Remember when I wrote my Halloween post before Halloween and said that I wouldn't write about it after the fact because that would be "so last week" which would be uncool?
Hi!
We're more than two weeks out so I'm pretty sure Halloween posts are cool again. Not quite in a retro way, but in a cycle of fashion way. Like how skinny jeans were cool back when I could wear them and now they are cool again because everyone forgot how stupid it looks.
Nothing unusual happened on Halloween this year, it was a great night. There was just one thing that was said that I don't want to forget. So I'm putting it here for posterity…
Crappy Boy walks up to a door where a woman is standing with a candy bowl. She is already standing there so there is no need for incessant doorbell ringing, knocking or yelling "Trick or Treat!" as loud as possible.
This throws the whole system off.
He walks up to the door silently.
She says:
She is hoping for "Trick or Treat".
Instead he tries:
She laughed. And so did we.
So before we get swept up in the Holidaze, any Halloween tidbits to share from this year? Is the candy gone yet? Come on, it is cool again to talk about. Especially if you are wearing skinny jeans.
My 3.5 year old was more excited about giving out candy than she was about having it…to the point that, when we ran out, she volunteered to give her own away!
Aww!
He is so funny! I’m glad the woman got a kick out of it too. We experienced the breakdancing that you described in your first Halloween post for the first time after we let our daughter have her fill of chocolate. We still have some candy left and I keep hoping she’ll forget about it.
Ahhh you came to my house 😀 – or this is an eeeeeerily similar story
Hilarious! It will be so fun when I get to take my little one Trick or Treating for the first time next year.
OK, so this kind of has a Halloween twist. When I was about three, the local firemen came around collecting money for the Crusade for Children. One of them came to the door and held out a large fireman’s boot that was full of change to accept our donation. I was convinced this was some sort of “reverse trick or treat” and I immediately thrust my hand in the boot and pulled out as much change as my little fists could hold and yelled, “Thank you so much!”
My 2 year old tried going into all the houses! I thought of your post. 🙂
My area was hit hard with an October Noreaster. We lost power for five days and lived like the Ingalls. That being said, Halloween was cancelled for most parts of Massachusetts, so I don’t have any cute stories. I was so upset because my daughter is 20 months old, we had picked out the cutest spider (sorry, don’t scream) costume ever and had planned on her helping me answer the door. Well, hopefully next year I will have something to add, and for the record, I think skinny jeans are gross (but if I were thinner I would say they are awesome)
The candy won’t be gone until we dump it out next year to make room for more
Our 2.5 year old is apparently greedy. Upon getting a piece of candy in his bucket, he would ask for more. Or say “no thanks, I want smarties”. Nice.
halloween was cancelled where we live because of the winter storm that we had in the fall. we were without power for one week. we spent my sons first halloween trying to stay warm and figure what food was still safe to eat in the fridge. i had made a costume and everything so that we could go around to some family, but the roads were impassable. And something about going out in the dark and cold to come back to a house that was dark and cold did not seem fun.
This was my 2 year old’s first time to go trick or treating, as he slept through his first two Halloweens. He had done Trunk or Treats but never had gone to people’s homes. And as you did say in your previous Halloween post, he most certainly tried to go inside!
He also loves anything round that spins. Balls, cups – and especially bowls.
As such, I should not have been surprised when he was more interested in the candy BOWLS than the actual candy. The stinker kept trying to steal the entire bowl – but I guarantee he would have dumped the candy and played with the bowl.
We finally got a system going – as long as someone held one of his hands, and he held his bucket with the other, he couldn’t make off with the whole bowl of candy!
Funny you bring halloween up today. This morning my kiddos insisted on playing in their costumes…again. Lol So my four yr. old daughter wore her princess peach costume to preschool in november. Just wait until she shows up at school wearing it in may after months of “love.”
Now see…I think Crappy Boy is on to something. I much prefer “Please put candy in my bag” to “Trick or Treat.” Give me a treat or I will play a trick on you. Adorable little kids in costume threatening strangers. Really?
Secondly, my adorable, threatening little kids in costume are all talk. They have no tricks to back up their game. Seems like one day, someone is bound to call them on it.
Crappy Boy is a genius, and a polite one at that.
