Thursday, November 01, 2007

Halloween Hell Walk

This Halloween, we decided to hit the neighborhood with one of our neighbor's, who's son is G's best buddy. Both K and G were ready and a rarin' to go when I arrived home from work. GH was feeding the kids when I walked through the door, and quickly hustled the kids into their costumes to make our 5:30 trick-or-treat date with our neighbor.

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Don't they look great? G was a fabulous vampire, and K, well, she was a princess/witch, basically a witch minus the ugly.

We headed out, full of Halloween excitement, to tackle our neighborhood. The kids had fun visiting their friends houses and collecting a bag of candy, that grew steadily more bulky by the house.

Soon, we had finished our normal Halloween route, but Neighbor Dad insisted on pressing on, warning us that he intended to hit every house possible on every side street within walking distance. Not to be outdone, we agreed to keep going.

Soon, all of the kids were weary, complaining of heavy bags, and they all began to sit down on the lawn of as many houses as possible. when neighbor son began to lag and actually lay down on lawns, Neighbor Dad insisted he keep going. Soon, K began to stumble on almost every other lawn she crossed. All kids complained about the weight of their bags. GH and I stuffed our pockets full of as much candy as we could to alleviate the weight. Neighbor Dad had brought an extra heavy-duty canvas bag which he emptied his son's candy into. At one house, Neighbor Dad asked the kind woman handing our candy (dressed as a giant blue M&M no less) if he could have a couple of plastic bags. He gave them to GH and I, and we unloaded G and K's excessive candy into them to keep their arms from falling off.

At about 7:30, we all took a break at Dairy Queen where they were handing out free ice cream to trick-or-treaters. Ever resourceful Neighbor Dad managed to get all of adults a cone as well.

Refreshed from this brief interlude of sitting and getting hydrated, the kids were once again ready to go. I was not. After a full day of work, no dinner, and carrying a huge sack of candy for a few miles, I was wiped. GH was in the same boat.

On the other side of the neighborhood, we searched for houses that still had lights on, which were now few and far between. The houses we did manage to stop at were eager to unload their extra candy, and the kid's bags grew heavy once again.

On the last stretch, everyone was miserable, except of course for Neighbor Dad. AS we approached home and Neighbor Dad insisted on a few more houses, his son declared loudly "I think I'm gonna die!" and collapsed on a lawn. Neighbor Dad prodded him up, insisting that he buck up and think of the months worth of candy he was collecting.

We finally got home at 8:30. I have never trick-or-treated so long, or so aggressively in my life. The kids were a tired, wining wreck, and had to be quickly hosed off and sent to bed. I collapsed myself soon after.

Today, I have my first official Halloween hangover. Looking at the two bags of Halloween candy each that G and K had sitting on the counter made my feet throb. My head has been pounding all day, and I'm exhausted. I can only imagine how the kids are faring at school.

At least they'll have tons of candy for a good long time, which is of course, just what they need (note the sarcasm). Happy Halloween.....

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