Trick or Treat, Smell our Feet...:)

Give us something good to eat! I must note here, that if our son were finishing this chant, he would conclude with something about pulling down your underwear if you don't...ah, television.

We had a great time trick-or-treating on Halloween. Our Halloween began with our traditional first stop at Grandma Paula's house. After that, we enjoyed dinner at the Blakemore's, and then the kids went and participated in a trunk or treat sponsored by a nearby church. We then headed up and around The Square, where again, the treats abounded. Above is a picture of Connor (pirate mummy) and Kylee (Tinkerbell) with Georgia (the flower fairy) and Georgia's friend, Tiernan (a bride).

The kids both made quite a haul. Now, three weeks later, we have polished off the "good" candy. Now the residual Smarties, Now N Laters, and Tootsie Rolls will sit in the cannister on our kitchen counter until Easter, at which time they will meet the bottom of the trash can in order to make room for chocolate eggs (which trump Smarties any day of the week in this house).

Prior to Halloween, the kids were excited to carve their pumpkins:

Kylee actually just painted hers, and then enjoyed making her own design with the carving tool (which resembled more of just a hole in the pumpkin rather than an actual jack-o-lantern face). However, over time, we have learned the hard way that it is certainly NOT in our best interest to advise our daughter on her artistic creations (particularly when she is holding a carving tool).

Connor and I were grocery shopping on Halloween. A man came on the loudspeaker and announced "Happy Halloween! Today all our pumpkins are FREE!". The pumpkins were in a big pile outside the front door. We already had our pumpkins for the kids. But...the word free invokes some kind of strange adrenaline rush in me. I looked at Connor, said "We've got to hurry!", and made a mad dash for the front of the store (I was somewhat impaired in my mad dash by my cart that was heaped with groceries). We abandoned the cart in the entryway of the store and ran outside. Connor picked his pumpkin (with me standing there chanting "Hurry, Hurry!"...I was afraid an innocent stocker was going to try to put our abandoned groceries away), and I picked out one for Kylee. Just what our cart needed...two huge pumpkins. But they were FREE! We paid for our groceries and went out to the car. I decided in that moment that I wanted to pick up one more pumpkin...for Caden. I debated, and then went and grabbed one more (after all, they were FREE!)...telling myself that really, decorations look better in odd numbers rather than even numbers. Later, I realized that it was okay to pick out a pumpkin for Caden...for no other reason than I just wanted to.

Now, our free pumpkins grace our porch. All three of them.