Happy Halloween!

My kids were allowed to dress down today - so the younger five went like this:

Then, tonight, they looked like this: 

We walked around for what felt like HOURS and HOURS.  Or at least two hours.  We went to 30 houses.  Then we drove over to see my father in law and my brother in law, with the kids arguing and feasting on as much candy as they could unwrap.  we came home and they all collapsed into bed.  Man, this trick or treating is tough work.

We gave our smarties and different caramels.  I purposely bought candies that I really didn't like, so I wouldn't be tempted to eat them.  Yet, tonight, we brought home our free weight in chocolate bars.  Apparently I am not free from the dreaded sugar high that one, or six, Reese's cups can produce.  What was the hot candy where you are?  Did you see any neat costumes?  Did you dress up?

I told my kids that I went as a mom who didn't get to work out, since she spent the morning in the grocery store.  They didn't buy it. ;)

Comments

[suzanne]

love love LOVE the iPod costume. VERY clever.

Suz
www.suzannebalvanz.blogspot.com

[Carrie]

Great costumes. My husband's office does trick or treating in their building and my kids filled their buckets and got way too many candy bars. We did not even end up going out. I have already had my fill of Reeses . . . tomorrow the gym will be brutal. I love the iPod costume, too. Happy Halloween.

[sheree]

LOL at the iPod costume!

And I agree that TOTing is serious work. We only hit about 20 houses and I'm exhausted!

[Kelly]

I love your tyed dyed shirts. Your oldest looks so much like you. I am glad yall had a wonderful halloween. We are exhausted an full of candy. We got so much chocolate. I was so surprised! I myself claimed all the snickers.

[Katie O]

We are an American family living in Paris and Halloween is just starting to catch on in France. My youngest 2 went trick or treating in our neighborhood for around an hour and only filled a small pumpkin each. French typically give out 1 small little candy (almost No chocolate!), just little chewy and marshmallow type candies. Good for my waistline at least!
(Loved the iPod!)

[Tammy]

Great pictures, Carmen! I only have one child who is 15 so we haven't been trick or treating in a long time. I lead a teenage girls ministry at church and the girls hosted the children of church in a fall festival with games, costumes, activities, photos and of course lots of candy. It was well attended and there were lots of great costumes! My favorites were a 3 year old dressed as an Indian girl, a 2 year old fairy, a little girl dressed as a pirate was darling, and several boys dressed as various Bible characters. The best costume I ever came up with for my daughter (we never purchased costumes) was the tin man when she was in 2nd grade. I spray painted a box silver and strapped it on her, spray painted cardboard tubes for her arms and legs and made "joints" out of gray fabric and attached it to arm and leg pieces so she could bend a little. Put a cone on her head and my husband handed her an oil can to carry. She was adorable! At the time she wasn't impressed because it was near impossible to sit down and at one point she fell over backward and couldn't get up on her own but she looks back now and that's her favorite too (probably because she won a trophy for it!)

[dinky]

not. one. single. trick. or. treater. :-/.

[Christina]

We went to our church's party and the kids had a blast! Came home with way too much candy plus they had hotdogs and cupcakes (I ate 3, shhh don't tell anyone) and lots of games. We dressed our son as a dalmation and took his picture with the fire truck they had out, just adorable.

[FishyGirl]

One of the advantages of being eleventy hundred weeks pregnant is that you don't do TOT duty, you just pass out candy. DH took the kidlets around just to one circle in our townhouse development, and they took well over an hour and got tons of candy. Kit kats, peanut butter cups, and tootsie rolls seem to be the popular stuff around here; we gave out smarties. I didn't eat a one.

[Cookie]

What cuties!! Love the costumes.
When I was back in Canada, I brought home a stash of my favourite candies in Halloween snack form. (as an FYI... Nestle (evil, I know) has a big line of chocolate bars up there that are nut free.

Milky Ways were big here. (and I love those. eep!)

[Elizabeth]

Your kids look adorable in the tie-dye, and I love the iPod costume! We had the usual assortment of princesses and Spidermans, nothing really different. One lady had her Pomeranian dressed like a football player, it was cute.

