The Best Part of Halloween!

It was a great Halloween! We had 92 kids this year, 12 over the candy bags we made, but after almost running out last year, we were WELL prepared. Actually, we have quite a bit left over. I was uneasy and bought a bag of Twizzlers, Milk Duds, Whoppers and Reese's Pieces today, just to be totally sure. We didn't end up needing to open that, but I'm glad I bought it just the same. I love Neon Twizzlers!

Baggle stuck around for a little bit but retreated upstairs when the kids came up. Kline was very brave this year and spent most of the evening downstairs, even looked out the door a few times, but was NOT near it when the kids were there.

Great preparation - 12 bags shy and plenty to make that up!

We had three "tiers" of candy. Tier one was fun size candy bar and packages of Goobers and Raisinettes. Tier two was Bit O Honey, Sweet Tarts, Sprees, Smarties and Sweet Tart Chews. Tier three was Tootsie Roll midges. Every bag got one tier one, two tier twos and three tier threes for six pieces of candy in each bag. Starting with an assortment and filling each bag with random selections means that if friends trick or treating together like one thing better than another they can trade and "customize" their treats. Also if one sibling is allergic to nuts or an ingredient in one of the candies, they can trade with a sibling who doesn't have the allergy. Yeah, I know, that probably doesn't happen all the time, but if it does, I'm glad we do it the way we do.

Mr. Pumpkinhead 09

We didn't do a carved pumpkin this year. I just didn't have time and as simple as Mr. Pumpkinhead was last year, it was quite a task for me! I'm not saying I won't carve a pumpkin again, but I don't feel obligated to do it. This year, David did Sharpie Artistry on "Mr. Pumpkinhead 09!” Since it was too cold to sit on the porch this year, we put one of the TV tables on the porch with our drawn pumpkin under the porch light. We set up the folding chairs near the door to greet the kids. I wore my Halloween "Batty-Boppers" with my orange and black mace earrings. David wore a railroad safety vest and helmet, our "Bob the Empire Builder!"” The kids were pleased with our costumes.

Star Wars was big this year as far as costumes go. We saw a pair of Storm Troopers at the beginning of the treat hours and there was a sweet Princess Leah later too. There was a very shy "puppy dog" Who David insisted he say "the magic words."” He shyly said "trick or treat," and upon receiving his candy shyly looked up and said "thank you."” The most memorable costume tonight was a young man wearing a great "Chucky" costume, from the horror film Child's Play, red hair, stitches and all. He walked up and boldly introduced himself as Chucky, our "friend to the end," totally in character, totally cool!

Most of the kids said "thank you" or "Happy Halloween" after we put the candy in the bags, some of them both. We also had Lindt truffles that we gave Moms and Dads who were accompanying their little ones. A couple of them tried to put them in their kid's bag, but we stopped them and made sure they knew it was a Mom and Dad treat.” Upon taking a second look at the candy, eyes got wider and another thank you as the truffle went into Mom or Dad's pocket. The kids think their parent got a smaller treat because they only got one piece of candy, but the parents appreciated our way of saying "thanks for being great parents and keeping the kids safe."”

All in all, it was another great Halloween in Toledo!

Things o look forward to in the next few days, tomorrow I'll do a layout with Veelana's newest kit, A Tale of Magic and Monsters with my Halloween photos and we're looking at Monday afternoon for Yaz's homecoming! I wish we could do it tomorrow, but we won't have the time we really need to help the cats meet each other tomorrow, so Monday it is.