A little girl chose a piece of candy from our bowl, held it up for her dad to see (who was waiting in the street) and yelled, “Daddy, do you like *these*?”
Too cute!! We still have candy left. I’ve been sneaking pieces into my 5 year old’s lunches every day.
NOOOOOOOOO! I refuse to believe that skinny jeans are popular again because they look horrible on about 99% of the population including me. For the record, I do know that they are popular, I’m just in denial.
Amber, do you crack yourself up when you retell your stories? I would! Or at least, giggling. Your blog is the highlight of my day!!
Will you put in your eldest son’s ‘baby’ book that you called him ‘Crappy Boy’ in your blog posts or one day show it to him? That should be a bloggable post as well 😀
LOL funny that you mention skinny jeans…I’m actually wearing a pair!! LOL I inherited them from one of my husbands co workers. The only pair I’ve ever had and I feel pretty stupid in them….like walking around on tooth picks…;)
Ahhhh, a fellow New Englander! We were out for four days. I was so happy just to be able to flush a toilet again. My four year old was in tears at the first house because he couldn’t reach the doorknob. Not a good start to the rescheduled Halloween.
My 20 month old daughter hasn’t mastered “trick or treat” yet. So she would just yell “TREAT” at the top of her lungs at every house. Followed by a very demure, “ank eww”.
Ha! Pretty sure if you have the tooth pick thing going on then you are of the distinct minority of people who can actually pull them off!
I asked my two and a half year old to hold on to the railing when coming down someone’s steps and he told me he couldn’t because he had Halloween Hands. When I asked what he meant he showed me that he had to hold his bag open with two hands and God Forbid he let go! 🙂
Oh yes, he has seen some of the posts (just the nice ones, not the me venting ones) and he thinks they are hilarious. This blog IS my baby book!
My 6 year old wanted to be Santa for Halloween (yes, he is a little obsessed with Christmas). My Mom made him the costume and we got all the “Oooos and Aaaahs” The one thing we didn’t think about was instead of him saying “Trick or Treat” a lot of times it came out “Ho Ho Ho! Merry Christmas!” LOL!
Awwww, that is adorable and sweet.
Oh my goodness lmao we still have over 15 POUNDS of halloween candy left. I think my favorite thing from this year was how fearless my almost 3 year old Chase was. Every teenager in a scary mask, every zombie, every house with spooky lights/music. No fear. He was in the ZONE! Then we walked past a Doberman in a tutu. THAT scared him. I mean literal clinging to the leg almost in tears scared. And no, he’s not scared of dogs lol his Gramma has 2 and he loves them. Bring on the blood and guts, but you can keep your tutu dogs.
My 3 year old was soo pumped to go trick or treating this year and we were excited to, well we go to 2 houses and he says to me and my oldest ” im good now lets go” he was done.. So he rode in the truck with daddy while me and the oldest trick or treated lol
LOL that is a good one! So cute!
I was out of town for a funeral, so my hubby and MIL were on their own with the kids (ages 2 and 4) for Halloween. Houses are kind of spread out in my neighborhood, so they went to only three houses – one of which had no people or candy set out – then headed home. Walking back to our house, my 4YO excitedly proclaimed, “I had SO much fun!! This was the best Halloween EVER!” Three houses, 7 pieces of candy total, and she was in total bliss!
That is awesome. And why my 1 year old went Trick or Treating!
Ha! That is a perfect example of how irrational their fears can be. Great story!
My 20 month old was supposed to be a monkey, in honor of her favorite toy monkey with abnormally long limbs. It wears her diapers and clothes. I’m talking, FAVORITE toy. Ever. Anyway, the big day comes, and she won’t put it on. We tried to put it on, showing how much fun it is. “No.” We showed her the trick-or-treater kids. “No.” Grandma tried. “No.” There was no halloween in our house. Only candy. And I’m still eating it… makes me wonder if I can get in those skinny jeans. They are cool… right?
Nothing too good from Trick or Treat itself (other than DS (almost 4) pointing out the bad Spiderman. They growled at each other. But when we got back home, he sat on the tailgate with my fiance handing out candy. A little girl, maybe 2?, toddled up in a unicorn costume. DS looks at us and says “Awwww!!! She’s sooo cute! I want a little baby like that!” We cracked up. So did her parents.
