Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat ...

if you don't I'll pull down your underwear!

Imagine my joy when Evan started reciting that little diddy this past week. He even taught it to Joel. Thank you, kindergarten! (BTW, I know that there is a line missing, but this is the way Evan, and Joel, have been saying it.) I have tried to quash this one, but I have only been partially successful.

We did a little neighborhood trick-or-treating last night, and the boys were mostly well-mannered. They knocked on the door - Evan first and then Joel - and stuck with a plain old "Trick or treat!" when the door was answered. Evan liked to take stock of his goodies at each house and tell them whether he had gotten that treat already. It was not mean-spirited, and he was actually letting them know that he was happy he was getting that treat again, but it didn't always sound that way. More often than not I had to remind him to say "Thank you", but things could have been worse. ;)

Getting ready to head out. Joel is looking at the "scary house" 2 houses away from us.

Evan led the way through the "cave", as Joel calls it at the scary house. Joel wouldn't follow, though, so a nice man came out to give Joel some treats.

A small portion of what was in the yard of another scary house

Joel needed a mid-trick-or-treating snack to get himself through it all.

We only went down two streets and there were several scary houses. Joel refused to go to some of them, which was fine with us. Evan was very brave this year and didn't get upset even if he got a little scared. He did it for the candy. If Joel didn't want to go to a certain house, Evan would say, "But you'll get more candy if you go" or "I guess he doesn't want more candy." Joel got tired pretty quickly, so that's why we only went down two streets. Apparently he did want more candy though, because the first thing he said to me this morning was, "Can we go trick-or-treat again?" (This once-a-year thing is very hard for them to understand this year. It came up with the fall festival and carnival, too.)

After we got home we got to hand out some candy to a few trick-or-treaters. We didn't have as many as I thought we would, but Evan and I enjoyed it. He really got into giving candy to our "customers", as he called them.

All in all, this was a treat for our family. I hope the ensuing sugar rush doesn't turn it all into a horrible trick!