trick-or-treat

well, the great candy explosion has come and gone, the costumes managed to survive 3 events, and we all had a ton of fun. 2 days before halloween, the kids (well, dorothy and the cowardly lion) and i (glinda the good witch) hit up the state street trick or treat at many many many businesses on the square and down state street. it is not that fun: lots of crowds, lots of frustrating waiting in line and crowd control issues with serious bottle neck action at the narrow doorways of businesses. please, someone: if you hear me talking about going to this event next year, remind me that i don't want to. the kids had an ok time, at best, and asked to leave early.

here they are, early in the event, when spirits were high and crowds were smaller.


fortunately, we had an awesome costume party at preschool to go to. the silent auction was great this year, and the kids had a blast with their costumed friends. and then, friday was halloween, and we visited daddy (errr, i mean, the scarecrow) in costume at work in an attempt to increase his chances at winning the costume contest (spoiler: it didn't work, but was worth the effort). that evening, we had a pizza party with some neighbors, and then trick or treated in full family costume.

we're off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of oz!

excited lions, an elsa singing let it go, a giggling dorothy, and a pretty fierce looking frankenstein. blurry with pre-candy excitement.

the cowardly lion chills for a second on the neighbor's stoop. cool cat.

and the main event. this. over and over and over....

....until the tiny legs on dorothy and the cowardly lion couldn't carry them any further.

the next morning, we counted out our allotted pieces of candy to save, bagged up the rest, and hauled it down to my clinic where all my awesome pediatrician colleagues were hosting a very fun candy-buy back. the kids got some fruit treats, activities, and entered in a raffle for some seriously awesome stuff. there was some explaining and re-explaining of the system of a raffle. i think they still have a little confusion about when they will be receiving that sparkly new bike with streamers.