That is wonderful! I hope she is always so easy to please! 🙂
I had wondered about whether or not New England was going to reschedule Halloween 🙁 Sorry you guys missed it!
“ank eww>.” Aaaawww! Too cute!
Yes, if you can get in them, then they are cool. I think that is how it works. Next year she’ll wear a costume!
I must preface my story by telling you that I live in Iowa. West Des Moines, Iowa. This is important because apparently we are the only people in the country that require our children do a “trick” to get their treat. It has something to do with the strong Midwestern work ethic, I think. I have never thought that this was in any way odd being a born and raised Iowan, until I did a little stint in Denver and they all thought I was nuts. At any rate, I digress.
My story has to do with the “tricks”. These consist of jokes and more jokes. The funnier you are, the more treats you can have. Or at least, that’s the way I operate! We had lots of great jokes this year … the standards like “Why did the man put the car in the oven? Because he wanted a hot rod!” Get it. I’m sure you do. We also had a little bit more creative ones like “Why didn’t the skeleton cross the road? Because he didn’t have the guts”. Chuckle, chuckle. These are all fine and good and would have worked well for my 4 year old twin girls. We Iowans spend weeks coming up with our jokes for Halloween. However, the twins decided that they could come up with better and funnier jokes on their own. So I let them. Needless to say they went something like this … “Knock Knock. Who’s there? Banana. Banana Who? Banana and a car!” Which would automatically be followed by raucous laughter from the twins and a look of bewilderment from whoever was handing out the candy. They got handfuls I think just to leave as quickly as possible. Maybe they are on to something? Maybe they are geniuses?!
Who doesn’t want a baby unicorn? lol 🙂
At one house my daughter was asked the same question, “What do you say?” She said, “Thank you!” The guy laughed and said, “well, I was going for trick or treat, but that works!”
I’m wearing stirrup leggings with high tops, does that qualify me to talk about it?
I love how he says PLEASE! Good job Mama!
My 15 month son was just not into it. Hated his costume (Yoda), didn’t smile once, and I had to carry him up to the doors. It was the world’s most pathetic ten minutes of trick-or-treating.
All the chocolate is securely placed in the freezer where the kids won’t think to look for it. However; since I know where it’s not likely too last too long!
Our almost 3 year old refused to go trick or treating this year, and he wasn’t thrilled about handing out candy either. The weather was crappy that night anyway, so not many kids came to our house. After the kids came and left, though, he would go and lock the door after them every time, lol. Our neighbor friends even came over to bring him some candy, but he wouldn’t take it, and he wouldn’t talk to their kids while they were in costume either, even though he normally loves to play with them.
That is awesome! I never knew tricks were required anywhere. So friendly, cracking jokes at the door like that. Coming up with your own jokes is way more fun and effective!
My 3-year-old son was all about yelling out “Trick or Treat” at the top of his lungs. I usually stayed back on the sidewalk with baby brother who was done after going to two doors and filling his hands with candy (2 pieces). Anyway, about halfway through our trip, I hear my son shout at the top of his lungs “RAISINS ARE NOT A TREAT!” It made my night, and I think I’ll keep that wonderful memory for all Halloweens to come.
Oh goodness. Just goodness. Funny about stirrups, when I wore them back in the 80s my grandmother told me that SHE wore them when she was young. I was mortified that they weren’t a new thing of ultimate coolness for my generation only.
LOL
We stayed home with our 20 month old chick-monk (chicken on the top, monkey on the bottom) while our 12 year old went out trick-or-treating. We ended up running out of candy and giving away our oldest DD’s booty because DH is so generous, he just held out the bowl for all the greedy little grubbers to grab as much as they can take! Not that I’m bitter or anything…
BTW, I’m wearing my skinny jeans… the maternity kind with the big stretchy belly sewn in… no, I’m not expecting.
Everyone can wear skinny jeans now, you just need a long tunic or sweater and tall boots. Basically cover as much of the jeans as possible!
Good one! I am going to ask the kids to ‘trick’ next halloween!
We took our two year old out for her first trick or treat. Went to one house and they answered the door with scary masks on. She screamed at the top of her lungs and ran away. That was the end of Halloween for us.
