Since when do holidays last for four days anyway? Well, Christmas always seems to linger indefinitely, but not Halloween. Halloween is the day that you have a little party at school and impatiently wait for the 3:00 bell so you can go home and spend several hours perfecting your get-up to resemble a deranged kitty cat or a kickin' punk rocker. All of this effort is made in order to go out and knock on every door in the neighborhood hoping they'll give out full-sized candy bars and NOT apples. Right?
Wrong.
Apparently, unbeknownst to me, trick or treating has morphed into a quest for candy that begins with a costume and ends four days later with more candy than any self-respecting mother would allow her child to consume in a year! I vowed that most of the candy would "disappear" little by little into the garbage (NOT into my mouth, thank you very much) because three bags of candy will be entirely too much!
Our quest began with a Trunk-r-Treat event at our church. All went very well. Daddy was home, Grandma and Grandpa Gardener came, we had a great turn out and everyone had a great time. Lula Belle was a beautiful "Ariel" complete with a way-too-expensive mermaid costume from Lilian Vernon that was falling apart before we even got out of our driveway (grunt, cough, choke) and Chunky monkey was "Sebastian". Lula really enjoyed pointing out to everyone in attendance that her brother was a "cwab". We came away with "goodie bag" #1.
Our next event was the "Fall Carnival" at the preschool. I was on the planning committee and happily, everything (OMG)went according to planned! All the kids had a super time bouncing, getting their faces painted, "fishing" for treats, bowling and eating spooky snacks. I spent the whole day working the photo booth and then carrying home all the "goodies" from bag #2.
Ok, are you tired of Halloween yet? I was! And it was still two days away!
Tuesday we didn't have any events, but all I heard from sunrise to sunset was "Can we pweaeeeese go twick-uw-tweat tomowow"? You see, up till then I had maintained that we were not going to "twick-uw-tweat" on Halloween night. I have difficulty returning home alone with the kids on a completely ordinary evening after dark. I was not about to do it on Halloween. My plan was to turn off all the lights and watch "The Great Pumpkin" with the kids. We would go to bed early so as to avoid opening my door to anyone I didn't know or being "tricked" in any fashion while trying to return home from more candy hoarding....
BUUUTT, my friend Angie has a little girl named Rose and she had planned to take Rose out to a neighborhood party that they attend every year. When she found out that I wasn't going to take Lula out, she asked if I would let her go with them. I fought a battle in my own mind about how I was protecting her by staying home... and depriving her of a fun evening by staying home. Eventually my guilt won out and I allowed her to go with them. I was a nervous wreck the whole evening. I completely trust my friend Angie and her husband, but was afraid that some spectacular vampire would be a pedophile in a mermaid kind of mood.
Alas, Ariel returned home safely with "goodie bag #3", albeit waaay past her bedtime and passed out in Angie's arms. (Despite what was probably the biggest sugar high of her life considering she's smart enough to know that if mama ain't around...eat. it. all, girl!)
I got her into her jammies and into bed, but not before she told me that Rose's family was a "famiwee of Debbles, Mommy!" with a tone of disbelief glaring through. I assured her it was all in good fun and kissed her goodnight. As I walked out of the room I heard, "Mommy?"
"Yes, baby?", I said.
"You can have awwwel my Titsie Wowels since they aw yoe favowit."
Ok, so three bags isn't that much, right?
4 comments:
Well, I'm for sure done with Halloween now!! Cute story. I hope you made it into your house without too much of a wait today!
How precious!! My kids would rather eat glass than share their titsie wowels.
I love your wittle cwab !!! S
titsie wowels . . . hmmmm, sounds like something RM would like. Naughty!
But on a serious note, your kids are beautiful and as any self respecting mom would do . . . let the kids eat all the candy!
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