Halloween 2013: Trick Or Treat?

Well, hello there, you.

Chloë, my 12-year-old, bought her Cleopatra costume at Wal-Mart with a birthday gift card she received in September. I thought she looked gorgeous, and I could tell she felt pretty, too. It's important.

Jack, my 10-year-old, decided to be the Grim Reaper instead of using the bloody mask from the Scream movies at the last minute. We were given another Wal-Mart gift card, unexpectedly, so we used it for his costume. For the longest time, he wanted the Scream mask, but at Walmart, we couldn't find one in his size. 

It's kind of cool because up until this year, he didn't really want anything scary and wasn't into that whole part of Hallowe'en. But this year, he was all about screaming and scaring and BOO and ahh! He's TEN, you guys. He's growing up. My God.

Sophia, well, I guess she wanted to be a little princess-y and a little scary, because this 8-year-old of mine chose the "Bride of Darkness" costume at Wally-world. Only, she refused to wear the headpiece for the actual trick-or-treating session, so it was more bride and less darkness.

We had to wait until almost 7PM to go out, because it was sooo hot and bright and sunny here in the Miami area. It's still 85ºF during the day, so I didn't want them to melt inside their costumes.

Even then, it was still hot and light out when we got started, and they did melt inside their 'stumes! Sophia gave up a half-hour into the fun, but Jack and Chloë stuck it out until nearly 8PM. They were sweet (no pun intended), though, and shared plenty of their candy with Sophie when we returned home to find her sitting around in undies and watching a DVD!

If you read back, you'll see I made LOADS of packets of candy treats up for our trick-or-treaters, and then we got, like, three. Three kids. I was SO bummed!

Around 8:30, long after we'd given up on getting more kids (and I'd raided the stash for some Peanut M&Ms), the doorbell ring. Oh, my gosh, you guys! There were HORDES of kids outside, waiting for candy! Tha heck?! I guess we'll go out later next year because many houses we hit ourselves were empty or not ready yet, and maybe that's how it works in Miami-land. Dunno, but I was SO glad to unload all that candy on the kids after all.

Whew!

Anyway, when I was taking my three kiddos around the nabe, they did get a Christian-y handout instead of candy (which is fine but misguided, IMHO, because no kid is reading that. Especially mine, since it was in español...) at one house, and another house had the light on but no candy inside. No worries! The owner went inside and brought them each out $2 cash for their buckets. What the what?! I hope he was planning on doing that and/or didn't get too many kids if he wasn't, because yeah. The Odettelettes were stoked, though, of course!

SO, that brings me to Aloha Friday. Link up with A Renaissance Woman if you're playing along. My question for you this week is:

Do you participate in the traditional Halloween festivities?

You don't have to explain why not, if you don't, but you're more than welcome to do so. I know everyone has their own personal reasons!

Link up on 5 Minutes For Mom if you're posting about Halloween today, too!

Fin.