I let the littler one (15 mos) hold her candy, figuring she couldn’t get past the wrappers. We had a stop at a friend’s, then drove to another friend’s house. She was holding a giant KitKat in the wrapper when we left house #1, when we got to house #2 and I went to get her out of the carseat she was covered with chocolate. Somehow she had gnawed through the corner to the wrapper, and it was GONE. Like a mouse had done it–that corner had vanished, and little toothy tear marks were left on the remaining wrapper. I am pretty sure she ate it, but never did find it in her diaper.
Hilarious! I love your blog, my favorite is the black widow under the chair. Had me rolling out of my chair.
My 4 year old started telling people “It’s just a costume” when they would compliment him on his awesome Spiderman’ness. After letting one house know this, he shouted back at them “When I grow up, I’m going to drink beard!” Which of course means beer. Thankfully they thought it was hilarious so my wide open mouth was able follow suit.
Another New Englander….we didn’t lose power for as long as other people in the area, and my town didn’t postpone Trick or Treating. However, I wasn’t taking my sons (age 5 and almost 2) out by myself with the snow, cold and trees down. (Hubby had school that night) So we did our TOT-ing at a local mall in the afternoon, and Oldest Boy was thrilled to hand out candy at home. Unless it was someone in a scary mask. “Uh, Mom? You do it!” 🙂
See , now THAT is polite. He would totes get extra pieces from me. 🙂
Someone in our neighborhood handed out Valentines day candy…yep. Another person who works at the local college must have either forgotten to buy candy, ate all of the candy prior to Halloween, or just been cheap & handed out mints with the college logo on them (probably taken off her desk). We had a beautiful night here & my husband had a good time taking our cowboy, princess Belle, and pumpkin (first Halloween) around while I enjoyed some mommy juice (aka chardonnay) and answered the door. 🙂
Last year my daughter (Then age 3) told every one who gave her candy “Happy Halloweeeen and Merry Chimis! (Christmas)” She acctualy got people that though it was so cute that they called her back to give her more candy.
This year she decided to compliment everyone. for example *direct quote * “Your such a cute little bumble bee! ” “why thank you very much! You have a very nice home and a pretty face!” And then they would give her more candy again. She never used the same compliment twice either. And almost always got double candy. i can’t wait to see what she comes up with next year. She not so much polite, as clever as the devil! And knows how to work the cute factor for maximum candy output. Lol.
My 3.5 year old introduced himself and his brother at every single house we went to. It sounded something like this… “Trick or treat, thank you, my name is XXX and this is my brother YYY”.
My 4 year old was all excited leading up to the holiday. Right before my husband got home to take them out he started complaining of his head hurting. I couldn’t figure out what it was so I sent him out with his daddy anyways. My husband was so excited because this was the first year he was home to do it with them. After just a short time he brings them in and my 4 year old has glassy eyes and is saying he just wants to go to bed. I undress him and take his temp. 102 and pretty sick. I finally get it all cleaned up and get him in bed. Meanwhile my husband gave my 2.5 year old one of those gigantic kit kat bars and let him eat the whole thing!!!! Yikes!
We just took my son {20 months} to Nana’s and his aunt’s houses to trick or treat. At the end of the night, we hit a few neighbors. We are new in the neighborhood, so our neighbors barely know us. He had the whole ‘knock on the door, sign ‘please,’ get candy’ figured out by then. What he didn’t understand, was that he couldn’t just walk into the neighbor’s house, like he did at his Nana’s and Aunt’s houses. Every time a neighbor opened the door, he signed please, got candy, then tried to walk right in…
This was our first year attempting a real “trick or treat” Halloween with the 3yo. He was sooooo excited, we drilled and practiced for days before hand. We bought the drugstore plastic pumpkin. He put on that Spidey costume and wild horses couldn’t hold him back. He did great, I was so proud when his “Twicker Tweet” resulted in the expected payout and he would say “WOW. TANK YOU!!!! TANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH!!!!” I may have actually hurt my shoulder patting myself on the back for how well-mannered I have made this short human. All shot to hell when he realized the main street in our area is just FILLED WITH PEOPLE. WHO MIGHT HAVE CANDY. So I watched in horror as he went up to every single person that crossed his path, and some who didn’t, and tugged at them saying “HI! YOU HAVE CANDY FO ME????” Some thought it was adorable, others just said “No habla ingles” and a few gave him MONEY!!!! I just stood there blushing and melting into the pavement. But I used the $8 he raked in for a cappofrappomacholatto to make the day more enjoyable!!!
