Not So Deep Thoughts: Dinosaurs Go "Roar!"

We had a really great Halloween. It was so fun this year because Ethan knew a little bit more about what was going on. If you can't tell from the pictures, Ethan is a dinosaur, and a mighty cute one at that! We borrowed this costume from my sister's neighbor. We lucked out that it was pretty cold that day since his costume was pretty much a snowsuit. All the other kids had to bundle up over their costumes, but not Ethan.

We had coached Ethan on what to say and how everything would be working and he had practiced all the time in the week before. Basically, he knew that you ring a doorbell, say trick or treat, someone gives you candy (his favorite part), and then you say thank you. We started Ethan off with the town Halloween walk. Basically, we waited in a really long line, in the bitter cold, in order to walk through town and collect candy from the businesses. We waited for about 30 minutes and only walked about a block before we had had enough of the cold. Plus, Ethan was pretty slow and a bit confused since there were no doorbells to ring. The business owners stood outside their businesses and gave out the candy. Pretty much, it was a Trick or Treat assembly line. I can see how it's great for older kids since it's an opportunity to get a ton of candy, but I think we will skip it for the next few years.

For our real Trick or Treating, we went to a friends house who lives a few blocks away in our neighborhood. While our block gets very little traffic, hers is busting with kids, so it was a lot of fun. Ethan was slow at first and really very wounded that he didn't get to ring the doorbells. Since there were so many kids out, most people were just standing at their open door or even outside. I had to ask a couple of people if Ethan could ring the doorbell since he kept talking about it. It was cute. Once he got the hang of it and realized that he got candy at every house, he was a bit faster and more efficient. But the hardest part was when the people would tell him to choose his own candy. He would stand there forever, mulling over the decision until I would finally have to choose for him. The worst were the many houses that had bowls out on their porch with signs that said "Pick one." Then, he had even more time to sit and think about whether he would pick the "brown one" (Hershey bar) or the "orange one" (the Reeces peanut butter cup). I always tried to push the orange one myself.

After covering about a block and a half, both sides of the street, we went back to our friend's house. The kids all played and the adults hung out. I had made two kinds of chili and brought them over, so we all ate dinner together. And Laura came by with the triplets, so Will was able to meet them and even hold one of them for quite some time. He was holding Elizabeth, who is the most difficult to settle, but he had her asleep in minutes.

I'm already looking forward to next year, when we'll likely have one child in a stroller and Ethan running from house to house. It is really fun to have friends in the neighborhood, too, so that our kids can have fun and make memories together.