Sunday, November 1, 2009

The flip-flop lollipop purple Halloween



Things often don't turn out the way you expect, as many of us know—but that doesn't mean they don't turn out good. That pretty much sums up our Halloween.

I'd gotten Max a crown at Michael's to go with the car costume I made him. He loved the thing so much he slept in it.


Max couldn't wait for all the kids to show up at our door. On Friday, he separated the purple lollipops from the others and put them in a bowl. Only when kids showed up, he'd yank away the bowl because he didn't actually want to give away any of the purple lollipops (he was into the "trick" part of Halloween). So he gave them other treats. Today he was still walking around the house with that bowl of lollipops, which he keeps in his room.


We attempted to go to our town's Halloween parade (it's more like a thousand kids and parents zooming around from store to store grubbing candy). Sabrina dressed up as Ariel. We had a stand-off over her flip-flops, which she still insists on wearing. "One more week!" she begs, every week. I gave in. Then we got to town, someone said "Ooooh, look at that cute Ariel!" and Sabrina burst into tears. She was inexplicably weepy/grumpy for the rest of the afternoon. Max wasn't having any of it, either—he didn't want to put on his costume. He just wanted to hang out in the parking lot. We didn't stay very long.


Princess Puppy was in a better mood than Sabrina was.


Halloween day itself was fine. "It's better today," as Sabrina said. The kids decided they didn't want to wear costumes, though Max wanted his crown. And Sabrina, of course, wanted to wear her flip-flops. So we told everyone Max was Max from Where The Wild Things Are and that Sabrina was a stubborn four-year-old.


Our very fun neighbors: Greg was a seventies guy, Gyneen a seventies girl and Jessica was a cute cat. Greg kept spraying Bianca into his mouth and saying, "How yoooou doin'?" He actually grew those sideburns.


Sabrina needed to roll around in the leaves for a while.


She cozied up to this display. At one house, a guy had all his treats in a purple bucket. Well, Max fell in love. He kept pointing to the bucket, then to himself. "He's in a purple period—you know, like Picasso's blue period," I explained to the guy. "You want to trade buckets?" he asked.




So, that was our Halloween.

Time spent transforming a purple Bed, Bath & Beyond shopping bag into a purple car: One and a half hours
Amount of time Max actually wore said purple costume: 9 or so minutes
Time spent arguing with Sabrina over the flip-flops: 6 minutes
Time spent explaining to Sabrina why she couldn't eat candy for breakfast: 4 minutes
....or ice-pops: 2 minutes
Calories spent on candy (me): One katrillion.
Fun with kids: Priceless.

What do you guys do with all the leftover candy? I'm going to call a local homeless shelter to see if they'll take it.

18 comments:

  1. Sounds like an adventurous Halloween for sure. Us, we keep the candy to give out next year? LOL.

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  2. My kids have those same crowns (we got them at WALMART during a group tantrum and they did the trick so I could finish my shopping) in PINK! Yes...PINK. They wore them EVERYWHERE for about a month!

    We never have leftover candy! We survived the festivities, though!

    I LOVE your neighbors...they remind me of mine (only they're not in costumes--they're like that EVERY day!).

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  3. Whatever works!
    I take the candy to school. Honestly, there won't be much chocolate left over, but the rest of that crap...I'll give it to my kids as random prizes for winning games. Yes, there is a rule about that. Don't care!

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  4. I have taken the candy for ransom...good behavior or else! Sounds like you had a great weekend! Our 4 year olds are so similar...except yours is almost FIVE!
    When is the new baby coming?!?!

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  5. Uh-oh, Sarah, that's how rumors start! Next baby still but a smidgen of our imagination.... You're worse than my mother! Ha, ha, ha.

    Felicia I looked for that crown in pink! I will trek to the big W to see if I can find one for Sabrina. And, I sure would like to meet your neighbors.

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  6. I have a confession: Like Max, I separate the purple lollipops from the rest of the candy and keep them for myself! Max Rocks!

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  7. I probably would have kissed the neighbor who traded buckets. I'm loose like that - you know, when people can roll with our kids the way they are. Sounds like a great Halloween.

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  8. Off topic -- but I love the look of your neighbourhood. It looks like a great place to bring up kids.

    In terms of candy, it has suddenly "disappeared" one night here in the past. Not sure what we'll do this year. I had a dozen of those little Aero bars on Sat. night and felt ill.

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  9. You are so funny, Ellen. I think any hyped up holiday, like Halloween, is always bound to disappoint in one way or another. Your attitude is awesome. As usual.
    I was too scared of the Swine Flu to even do Halloween! I made up little white bags that I filled up with candy and a note from Gavin and Brian. The note said "Sorry we'll miss you Halloween Night! See you next year!" with pictures of the boys in their costumes. The swine flu did not knock on our door all night. So I have no leftover candy as I distributed it to the mailboxes of about 40 kids in the 'hood.
    Hey, remember the day that I used to write a comment about every single blog entry? Ah, those were the days. I still read - every single day!!! - it's just been so busy around here.
    Love ya, Ellen!
    xo
    kate.

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  10. My son (also 4) also refused to wear his costume because "I don't want anyone to LOOK AT ME!"

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  11. My Max wore a crown all day too...Halloween is also his birthday. We didn't do trick-or-treating because he usually just sleeps through it and I look like a pig adult trying to get all of the candy to eat for myself! ;) If he would just stay awake I wouldn't look so desperate!

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  12. And here is a great list of places to donate candy...I especially love the idea of donating to the Ronald McDonald house!

    http://www.coolmompicks.com/2009/11/donating_extra_halloween_candy.php

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  13. I love starting rumors Ellen...you know me, I like to stir that pot!

    I can't have any more babies, so I need to push my desire on someone else! Who better than you?!?

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  14. Ummm, the guy who switched buckets with you so that Max could have the purple one? What a nice guy. That totally made me tear up.

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  15. Kids--they do what they want, don't they?

    We dont' have any leftover candy. My neighborhood is Halloween-crazy and I had at least two hundred trick or treaters. Luckily, I bought some Halloween cookies, so I'm not totally in the lurch.

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  16. It was fun hearing how all of your kids did (or didn't!) do Halloween. Deana, thanks so much for that link! They're all worthy charities, but I can't resist The Ronald McDonald House. Katy, holy ghost, 200 trick-or-treaters? Did your arm get tired?! We had fewer than usual this year because it was rainy. And Kate, there was a reason I didn't have swine flu phobia...see tomorrow's post!

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  17. This looks like a wonderful Halloween! And, like pixiemama, my favorite part was the neighbor who traded buckets with Max - awesome. We had so many 5-yr old meltdowns that morning that I thought we were going to have to keep one kid home, but we made it out in the end! We go out with friends just one neighborhood over who have to buy 1000 pieces of candy, they get so many trick-or-treaters! It was a blast.

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  18. What insanely beautiful children! Lucky, lucky woman: all your dreams have come true.

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Thanks for sharing!



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