Happy Halloween

I love Halloween, so I wanted to do this blog entry myself. It's the best holiday (after Easter, and with Cookie Day following close behind) because it involves lots of sweets! The costumes and pumpkins only add to the fun. This fall has been pretty busy, so I was thankful when Grandma Barb brought a fire hat for William and he decided he wanted to be a firefighter instead of a grey wolf. He got a firefighter coat for Christmas last year, so that costume was already done! Unlike the grey wolf costume which I was still conjuring up in my head. I am all about creating costumes, as my mother was before me, but I have to admit to feeling relieved at his change of heart. He does make a pretty adorable firefighter, too. And Eliana is a perfect little pumpkin! Thanks, Hallie, for the costume that has made so many cute babies even cuter for their first Halloween!

A tradition in my family as a kid was having sloppy joes for Halloween dinner. I completely understand why, because they're easy, which was why we had them on Wednesday night after our pumpkin hunting adventure. But for some reason, tonight I got a bug to try something new. The Chicken Curry recipe in the international cookbook looked quick and easy. I only needed a few different spices. I'd even picked up some nann bread at the store earlier and received a flier saying that kids could trick-or-treat until 7:00. So, William put on his firefighter suit and we went off to get some treats and spices. Well, the places to trick-or-treat were a lot easier to find than the spices. I could've used some big orange and black signs that said Turmeric and Corriander. We ended up taking a trip and a half around the whole store to get the few items we needed, and all of William's treats, of course. By the time we got home, I figured I would be cutting it close to get dinner done by dark. Sure enough, I was cooking away as our first trick-or-treaters arrived. It was our old neighbors with their two little ones! So we had to visit for a bit. Good thing the grandparents had stopped over and Grandma Barb turned down the temps on the food for me. It was done a few minutes later and during dinner we were interrupted off and on by trick-or-treaters. I was disappointed that the curry wasn't very spicy, but I can try again - I have the spices! And next time I get the new recipe bug, I hope it's on a more convenient day.

After dinner, William and Eliana got their costumes on and the three of us headed out to canvass the neighborhood for candy. We went down to the end of the cul-de-sac and back before I got tired of carrying Ellie and dropped her off at home. William and I finished the rest of the neighborhood by ourselves while Darren and Eliana gave out candy. It was a warm night, perfect for trick-or-treating. The kids were out in full force. We had between 60 and 70 trick-or-treaters stop by, probably a record! But I think the Friday night also put a damper on things because there were a lot of lights out in the neighborhood. There were several lights out going the other direction, so we were home soon.

Then it was time to dig into the candy! In honor of the holiday, Eliana got to try her first candy! (Unless you count the M&Ms she found on the floor at playgroup last week and sucked on for a few seconds before I fished them out of her mouth. She definitely honed in on those colorful circles when she saw them laying around!) She had a red and a blue Dum Dum in her bag. I was a little disappointed that she chose red. Blue would've made for some funny pictures. But they were sure cute anyway. I couldn't resist taking about 1,000 of them. William was busting a gut watching her eat her sucker. He got a little too close once and got sticky fingers in his hair. The kids definitely both needed baths after the candy fest was over. And they both fell asleep quick as a wink when their heads hit their pillows, or in Ellie's case, her fuzzy blankie.