My 12 month old went “trick or treating” with me and my 3 1/2 year old. He obviously doesn’t get the candy, and yet people give him candy (yea me!). When people gave him candy he would sign thank you (adorable) and then give the candy back (really adorable). But then he would want it back (cuz he’s 1). Then he would want a piece of candy for the other hand. Becuase he signed thank you (remember, that was adorable), people would give a one year old two pieces of candy he can’t eat. Result … mommy got 3 times the candy. It would be totally irresponsible to give a 1 year old and a 3 year old that much Halloween candy!
This year my almost 2 year old (next week) had her first time out guising (what we call trick or treating in Scotland).
She couldn’t quite get the hang of ‘trick or treat’ instead she just ‘chicken feet’ too adorable and funny.
I would also like to say that over here the kids are also asked by some houses to do a trick first before they get a treat. This is usually a joke, a song or a dance. My daughters trick was her out of tune rendition of twinkle twinkle little star.
We still have a lot of left over sweets and monkey nuts – I will have to start eating them soon.
At least he said “please”
This year the hubby took both kids trick or treating (7 yr old had strip throat). Somehow they found the house where the owners of our local chinesse restraunt live….They came home with fortune cookies ( with no fortune’s) & these little cups of jello. We think they don’t go shopping, they just grab stuff out of the backroom.
You have to tell jokes for your candy in St. Louis, Missouri, too 😀
My 2.5 year old had a pattern. Get his bucket from Mommy. Run to the door. Hold up bucket. Look cute. Receive candy. Run bucket back to Mommy for her to hold. Go to Daddy. Put up arms to be picked up. Get carried to the next house. Ask to be put down. Repeat.
What are monkey nuts?
Yes! This is my M.O.!
Same situation walking up to the door, I prompt my 2yo, “What do you say?”. “Pease may I HAB it?”, he answers putting his hand out. “No, it’s ‘Trick or Treat!'”, I correct him, adjusting his hands to hold open his bag. “Tit oh Teet!”, he agreeably parrots. Afterwards, “What do you say?”, I once again prompt. “Tit oh Teet!” “Hmm… no, you already got some. Now what do you say?” “Ooh yeh… scooz me, I tooted!”
Sidenote: I’ve always said, size 10 skinny jeans is an oxymoron. 😉
They are peanuts in soft light brown shell, each monkey nut usually has 2 peanuts in it. No idea why but for as long as I can remember these are always given out over here at halloween. We also always get small apples and tangerines.
My husband had the flu, so our 3-year old son Logan helped me pass out candy. We had a variety of boy costumes – pirate, zombie, spaceman – and they all got to grab their handful of loot from the bowl with little fanfare. But – all the little girls were dressed as princesses and not only did they grab their handful of candy, but Logan grabbed an extra handful and put it in their bags for them. Such a gentleman (and a ladies man)!
My 2.5 year old decided he was an FBI level interrogator . So after “twick o tweat” (God the cuteness still kills me), he had a question for everyone:
Why are your shoes off?
Why is there a couch there?
Who is that guy right there?
LOL!
MY 17 month old, sporting an obviously homemade costume, had a blast this Halloween. He loved being in costume, seeing the costumes, and walking around a neighborhood (we live on 3+ acres). But, he would have rather been able to take home all the dogs we saw instead of the candy. My husband and I made sure we were “good parents” and ate all the candy. We actually fought a little over it to. I thought I deserved first pick since I went trick or treating. He thought he deserved it because he had to work and missed all the fun.
