3 Lessons for Trick or Treating
This one’s from the vault … my first trick-or-treating experience with two kids and no clue!
I felt like a rookie.
The mayhem began just before 6 p.m. on the east coast.
The date: October 31, better known to many as Halloween.
My boys dressed up to go trick or treating. Appropriately enough they put on monkey costumes.
We spent a good half hour coaxing Jonah into leaving the monkey ears on his head. Then we headed to the front yard for pictures.
Luke strategically laid out pumpkins and a scarecrow to set the perfect stage for our family Halloween portrait.
The photo shoot began.
We chased Jonah down the street.
The photo shoot continued.
We bribed Jonah with pumpkins and, once again, grabbed his hand as he tried to take off the monkey ears.
The photo shoot continued.
Elijah fell backwards into the grass. We sat him up.
The photo shoot continued.
Jonah grabbed a giant inflatable sword out of our neighbor’s garage.
The photo shoot continued.
The boys shouted and smiled when the battery ran out on the camera. I dug up a disposable camera but decided to snap action shots for the rest of the night.
That was the easy part of the evening.
I learned some things that Halloween. The seasoned veterans will laugh knowing how obvious these things are, but somehow I missed them.
Lesson number one: Feed the children before you trick or treat.
We walked up to house number one. Jonah, in his monkey suit carrying the giant inflatable sword, sweetly said, “Trick or Treat.”
The nice person at the door dropped a bag of M&Ms into Jonah’s pumpkin bucket. Jonah took the M&Ms out of the bucket and ate them.
The rest of the night I tried my best to keep the candy out of his mouth and in the bucket. I may have won a few of the battles, but I think Jonah won that war.
Lesson number two: Don’t bring the 6-month old trick or treating.
Elijah was the absolute cutest monkey on earth for the first half of the night.
He sat in the stroller wide-eyed and calm. Then he dosed off for a few minutes and became the absolute cutest sleeping monkey on earth.
He woke up and continued his cuteness. Then, it hit him. He realized he was hungry. The monkey ears were now annoying. He wanted out of the monkey suit and out of the stroller, immediately.
We trucked it back to the house as fast as we could go.
My sweet neighbor picked Jonah up and toted his heavy monkey behind home. (He wasn’t walking fast enough to keep up.) And Elijah literally went wee-wee-wee all the way home.
In fact, Elijah yelled so loud Luke met us in the driveway. He apparently heard us coming down the street.
Luke, by the way, stayed home to study for game day and man the candy.
Lesson number three: Order pizza for dinner on Halloween.
We made it home with two hungry boys and a hungry mom and dad. Bad news when you still need to make dinner. We fed the boys first and got them into bed, only about a half hour later than usual, believe it or not. Luke and I, however, did not eat dinner until almost 9 p.m. It’s a wonder I didn’t resort to cereal.
Experience is the best teacher. Now I know.
With some years under my belt since that dreaded night, I feel more confident heading into this evening. Still, I’ll be happy when the calendar flips to November!
