the boys were super excited and hyper about halloween. two of carter’s friends (paul and jeremiah) came over and ann and diane took max and the crew trick or treating in the neighborhood while I welcomed treaters to our house. this was max’s first time to trick or treat “old school” where you actually go around the neighborhood on halloween night. it’s funny how many other trick or treating opportunities there are these days. we always trick or treat at the baylor dorms the week before halloween and then max’s daycare has trick or treating. the last couple years we were at zoo boo (a party at the waco zoo) on halloween, which is fun, but not really trick or treating like we knew it as kids. the boys had a lot of fun going house to house and also answering the door at our house. we were afraid we wouldn’t have many kids at our house, but glad we prepared, we had about 25 or 30 by nights end. I enjoyed watching how excited the boys got about treaters coming to our door.
there were lots of cute treaters. one tiny transformer (maybe two feet tall) showed up and commenced with show and tell, holding up all the different kinds of candy he’d received so far. when i bent over with the bowl to place some candy in his pumpkin, he quickly went to work hand selecting for himself from my bowl enough to equal his weight in sugar! another favorite was a group of elementary school girls, who as they left, one said “I love your spiders, they’re very cool, AND your roses are growing beautifully! 🙂
As I got ready for the treaters, I recalled a memory I had in elementary school where I raced home from school, got dressed and headed out even before dark (back in the days when it seemed safe to head off on your own without parents watching carefully from the sidewalk). I went to the next door neighbor’s house (who didn’t have kids and clearly wasn’t prepared for treaters — especially before sun down!) he didn’t have any candy, but quickly improvised and offered me a coke (back when they were in glass bottles!). in honor of that memory, I sipped a coke (zero) as i sat on the front porch with a bowl full of candy, waiting for the first trick or treaters to arrive.
We have the “soda house” that buys cases of generic soda in all the vile fruit flavors and passes them out to trick or treaters. It’s become a tradition that we MUST find the soda house–it’s always the highlight of the night. This year, Becky was delighted with her can of grape soda.
I fear this was my last year trick or treating with my kids, Matt stayed home this year and the majority of Becky’s friends went parentless. Now I’ll have to hang out and hand out candy at someone else’s house, or find someone with little kids to walk with.