Happy Halloween (a few days late)

Before wheels - a fairy princess and Super Sam 2009

    We live in a big neighborhood.  Huge!  Lots of families, every street has a police officer living on it (no, really, you go down a street you will see a cop car parked at least one house), lights and soft curves that (are supposed to) deter fast driving.  So it is little wonder that there is always a huge turn out on Halloween night.
    Used to be really huge - like crazy.  You could have just taken the 30 or 50 bucks you spent on candy and thrown it and you woul
d have gotten rid of it in 30 seconds.  I remember when Emma was born.  She was a week old and I hadn't bought candy.  I remember sitting on the couch in our living room trying to nurse her and folks were knocking on the door and peering through the glass.  I didn't have the front light on either.
    When we first took Emma trick or treating, we went downtown.  One of the benefits of living in a small town is that there is a great sense of community.  We would park at the CVS, walk up to the church that had it's trunk or treat and come back the other side - that was it!  It was quick, safe and fast.  Then we would come home and just hand out candy.

Super Pink and Cowboy 2011

    Now that Jarrad is in wheels, we don't do that.  He stays home and I walk the kids up the street and then down.  It works.  But I hate it.  It is one of those things that I would like to do together.  And maybe, as he gets stronger and is in less pain (which I am hoping will happen after his HO surgery), we will do more of those things.  We can't do down town - too crowded and weird sidewalks but our neighborhood is nice.
    That's it for the "wheels" aspect of it and now onto other aspects.

Firefighter and fairy princess 2013

    I will give candy to anyone who comes to my door IF they make the effort to dress up.  If not, no candy for YOU!  And yes, I have refused candy.  I DARE you to egg or toilet paper my house!  I have some aggression I need to release especially now that I don't go to yoga (I miss yoga).  I read a really good article about older kids
that really spoke to my inner mom.  It was sweet.  But you still have to dress up  - and do kooky please, not scary and I will be generous.  The other article I read was about Christians
and how we perceive Halloween.  It made me think - hmmm, what could I do?  Something to mull on for next year.
    Something else to mull on is how to incorporate a "trick" into next year.  We went to a house where the couple was sitting on their porch and had 2 baskets.  One had candy and one was empty.  He asked which one they would like to pull from.  Well, my kids are like the one with the candy - duh!  Not the empty one.  I was a little nervous because I thought it was a "put your hand in and something will grab it" type of trick.  It wasn't.  Instead, he would reach in and pull out a red light and pop it in their baskets.  Of course, it would disappear but for a minute their eyes were big with wonder and it was neat.

    I like the innocent Halloween.  The one that is made up of dreams.