Happy Halloween!

Benjamin was a little bummed that his school didn't have a Halloween party this year (they had a pajama party instead), but as it turns out, it was probably a blessing. After the last two nights, we have WAY TOO MUCH CANDY!!

Friday night was the ward Trunk-or-Treat, and although Jacob was afraid of the costumed treat-givers at first, after chewing through a Twix wrapper and thus disposing of its contents, he decided that maybe they weren't so bad. Both boys got quite enough that night, but the suggestion that we call it good was not received very well. Halloween day we were lucky enough to have Uncle Travis come into town for a job interview, so we had fun sharing our festivities with him. Benjamin had his last soccer game of the fall season, and he helped end it with a bang by scoring a goal!



Halloween night we took all three boys around for about a half an hour, and then Daddy and Uncle Travis took the little boys home, and I accompanied Benjamin on his continued quest for candy. After awhile it got cold and Benjamin was starting to complain about the weight of his treat bag, so I suggested that we call it a night. We were trick-or-treating with Benjamin's friend and his mom (our next-door neighbors), and they were aghast that I would consider calling it a night so early. They offered to take my poor, maltreated child along with them for some more candy hunting, and I gave in. Benjamin came home to unload some of his haul and get a jacket, and then went back out to pound the pavement. When he finally came home, he had an OUTRAGEOUS amount of candy-- it was literally brimming over in his big candy bag! Back in MY day, (when we had to walk to school in two feet of snow uphill both ways, I realize) we came home with a bag with a quarter of the candy he got (if we were lucky!), and most of the goods consisted of Dum-dums, Smarties, Sweet-Tarts, and those disgusting Mary Janes that no one would ever trade with you. A fun-sized candy bar was the best! (And while I'm on the topic of fun-sized candy bars, did anyone else notice that the Mars ones are smaller this year? Not length-wise, but height-wise. They are shorter! Penny pinchers...) As much as Benjamin got this year, I did notice that people actually scaled back from last year. Last year he got a decent number of goody bags given to him on the doorstep-- this year he only came home with one. But I'm worried that we've created a monster here. What if from now on he's disappointed with his haul if the bag isn't full? We are moving back to the land of Dum-Dums and Mary Janes, after all...

After making a respectable dent in the boys' candy after dinner today, we decided maybe we should go for a walk. We went to the Bosque-- the trees near the Rio Grande, and it was a gorgeous fall day! Our caloric intake was in no way neutralized by our sauntering pace, but we enjoyed ourselves very much. We'll be going back again soon.