I was half a block from my 2 kids, running 6 and 8yr old, when they decided to approach a camper that was parked on the street. I see the light go on and my kids getting closer and closer to the door…Here I am screaming, with a baby sleeping on me, running down after them as they approach and RECIEVE razor lined chocolate- for sure! WTH- who parks a camper on the street to distribute trick-or-treats?? That was our crazy halloween. I am sooooo mad I didn’t say something to them! GRRR
my 15 month old was yoda too! he hated the hat, but my husband went out to buy him a GREEN lightsaber (we already had a red and a purple one) because he had to have the correct color, and he loved that.
the funniest part about halloween was how quickly he caught on to candy – which he never gets. seriously. so, in the spirit of the holiday, i gave him the tiniest little piece of kit kat. seriously, just a little crumb. he saw it come from his bag, so he kept pulling the candy out of his bag (he went to 3 houses) and signed “more”. then, he realized that i was giving other kids candy – how he picked up on that was beyond me- and he kept trying to steal the candy out of the bowl and signing “more”! it was really crazy. he hasn’t had candy since, but we have some leftover candy that he still tries to steal when he climbs on top of the kitchen table.
My 3 year old dressed as a ghost, and said “Boooooo!” at each house. But then she reassured people that she was not a real ghost, just a pretend ghost, in case they got scared.
My son’s homemade costume was recognized by multiple people! They knew he was Boba Fett from Star Wars (I had to look him up online to make it). He liked getting candy (to sell to the dentist at $2/lb) but he LOVED the compliments. Mental note to compliment trick-or-treaters constantly abou how awesome they look!
My 3 year old got really into it this year too. We practiced before the actual day so she would no to say trick or treat and thank you. After she was done trick-or-treating she wanted to help daddy hand out candy. We were really thrilled to see her schooling the bigger kids on proper halloween etiquette- reminding them to say thank you after she handed them candy will be a highlight of my halloween memories for years to come.
We traveled about 40 mins to where my in-laws live to go trick or treating. My 19-month-old has a limited vocabulary as of yet, and “truck” is far and away his favorite word. We tried to practice “trick or treat” all the way there, but really it does sound a lot like “truck” when you think about it. That was all we could get out of him everywhere we went…”TRUCK”. But he was a cutie little R2D2 so everyone got a kick out of him.
Would it be a bad thing to hide away this year’s halloween haul until Next year and hand it out then? Seriously hard bubble gum nobody buys EXCEPT at halloween…crappy chocolate shaped like skeleton bones and sweet tarts should NOT be acceptable halloween candy…if I’m going to sneak a piece of halloween candy when my 4yo isn’t looking I want the good stuff…snickers….milky way….reeses…..and am I the only one to notice that even THESE minis are smaller this year than last year??? WTF???
A woman tried to give my daughter a giant pixie stick. My daughter asked her what it was (she had never seen one before). The woman told her, “it’s a tube full of sugar”. My daughter, knowing I would never let her eat a tube full of sugar, takes it and says, “I’m just gonna throw it away…or give it to my grandma”. I told her if she didn’t like something to just take it anyway and say thank you, so for the rest of the night every time she got something she didn’t want she gave it to my dad. He came back with his pockets stuffed with anything that wasn’t chocolate.
at least he said please! lol. Many of my facebook friends ranted about how thoughtless and ill-mannered many of the kids were in their area. We haven’t found that to be true in our area, but that’s becuase we’re in Wisconsin. We’re shaped like a friendly waving hand!
Ours was pretty good. My little guy started off just amazed that anyone would be crazy enough to jusyt *give* candy away and profusely thanked every person he met. About half-way through, he was getting used to the “I say ‘trick-or-treat, you give me candy” thing. We got to one place where there were neighbors sitting together between their two homes. Three ladies in lawn chairs, to be precise. He went to the first one, did his thing, got candy. Same with the second lady. The third didn’t have candy. He stood there, waiting for her to produce his “take” but she didn’t. Finally, in a very patronizing tone, he said, “I say ‘trick-or-treat’, you have to give me candy. Where’s the candy?”
Hey now…first pair of skinny jeans on my body right now and I LOVE them. Who would’ve thought? 🙂
My sister was trying to teach her 2 year old to say thank you while they were trick or treating, so before they went out, she asked him, ” What do you say when people give you candy?” He replied, ” One more, please!”
Hmm… I never thought to dress up my adorable 3 y.o. and take him downtown to pay for my coffee habit! LOL
I laughed so hard at this that I peed my opposite of skinny jeans pants just a little bit.