[Jen]

Love the IPOD costume !

I didn't see any original costumes like that in our neighborhood - just the store bought costumes and the occasional hobo or ghost.

Kissables were a big thing in our neck of the woods - my little guy must have gotten a dozen packages. I don't buy anything I like either BUT my little one hates peanut butter so I just HAVE to take his Reesie cups off his hands ! :)

[Liz in Seattle]

My two boys (10 and almost-5) hit a few dozen houses. Then they came home and ate all the candy they could for probably twenty minutes. THEN, they traded all the rest of their junk for a new toy (DH disposed of the traded-in junk on the way to work today). Voila...no more junk!

And we handed out mini tubs of Play-Doh, instead of (you guessed it) junk. Costco was selling 80 tubs for $10. And the neighbor kids were surprised, but pleasantly so.

[dexie]

the IPOD costume is the best i've seen this year. very clever.

[Emily]

We only had 4 or 5 sets of trick-or-treaters come to our place, and one was a group of 6 teenagers. Lamely dressed ones, too.

But my little 5-year-old nephew dressed up as Mario from Super Mario Bros., and my sister went with him as Luigi. Too cute for words!

[MamaLee]

Thanks so much for sharing those pics! I have 2 big bowls of candy here, if you want them! Ugh, I got a sugar headache just LOOKING at them! Big candy items were kitkats and reece's here.

I didnt dress up, but the anklebiters did - Mr. Incredible, Tinkerbell and Blue of Blues Clues. The kids had a BLAST! We went out as soon as it was dark, and was only out an hour or so (kids are small) but they got SO much loot!

Popular costumes I saw out there this year were superheroes of all sorts and Princesses of all sorts! Thanks again for sharing your tales!

[Liz in Seattle]

My two boys (10 and almost-5) hit a few dozen houses. Then they came home and ate all the candy they could for probably twenty minutes. THEN, they traded all the rest of their junk for a new toy (DH disposed of the traded-in junk on the way to work today). Voila...no more junk!

And we handed out mini tubs of Play-Doh, instead of (you guessed it) junk. Costco was selling 80 tubs for $10. And the neighbor kids were surprised, but pleasantly so.

[theotherbear]

Those tie dyed shirts are really cute. Have you ever posted on how to do that? If not that would be something I'd be interested in.

[Little Miss]

cute group! I've only got three, but trick or treating with them was enough to run any mother under a truck!

and talk about the sugar high...

happy posting!

[Brenda]

Awww, they all look so great! Glad you had fun.

[judy]

We had two high school boys come to the door. They sang "Don't Worry, Be Happy"!

They didn't accept any candy either.

It was really quite funny.

My 10 month old grandson dressed up as Tigger, which was really cute, as he can make the 'sign' for kitty. No candy for him, just out to visit both sets of grandparents.

[rachel]

what great costumes! gorgeous tie dye too.

your kids are just so adorable. wow.

I thought the Shirley Temple costume my friend's daughter was in was amazing (they even rag rolled her hair into curls). At my husband's work there were 2 guys dressed as bananas, and a woman dressed as Strawberry Shortcake. Yesterday we saw a woman dressed as Dorothy - complete with ruby slippers (that were slippers!)

mmmm... Reese's. Dang I miss foods with dairy in them!

[kalisah]

I just adore photos of your children.

[JaneD]

My boys 9 & 7 decided to be Vikings and the girls 5 & 2 were princesses of course. My favorite costume was a boy in a shark suite with the legs of a scuba diver coming out of the mouth. My kids school said no weapons for the Halloween parade but nothing about a man eating shark. The school principal came as the evil witch/stepmother from Snow White.

[Chris]

Thanks for posting the cute pictures! I also love your t-shirts! I was able to recycle some of JT's TOT candy back into our treat bowl for the big kids that came by. (Seeing as he is not even 2, he didn't realize that I was replacing some candy with little toy snakes, etc.) :)
The best treat was a balloon - one lady opened the door and her entire living room was filled with balloons - what a neat idea!