Halloween - Trick or Treating!

On Halloween night we went Trick or Treating around the neighborhood. Our evening started with our traditional dinner of chili (my mom always served chili Halloween night). Last year Sam complained most of the night that he was cold, so this year I bundled them up!!!! At around 4 o'clock it was really windy and cold so I layered the kids for maximum warmth. Emily wore knit tights, sweat pants, a long sleeved shirt, sweat shirt, snow pants, coat and then a princess costume over it. She wore her sparkly pink shoes but I had to run back home and get her tennis shoes because they were uncomfortable with tights and 2 pairs of socks on. Sam wore sweat pants, a turtle neck shirt, a jacket, snow pants, his coat, and a foam Superman costume that velcroed on over his coat. Each kid had gloves and hats. Ben wore a warm sleeper and his very cozy alligator, dragon, lizard, or dinosaur costume. We pushed him in the stroller bundled in a blanket. So I was prepared for cold wind and chilly temperatures.

Now dare the weather not cooperate!

It turned out that the wind had died down to nothing and the temperature was quite mild. Just their pants, long sleeve shirts and a coat would have been plenty warm. Especially for Emily since she RAN from house to house trying to get as much candy as possible. Poor Sam-he was so bundled that he looked like the little brother on A Christmas Story. I felt so bad. He could hardly walk up the porch steps to get his candy. Brad had to carry him most of the time to keep up with Emily. But at least they were not cold!

I trick or treated with them for awhile since I wanted to take Ben with us but then I went home, put Ben to bed, and handed out our candy (I always buy too much!). Here is what our front porch looked like for the Trick or Treaters (there are orange lights around the door-my camera works better in the dark than I thought).
After about an hour of trick or treating Emily, Sam and Brad came home with TONS of candy. They had a great time. They met up with our neighbors across the street and they had fun running from house to house with Anders and Alyssa.

Once they came home and detangled themselves of their mother's crazy bundling, they had to inspect their loot. Notice in the picture that Emily is sorting her candy (just like I used to do).

After inspecting all their candy, Brad had them do something he had to as a kid. When Brad was growing up, he had to split his candy with his Dad and his brother had to split it with his mom-50-50. I always thought this was so mean and I especially didn't like the idea of a 50-50 split. But Brad felt it was an important lesson so we agreed on 10-90. We had the kids pick 9 pieces they wanted and then we took 1 piece. I felt bad doing this at first but then I felt like it taught them a good lesson. First, you don't always get to keep everything to make i.e. taxes; second, sharing. It was hard at first but I think it taught them an important lesson. Besides we didn't take anything we knew they really liked. I think we will do it again next year.

It was a fun night and the kids had a blast. Surprisingly, they still have most of their candy left. It has been 11 days and they really have not eaten much. They play with it more than eat it. Emily gives it as prizes for games she makes up and she shares it with friends when they come to play. Emily is just like me in that way. My Halloween candy always lasted for months (that is if Traci didn't get to it first!) Sorry Traci-I couldn't resist putting that in (Love Ya!)