Halloween Trick or Treat

Halloween at the Gray house.   I had the entire day off with the boys to celebrate and it was a blast.  The boys finished painting the left over pumpkins from our pumpkin painting party.  Sometimes craft projects can be quick lived in our house but both boys surprisingly put a lot of time and energy into the project and made sure the entire pumpkin was covered with paint.  I love Cole's tongue sticking out as he concentrats on his pumpkin.         

We went to the mall early in the afternoon to do some playing, shopping and have dinner before trick or treating at the stores. Cole did a last minute costume change before the big day and ended up going in his new lightening McQueen jammies, with his Lightening McQueen car costume over the jammies and a superhero cape and mask over the car costume. He was a bad Lightening McQueen super hero. Whatever he was, Cole got a lot of looks. I thought he was adorable.

The boys saw the Chick-fil-a cow during our pizza dinner which was a treat for Case. We saw Santa roaming around the mall which was the next big treat for the boys. We strolled around the mall and collected smarties and dumdums from the stores for an hour.  We packed up and left just as it was getting crazy crowded. Perfect timing. But before we left we caught up with Cora and Emmie for a photo op. 

After the mall, we went home for the piece de resistance, door to door trick or treating in the neighborhood. It was a little chilly outside but the boys were hard core, gung ho and ready to go. Since the houses in our neighborhood are on ½ acre plots I took the car and we drove to different streets, hit the house close to the car, got back in the car, warmed up and drove on. If you want some serious candy, come to our neighborhood next year. We don’t have a lot trick or treaters because our neighborhood doesn’t have street lights. So by the time we started going door to door around 7 trick or treating was winding down. People were excited to see anyone at their door and desperate to pawn off some of their load. The houses were shoveling double fist fulls of candy in both buckets. 

Everything about neighborhood trick or treating was exciting. In fact, I don’t know what was more exciting. Getting to sit in the back seat without buckling in, piling out of the car at a running pace, ringing door bells (a treat in and of itself), being handed gobs of candy, squealing with delight as they looked at what they were given or plotting the next house to hit.  

Once it was all over we came home for the traditional dumping of the candy. I am now totally convinced that Halloween is the most wasteful holiday around. We have at least 4 plastic pumpkins full of candy. Plus all the candy I bought to hand out on the off chance we were home early and I could pass some stuff out. We all had a great time, but now I am looking for a charitable organization to donate our chocolate masses. Halloween 2013 Hooray!