Pumpkins, Costumes and Too Much Candy

So yesterday we carved our second pumpkin and then headed out to the local mall to take part in the trick or treating that they put on. This is one of the quieter malls I've ever been to and we thought based on our experience of mostly empty stroll ways that it would be similar to what we did last year. Can I just say bad idea? OK, it was a bad idea. It was a mad house with wall to wall people and chaos chaos chaos. We lasted twenty minutes before we decided to head home for dinner.

Dinner was a done and over with quickly with no need from us to prompt the Peanut to eat and then it was back into costume and out the door to go door to door. We went around in a two block circuit and hit any house that had their porch lights on or had jack-o-lanterns, skeletons or cobwebs all over their front door. Even with a large number of homes dark, the Peanut soon required that Daddy hold onto her bag between houses. When we got home and started to sort her treats we soon learned why.

People in this neighborhood like to give out full sized candy bars. In one case she was given a 131gr (a little over 4oz) box of chocolates. They also like to hand out fist fulls of candy. The ones that let their trick or treaters choose encourage picking just one or two more pieces. We should be up to our eyeballs in treats well into November.



As for giving out candy, we had a whopping 5 kids. There may have been more out while we were doing our rounds but from what I saw probably not too many more. The Husband will be taking a nice big bag of mini Tootsie pops to work in an effort to reduce the amount of candy in the house. It's going to be a test of will power on my part to keep away from the tempting chocolates.

Yesterday was a day of catching up, resting

and recovering. Last week with the husband home sick for two days and getting ready for Saturday's festivities; things got left undone which meant that come Sunday morning the house was a mess and the laundry was in arrears.

So yesterday was catch-up time and nap time and walk down the hill to the independent grocery store and pick up a few things for dinner time.

Our Halloween was the best yet even with the small number of Trick or Treaters we had come to the door. Our neighborhood is surrounded by schools, there are at least three elementary schools within walking distance from our house and I see kids walking to and from school all the time. I was sure that we would be swamped with kids. I even asked our neighbor how many kids she usually gets each year (she said about 100) and we bought for that number and then added more. We were covered in every sense of the word for the onslaught but it didn't come.

We left a little later than I thought we would and we were the only ones on our block for a good 45 minutes. This meant the Peanut was loaded down with treats galore on her travels. We sent the Husband home after 45 minutes to answer the door and hand out our offerings. We loaded his pockets down with treats to make room for more and when it was all said and done the peanut scored a huge salad bowl of chocolate and (as she says it) lommy pops and other candies.

We weren't far behind the Husband on our trick or treating and when we arrived home there had been no-one to the door. We got our first treaters at 8:30 and our last at 10:30. Our visitors reached just below 20 and that's including the 6 university students going door to door to collect for the food bank. So we are loaded down with the Peanut's treats and the left overs from our offerings to the spooky crowds. Our gingerbread house and people will be candied to the Nth degree this year.

In the lower mainland where we live Halloween isn't just about the candy it's also about setting off fireworks and other loud explosives. From our living room window we could see the fireworks going off as close as a few doors down and as far away as the tall condo's by the large shopping center in Burnaby. It made for a very loud night.

Last year the Peanut didn't really "get" Halloween until the part where she started to pay attention to what the nice people were putting into her bag. This year she was excited about the festivities well in advance and is already looking forward to next year's parties, activities and trick or treating. How did your night go? Did you have few visitors to your door this year? Celebrate your beloved dead? Did you go to a party? The Rocky Horror Picture Show? Or did you have a quiet night in with a scary movie?

It wasn't just my laundry and house cleaning that I've been neglecting; I have a few blog housekeeping items that I'll be posting about tomorrow. See you then.

I love dressing up

for Halloween and my preferred costume is one that I made the year I met my husband. It's a simple costume that I've added and subtracted to over the years. In the last 16 years I've only missed wearing it a total of 3 years.

It was simple to make. Making it was one of the reasons that I decided to do my best to make all of the Peanut's costumes if I could. So far I've been pretty good with it:

City Mouse/ kitty cat at 4 months




Cowboy Fairy Princess


Ladybug/ ladybug Princess





and this year we'll be trying for ladybug butterfly actual costume title is yet to be determined.

As for me, I'll be putting on my costume too