My 2.5 year old was the same way. He would stand by the door and yell at the kids that walked by. “hey. Come here. Me got candy”
My 4yr old son went to 2 trunk & treats and had a blast! But we ended our evening at Grandma’s house. He had almost as much fun handing out the candy but he gave a comentary of the candy when handing it out. “Don’t eat those! They’ll BURN your mouth! (fireballs) They are made with FIRE!!” or “I LOVE these, you can only have one.” and he would then give himself some of the good candy. So he was a live comment section for their candy. 🙂 My 20yr old daughter is in college and I don’t want to know what her parties were like… nor what she wore. Ignorance is sometimes bliss!
I’m from Massachusetts, too. We ended up missing trick-or-treat, having to spend the night in a hotel to stay warm. Next year, we’re coming back with a vengeance! My boys have already said they’re going to do TWO loops around the neighborhood, coming home to change costumes in between!
How about the confusion when your child says “Trick or treat” while knocking then has nothing left to say when they actually answer the door!
I LOVE this! We dont require tricks in Michigan (maybe next year), but my 4 year old is an avid fan of telling jokes. He knows about 5 real jokes and tells them well. Once he exhausts those we get the self-made knock-knocks, and random punchlines for about 30 more minutes. The “best” part, and by best I mean the part that HE enjoys the most, is that once any joke elicits a laugh he tells it over and over again. Sometimes he’s even kind enough to tell you when to laugh – just in case you are unsure.
I have a feeling he would really enjoy Halloween in Iowa!
DD is 19 months, we dressed her as a zebra with a tutu, everyone LOVED her costume. She was unsure of what to do at first, but once she realized that she was getting candy she became a pro. One lady let her pick her own candy from the bowl and she decided to take a handfull, and then tried to go back for more after that! At least she said “ank oo.” The funniest part of all- any time we came to a house that had pets she kept calling out “KEEEY! Oowww ooooowwwww!” (Ow is how she meows, Key is ‘kitty’) or “Itch!! IITTCCHH!!” (She calls every dog Stich, which is what our pup is named, and sounds WAY too close to the *B* word for her to be yelling it like that) So pretty much the whole night DD was giggling excitedly and yelling “Ooowww!! ITCH!!” Needless to say, we got quite a few unhappy looks.
I have a password protected blog for our daughter (mainly for the out of town grandparents to access) and every year on her birthday I have the last year’s entries printed and bound into a hardback book. I am not a scrap booker in the least so that’s going to be her “baby book.” My only issue is if we have another one, should I start another separate blog just for that kid and do the same? I can’t see how a second kid is going to get the same detailed chronicles though.
My 2 year old caught on really quick. But after every house, she asked “more trick or treat?”. Like after 10 houses you’d think she would have realized the fact that this was continuous!
We had quite an amusing Hallowe’en at our place. Between our four year old, 2 1/2 year old, and 19 month old, it was very amusing. You can read about it here: http://fourunder4plustwo.blogspot.com/2011/11/halloween.html
I’m in Cedar Rapids and we have neighbors that just moved from Des Moines and they could not believe that no one had to tell jokes here. There is one house in our neighborhood that makes you spin a wheel and do what it says (trick, song, dance..) to get your candy. The line is eternal and she’s crammed in the tiny foyer..so we skip it usually. Maybe if we made them tell jokes we’d have less candy.
Both kids were sick and so we tried trick or treat at home….it didn’t pan out as well as I’d hoped.
Read more http://www.librarianmom.com/2011/11/01/holidayfrustration/
Where do Jeggings stand? Not that I’m wearing any right now.
I thought it’d be cute to let my 2 year old son hand out the candy. When the first set of trick-or-treators came to the door, one of them was dressed like a Star Wars character, which is apparently terrifying if you’re 2. My son took the candy bowl and ran away screaming.
My son is six, and this was his first Halloween going out without his older cousin to lead the way. A few discoveries:
*When there’s no doorbell, it’s ok to knock LOUD to be heard.
*Don’t talk about the candy (type, deliciousness or yuckiness) until out of earshot of the giver.
And my favorite…
*Know how to close the deal. He got the trick or treat thing and even the thank-you, but then he wasn’t sure exactly how to depart. At one house, he stood around so long that the woman asked “Do you want another piece of candy?” To which he replied “sure!” After that we told him to close by saying “happy halloween!” as he was walking away, which seemed to work.
