No tricks, just treats

Tonight was Kara's first Halloween, not to mention Luke's and my first one as homeowners, so while it was a low-key event of indulging in the wonder that is satellite television and jumping to answer the doorbell, it was special, nonetheless. Kara was wearing her pumpkin costume when Luke came to pick me up at work, and she was admired by numerous trick-or-treaters and their moms when I passed out candy, baby on one hip, the goods in another. Since we only moved in on Tuesday, there wasn't time for creative decorating, but I wanted to make sure people knew we were "Halloween friendly" territory, so Luke ran to the store last night to buy some of those orange pumpkin bags you stuff with leaves and a few spooky window clings for the front door. I was so excited to have kids at our door and so grateful they didn't skip our house for lack of not knowing who we were that oftentimes I actually thanked them for stopping by. We handed out two to three pieces of candy to each kid, thus scoring major brownie points in the Cool Neighbors Department (one boy actually gasped), and Kara's adorableness went over quite well with their parents. A win-win for all, to be sure.

My favorite part of the night occurred while Luke was putting Kara to bed and two boys dressed as the Super Mario brothers came to collect their just desserts.

"Trick or treat!" they exclaimed.

"Wow, look! It's Mario and Luigi!" I said while dropping Reese's cups, Laffy Taffys, and Nerds boxes into their grocery bags.

"Luigi," who couldn't have been older than five, looked me straight in the eye and replied, "We're not real, you know."

"Thanks for clearing that up," I said.

My second and third favorite parts happened when a mini-Dorothy accepted her candy then tried to come into the house and one of the local teenagers welcomed us to the neighboorhood. "Did you just move in? I love the way a new house smells," he said. Was he being genuine or just aiming for more candy? Who cares? That's one smart kid.

Kara had a great time "helping" with the trick-or-treaters and generally melted my heart with her cuddly pumpkin self. Who knew ten-month-olds were so damn fun?

 

Look at me! A baby and a pumpkin! Such the multi-tasker, I know.

  

  Pumpkins don't get any respect.

 

Why does my mom think I look like a pea pod in this picture? The world may never know.

 

My fellow Americans, let me explain why I believe children under the age of one should be allowed to eat Kit-Kats, no matter what our silly parents say.

-------

There is certainly plenty to say about our big move and the process of settling into our new home (not to mention I owe you some seriously amazing after pictures that reflect thousands of dollars in paint and flooring), but that's for another day. In the meantime, Happy Halloween and Happy NaBloPoMo for those of you jumping on the bandwagon tomorrow. This is the first year I won't be participating, and I'm crying on the inside about it, but I can barely post once a week these days. Once every day for a month? Why not go ahead and ask me to stop searching for Baby-sitters Club books at the half-priced bookstore? Both are equally possible.

Comments

[debi]

Oh Frema this post just made me all warm and fuzzy. I think your new neighborhood sounds wonderful. Your tiny pumpkin girl is always wearing a big happy smile. Thanks for sharing. This wasn't a good day for me and just this little sweet ending to today made me feel lots better. I caught that Kara smile.

[Jen L.]

So glad your first Halloween was so great! Ours was, too. Dean the monkey loved meeting the trick or treaters and I loved being the cool mom (like you!) who gave big handfulls of candy. Of course, we woke up to TP in our trees, so I must have ripped somebody off...
Kara is an adorable pumpkin!!! I like her multi-tasking pic.
I'm going to attempt to do NaBloPoMo. I may end up regretting it, but I figure it's worth a shot. I can always just toss up some baby pictures, right?
Enjoy your first weekend in your new home!!

[HollowSquirrel]

Oh that second picture of her looking so dejected made me laugh outloud. So expressive! Looks like you ALL had a fabulous Halloween!

[Luke]

I've not looked outside yet. I hope we didn't get TP'ed, too. We better not have, as I even went out for more candy to make sure we didn't run out...

[Erika with Parsing Nonsense]

She's an adorable pumpkin! I'm so glad your house gets lots of trick or treater traffic. Our house is smack in the middle of a suburb and we get no one!

[daddyd]

What a wonderful start to the living in the new house! She looks just super in her outfit. Good PR with the kids of the neighbor hood.

[Ann]

Kara is an adorable Jack-O-Lantern! Glad you had a fun first Halloween in your new home.
I know what you mean about thanking kids for coming to your house. I get very few trick-or-treaters. It drives me crazy! Now my family has about 75 fun-sized candy bars to feast on. Just what we need!

[Charese]

Congratulations on the move! I'm sure you're happy it's finally over. Kara looks adorable and I'm glad you're first Halloween as home owners was a success!

[John Wilkes and Liberty!]

Well, it looks like all had a great Halloween.

I actually sort of miss the trick-or-treaters coming to the door. I live in a neighborhood where it is mostly couples without kids and single people.

Well, if there were any kids, they missed out. I was handing out Slim Jims this year. Hey, I figured that if I was getting stuck with anything, it had better be something that I liked.

Hey, a question for you parents out there. Is trick-or-treating declining in popularity? If so, why do you think this is the case? Security concerns? Parents working at odd hours? Lack of interest (although this is hard for me to fathom) on the part of kids? Falling cultural currency for the holiday itself?

What say you?

[Jenny]

She IS so damn cute and fun!! Glad to see you guys. The three (four!) of you are such a great family.

[Rhi]

She's not really a pumpkin, you know ;)

[kenandbelly]

So yummy, that pumpkin girl! Had my sweetie pie go as a pumpkin this year, too. And last year. Can't help it. Pumpkin babies are just so cute!