Happy Halloween

Today is Dom’s birthday so for a treat he took a vacation day. We all went out for lunch. Dom and I got sushi and the kids got lo mein.

A double treat. For dinner we ordered Indian take out. Necessary because with trick-or-treating who had time to make dinner. We tried out a new place that just opened in the next town over that actually delivers to us. What a score! I came home with the kids from trick-or-treating to hot mulligatawny soup, samosas, and chicken saag.

Bella was super excited about Halloween this year. A week or so ago she declared to me that she wanted to be Little Red Riding Hood. She even got out the Trina Schartt Hyman Little Red Riding Hood book to get costume ideas. Oh yes she did. And she wasn’t bothered a bit by the fact that the hooded cape we have is dark pink instead of red. She wore a pink shirt and long pink skirt with pink tights and pink shoes. She carried a basket and was absolutely adorable.

Sophie opted for fairy princess. She wore her beloved princess dress that she got for her birthday and her fairy wings (which she wore last year). We couldn’t find her crown but big sister Bella let her wear hers. She opted for a basket too to be like Bella.

Ben had just got up from his (late) nap as we were getting ready to go. He was cranky and could not be coaxed into his costume. It was hard enough to get him into socks with his boots. But he didn’t want to be left behind. So he walked out of the door clutching his blankies. I declared that he could be Linus van Pelt. One of the neighbors even got it. I wish I’d got a picture of him with his little hat and his blankies wrapped about his torso. He was so solemn and cute.

The girls had the hang of trick-or-treating from last year. They just needed a bit of a nudge every now and then to remember to say thank you. By the end of the evening my shy little Ben was saying Trick or Treat and thanking everyone who gave him candy. He is so very polite and often doesn’t need to be prompted to say please and thank you at home. Once he realized the rules he overcame his fear of strangers. Also, even though he didn’t know what any of the candies were at the houses where people let them choose their own he would very carefully pick out one by some criteria known only to him. he’d reach and then pull back and then reach and pull back until he’d somehow found the perfect piece. Then when we got home he refused to eat dinner and so didn’t even get to eat a single piece of his candy haul.

Oh yeah, when I got out an old pillowcase for Ben to use as a candy sack it still had the remnants of last year’s candy in it. Oops. This year we won’t make the same mistake of doling out the candy one piece a day. Nope, let them gorge on it tonight and perhaps we won’t still have candy lingering next Halloween.

I played the girls a clip from Nightmare Before Christmas (Thank you, Calah!) and they loved it. Especially the singing ghosts.

It is so fun that they are really getting into the holiday. My theory of Halloween has always been that I don’t do costumes for kids who aren’t really interested. I frankly don’t have the energy. So last year was the first year any one of the kids did trick or treating.

The kids had almost as much fun helping answer the door to all the trick-or-treaters as they did trick-or-treating themselves.