Trick or Treat

Aah, Halloween. Aside from Christmas, it's the single greatest day to be a kid. When else do you earn $20 worth of candy for doing so little all the while playing dress up as your favorite character, villian, celebrity or inanimate object.

This year Alison wanted to be a ninja (note the fighting position), Kailtyn wanted to be Sharpay (from High School Musical 3, and note the fashion pose), and Max found out that he was going to be a tiger again because his warm and fuzzy outfit from last year still fit him this year (note the roaring).

Megan wore signs on her front and back which said, "Go Ceilings!" (she was a 'ceiling fan'). I wrote the word "BOOK" on my face (I went as FaceBook--which I totally stole from The Office).

Everyone was excited about their costumes, except Max...


...until he found out that he got candy for saying "Tricker Treat" and "Thank You" as cute as he possibly could.


One of the reasons that Ali wanted to be a ninja was because her best friend, Jadon (or as Max calls him, "Don-O"), from down the street was also going to be a ninja.


We waited until the wind had really kicked up so that it was as cold as possible, and went out around 6:00 p.m. with our nice group of friends and neighbors. Our neighborhood streets were packed with kids in costume with their parents in tow. Several people even commented about my costume ("Oh, I get it...you're a book!" And, "What is 'Boo Awk'?")

Max rode in the stroller for most of the evening, but was still the first to tire (and the first to get his hands and face as sticky as possible). I dropped him off with Megan who was dispensing our sugared goods at home and continued making rounds with the girls.


Kaitlyn finished second and needed to be carried home, in the dark.


Ali would have gone all night until I made her come home with me because I was tired (from having to repeatedly deliver kids home). I walked in the door a little before 8:00 p.m. Ali was anxious to count (and defend) her take from her evening's work.


She was equally excited about sorting all of her candy into piles so she could see what she got the most of and graph it. (Last year at Halloween-time they were learning about graphs, and she wanted to repeat the tradition.) She was excited to find that she had accumulated 226 individually wrapped treats.

At first I thought Ali wanted to inventory her candy so she'd know if Megan or I had sneaked, er taxed any of it. But, then I found out that she wanted to find out which candies were most popular so she could invest in those companies. She was disappointed when I had to tell her that the clear winners, Mars (makers of Starburst) and Spangler Candy (makers of Dum Dum Pops) were both privately held.