Halloween 2010: The Madness

This year was our 2nd year 'neighborhood hopping'.  Last year we went to the Huff's for pizza and trick or treating, and this year it was the Howard's for Lukas' 5th birthday, trick or treating and again... pizza!

Since before we were married, Ryan and I used to hand out candy at his parents' house.  For Porter's first two Halloweens our tradition stayed the same... we spend the evening at Ryan's parent's house handing out candy (and taking Porter to a couple houses).  Since Cathy passed away, we have stopped our tradition.  Our first Halloween in our house we went to the neighborhood on the other side of the school.  It seemed like the houses were really spaced out in terms of who was handing out candy.  It just seemed like a LOT of walking for the kids to even visit 5 houses.  We decided that we'd try out different areas in the coming years.

The Howards live in a subdivision that is very popular at Halloween.  We'd heard it was "popular" but seriously... we had no idea.  A friend of ours whose parents live there said they had purchased 25 bags of candy.  Really?  No way.  Yes, really!  When we first set out, around 5:30ish, we thought "Oh this is great!  There are lots of kids out trick or treating, lots of houses passing out candy... how fun!   But oh my goodness... halfway through the trick or treating hours, the neighborhood was a mob!  They had run out of candy halfway through... LeeAnn had bought 3 large ($8) bags of candy and I'd brought over 4 smaller ($3-$4) bags of candy. We thought it'd be enough!  So I ran to get pizza and 5 more bags of candy and as I left the neighborhood I saw the madness that had over come.... literally cars lined every street all the way out to the main road!  I couldn't believe how many people came from other areas to trick or treat!  At first I'd felt weird taking the kids there b/c it wasn't "our neighborhood" but seeing how many other people drove in, and given that we'd contributed to the candy stash to off set what our kids received, I didn't feel bad at all.

The kids had such a blast!  Hudson was really into it this year and ran around yelling "Trick or Treat!"  Porter and Lukas walked the entire neighborhood (uhm... I'd say 8 to 10 streets with cul-de-sacs?) with Tony and came back with buckets full of goodies.

By 8:00 I was ready for bed.... 2 sessions + running errands + birthday party + trick or treating= exhausting day!