We had an assortment of costumes this year.
Gilbert was Luke Skywalker, Harlan borrowed a lion costume, Seamus got lots of laughs as Captain Underpants, and Porter looked sweet like an M&M.
They had a great time trick-or-treating. Harlan was happy in the stroller, until he figured out the other boys were getting stuff at the houses they approached. We went to two streets that had been closed to traffic. I love that! But it did mean that the kids were potentially easier to lose, since we weren’t watching them as closely. Porter loved the whole process, and said, “Happy Halloween!” very enthusiastically. We always start with our neighbors and get a neighborhood picture, then we all split off. We went over to Patrick’s dad’s neighborhood after we did our neighborhood so they could show off their costumes a little more.
There have been no fights about candy! Two weeks ago, they were already fighting about it, before they’d even gotten any! I said, “There will be no fighting at all about the candy, or I will take it all away.” And they picked out five pieces each to keep, sorted it thoroughly for two days, and I took the leftovers to my students. It feels like we managed much better this year than usual.
It was fun! Patrick and I have been so tired with Porter and Harlan waking up before 5:30 almost every morning, and Halloween seemed kind of like another late night chore, but I’m happy to say that the kids were great–well-behaved, polite, and excited–and that made us have more fun than we thought we would! Also, funny story: they realized on our trip to Kentucky that my parents have no close neighbors. Seamus and Gilbert were appalled: “How did you trick-or-treat!?”
Academic Leigh Speaking 