
I hear you about exhausted. Even just handing out candy was exhausting. Especially when a family with small kids rand our doorbell ALOT at 8:30pm after we had turned off our outside light and put kids to bed!
It was just too cold this year and there weren’t very many trick or treaters. I even let one of the last ones to come to my house take a big handful.
We ended up with 3 LARGE bowls of candy. I figure we don’t have to buy any cookies to put in lunches for the rest of the year! 🙂
I hear you about exhausted. Even just handing out candy was exhausting. Especially when a family with small kids rand our doorbell ALOT at 8:30pm after we had turned off our outside light and put kids to bed!
It was just too cold this year and there weren’t very many trick or treaters. I even let one of the last ones to come to my house take a big handful.
We ended up with 3 LARGE bowls of candy. I figure we don’t have to buy any cookies to put in lunches for the rest of the year! 🙂
GlowStickInfo
While nto as easy to find, and a bit mroe expensive at first, Electric glowsticks are fun to have. They are nothing mreo or less than a piece of molded shater resistant plastic with a few embedded leds and an on off switch. Most run off of a sinlge watch battery. The multi color ones can be found online for about 4.99 each, they have multiple settings, including strobe affects and the like so that they can be twirled to create fans and discs of light in the dark. Plus they are bright enough that a kid caryring one can be very easily seen when running around in the yard at night.
Hit http://www.bewild.com/3coelglrgrbl.html to see what the sticks are like, I have an all white light one with a single red backup bli9nker led for low power use, i use it as a safety marker at work to make sure folks dont try to walk into the elevator i am wokring on.
GlowStickInfo
While nto as easy to find, and a bit mroe expensive at first, Electric glowsticks are fun to have. They are nothing mreo or less than a piece of molded shater resistant plastic with a few embedded leds and an on off switch. Most run off of a sinlge watch battery. The multi color ones can be found online for about 4.99 each, they have multiple settings, including strobe affects and the like so that they can be twirled to create fans and discs of light in the dark. Plus they are bright enough that a kid caryring one can be very easily seen when running around in the yard at night.
Hit http://www.bewild.com/3coelglrgrbl.html to see what the sticks are like, I have an all white light one with a single red backup bli9nker led for low power use, i use it as a safety marker at work to make sure folks dont try to walk into the elevator i am wokring on.
I love the glowstick hint! Thanks!
I love the glowstick hint! Thanks!