Go Time.

After weeks of intense training and prep. The time that Ella and Lily had been waiting for was finally upon them. Halloween.

They had a fun filled morning making Halloween Brew at Garden of Hope. Ella was tasked with bringing ants and Lily with chicken toenails (raisins and cheese curls). Lily was pretty nervous about this brew. When the class would discuss it in the days leading up to Halloween, Lily was pretty sure she did not want to eat it. The older children tried to assure her that she would want it once she saw it, but she was pretty nervous. She did end up liking it once she saw what ants, chicken toenails, spider webs and more disgustingly named items really were. Ella stayed to attend her afternoon program where costumes were encouraged, so I quickly helped Ella into her costume when I picked Lily up from school. Ella ate her lunch at Garden of Hope dressed as a princess cat, ready for her bus ride to Normandy Park, it was also her day to bring snack so she had bags of popcorn and juice –ready to party!

Halloween was also the day that large pieces of machinery showed up and broke up our old driveway and laid a new one. Of course, looking back, I wish we’d done it years ago. But, the timing was perfect as it preoccupied Lily for an hour after school as she stood in the window watching the machines work. It made the cost of a new driveway nearly worth it just for the two year old’s entertainment value and my sanity saver.

Lily and I purchased our traditional jack-o-lantern pizza from Papa Murphy’s and we were joined for dinner by Grandma and Grandpa for trick or treating fun. The girls were so excited to get dressed up. Ella accidently broke her ears during her afternoon party (Teacher Terry let Ella borrow her cat ears), so we had to do a little wardrobe repair and fixed the shattered cat ears. Whew, crisis averted.

Loved Lily’s crossed eyes as I painted her nose!

 

Last year, we had problems with the girls basically breaking and entering into houses. They’d just walk in and start casing the joint for candy. This year, they seemed to understand the social norms of trick or treating better. Ring the doorbell, wait, say “Trick or Treat” or “Halloween or Treat”, receive candy, say thank you, tear away from the house screaming like you’re on fire and looking for the next house to hit up. A few times, Ella had a hard time figuring out where the doorbell was and would “ring” the screen door handle and wait patiently. Other times, Ella would find the doorbell, ring, wait about four seconds, ring again, wait about three seconds, ring again and then would get a little reprimand from mid-yard.

A couple of times, Lily tripped, spilling her candy. She was alarmed each time. Was she hurt? No. And even if she was left with a dangling limb, she didn’t care. She only cared that the candy was picked up and put back into her bucket. “MY CANDY!!!” was all we’d hear as we scraped her off the ground. The girl’s got moxie.

Our neighborhood is pretty quality as far as candy goes. Nobody hands out pennies, brochures on teeth brushing or even gross candy. It’s a high quality candy place with a few full to king sized candy bars thrown in for good measure. Lily was so excited by her king sized Hershey bar that she wouldn’t put it in her bucket. That one she had to hold with her free hand.

We made a two block rectangle and then headed for home. Both girls were losing steam, feeling chilly and ready to dig into their candy.

The girls were able to hand out candy to a few guests, eat a little candy and then it was off to bath and bed with the little goblins. Halloween on a Wednesday, nothing like trying to cram a lot of fun and sugar into a short amount of time.

Lily has become quite astute about our candy stash. When I offered her a piece of candy, she grilled me, wanting to know whose bag it came from. Smart.

Ella baffles me and makes me wonder if there was a switch at the hospital. I’ve combined all of our candy into a large gallon sized bag. When handed the bag-o-goodness, Ella chose Smarties. Really?! In my book, Smarties were in the category of candy you consumed in February because you were out of all other viable options. That, or you used them (along with Good-n-Plenty) as pills when you played doctor. It’s not like I would have let her eat the entire king sized candy bar right next to the Smarties, but I’d like to have seen the effort. More chocolate for me, I guess.