Halloween...not so bad after all...

Autumn is here and we are really enjoying it. August and September are pretty miserable in our yard due to mosquitos so thick that we look down at our bare legs and see 10s of them on each calf. I begin to feel like a prisoner in my own home...longing to go outside and lay in the grass. So the cooler weather is a welcomed change. We have had a very gradual transition to cool weather too with very few COLD days - it has gooten up to the 60s all week in mid November.

A couple of weeks ago we went to Pocahontas State Park to enjoy the nice weather. We hiked down to the lake (reservoir). We spent quite a while throwing acorns in the water and sitting in the leaves by the shore catching glimpses of the resident belted kingfisher.

the boys enjoyed picking out a pumpkin and carving a jackolantern.

My parents and sister joined us for Halloween and we had a great time. Heath was a clown and his cute face paint....

...lasted about 10 minutes...

Alder borrowed a sweet alligator costume from his friend Chloe and loved getting his face painted and acting the part.

So I should probably say that Halloween is my least favorite holiday. I have never enjoyed dressing up and going to various parties with my last minute, lame costume and I am not that fond of candy either. Well, this changed that a bit this year, thanks to having a three year old and having my parents and sister visiting.

It is also amazing what a few glasses of wine will do for the whole trick or treating experience. We agreed to only go for a very short loop around the neighborhoood because (1) the less candy the better considering that Alder has never actually had candy except a few dum-dum lollipops from the haircut place and (2) he has nothing to complain about since this was his first time trick-or-treating. After a short walk around block in our neighborhood, we came home and dumped out the very small pile of loot, divided the chocolate in one pile for the grown-ups (we are not fighting that Alder claims to not like chocolate) and the remaining sugary mess in another. Alder was allowed two peices (lollipop and smarties) and then we had a great time being rowdy and silly while he burned off the sugar....if you haven't already I suggest creating a Phil Collins Pandora station - you WILL know every word and you will LOVE it.

Halloween in our neighborhood is quite the big deal. They actually turn the pool and rec center into a haunted house for two weeks prior, the yards are decorated quite intensely, and on Halloween night, the street are full of families. Our trick-or-treating timed well with Hazel (age 2) and her parents, which was a riot - a first for Hazel, Alder and Heath. The kids got more and more comfortable with each house, having no problem just walking up and asking for something for free. And Heath was eating up the experience, squealing door to door excitedly on my back. We wondered, if they wondered, why we didn't go out and do this more often.

The adults' treats were some of the things we heard:

"Daddy these are my candy. And, I am going to share them and you will have one." Hazel

Old white-haired lady known for walking her street smoking cigarettes. Alder and I walking back from her porch to the street. "That was a nice lady Alder". Alder replied, "No Mommy, that was a man," hopefully not within earshot.

The first couple of houses, Alder walked up and asked, "Can I have some candy?". We didnt think to prep him with how the process worked and to say thank you.... Then a couple of houses later, as the door opened, he exclaimed "Happy Birthdaaaaaay".

As trick or treating was done, and we were walking back to the house, we asked what we would do next and Alder says, "Lets do something TRICKY!"

I will also brag a bit about how well Alder has been doing with the small stockpile of candy in the house. We have been pretty strict with his sugar intake and only recently have loosened up a bit . We had a serious conversation about how candy is not food and that when you eat too much of it, you can feel sick and your body is not happy/healthy. So the way it works, until the candy is gone (we are down to four pieces), is that if you eat a "good dinner" you can have a choice between a piece of candy, a small amount of strawberry/milk/smoothie beverage, a couple of ginger snaps or frozen blueberries . Our standards for a "good dinner" are quite high, so this doesn't even happen daily, and we are glad that he actually chooses among these choices pretty evenly. For the first 48 hours, he wanted to talk about and sort his stash pretty often, but the excitement died down quickly, thank goodness.