When my son was 4, he was a fireman and I taught him that when people opened the door he should say, “Did someone call 911?” He did it and it was hilarious! It took people a second to register what he was saying, since he deviated from the tradional “trick or treat?”
Nothing fun to say about Halloween (other than I made THE BEST chicken costume I have ever seen out of a torn up sheet and duct tape)but I am so glad I am not the only one who thinks skinny jeans are stupid. Even if you are thin enough to wear them. Then you look like you have a saggy butt.
of course then skinny jeans could be your costume – you could be Saggy-Butt-Mama with some kind of crazy superpower.
I COMPLETELY underestimated Halloween for my kids (boy 2.5yrs old and girl 15mos) I thought they might not “get” trick or treating yet, or that it might be too scary for them. So, I called our friends who have 2 boys (8 and 10yrs old) that our kids LOVE. I say “can I bring the little ones over to trick or treat a few houses with the bigger boys”? So – we go – and my kids are RUNNING to keep up with the big kids, not scared AT ALL, and my son has the full “speech” for each door, “trick or treat” gets the candy, then “thank you for the candy, happy halloween,see you next time, bye bye”….as the kids behind him are getting impatient for him to end his goodbyes and get out of their way. By the 5th or 6th house, little girl caught on and started saying “teet teet” and holding up her bag. Surprisingly successful and fun.
Halloween candy is long gone. And I ate it ALL. Me. By myself. Bleck.
I love that! I have to share this with my husband (who is a fireman) – he’ll appreciate it!
We trick-or-treated at my husband’s job. Everyone in the office had candy for employee’s children. This was our kids’ first time trick-or-treating. It was also their first time being to “Daddy’s work”.
Now, everytime we get into the car with my husband, my son asks if we are “going to work”. 🙂
bahaha you caught me. I’m wearing skinny jeans right now…
Jenna
callherhappy.com
How did I know he would dress as a pirate! Hah!
You can keep both kids on the same blog. Set up each child’s name as a ‘label’ or ‘tag’. Each blog post that mentions that child gets his/her tag. When it is time to print, you can designate which ‘tags’ or ‘labels’ to include in the printing of each book. Happy blogging!
Yeah for the new crappy button! As for our Halloween, we have a two year old so we went out early. Only two people were home on our block. Then when we got home to pass out candy only 1 person came. It was anticlimactic to say the least.
My 3.5 year old was similar. He took a piece of candy with him when we left the house, and gave it to a random trick-or-treater walking down the street. We spent twice as long handing out candy as we did collecting this year!
Haha, that’s awesome, love it!
My 3.5 yr old LOVED trick-or-treating this year. He surprised one neighbor by saying “Gracias!” after she put candy in his bag. All of the adults standing around cracked up laughing. (We are OH-SO-CAUCASIAN in rural PA.) You can tell he has watched a bit of Dora and Diego. 🙂
1. I’m taking your previous post as Gospel and helping my child eat his candy.
2. Being his first ‘real’ year out daddy took him. Apparently even with practicing before every door once the door opened he was shocked into silence. So much so that I heard them coming home, got to the door, waited for the knock and when I opened the door with a big smile… he looked even at me stunned into silence. I waited for the big ‘Trick or Treat!’ but it never came. Instead he walked right past me to the bowl of candy and helped himself! I burst out laughing and asked if this was the routine of the night but no, just at our house. Thank goodness! 😀
That’s so cute! We know who the candy was REALLY for, LOL
Never underestimate the power of a child holding wrapped candy. Pretty sure mine have eaten wrappers a few times too.
This literally made me laugh out loud 🙂 I can SO picture a child doing that!
Those banana jokes are the EXACT same as the ones my two boys tell! 🙂 I keep waiting for the learning period to be over so I can laugh along with them. 🙂
My 3.5 yr. old figured out very quickly what trick or treating was all about, and came running down every driveway with an enormous grin on his face, giggling, “I WUUVE twick or tweeting!!” But I think we went around for too long, cuz by the end of the 2nd hour he was walking into everyone’s houses so he could help himself to their stash 😉 My 20-mnth-old was too cute saying “Da boo” (thank you) at every house…often before he even reached the door 🙂
My dad stayed at our place to hand out candy while hubby and I were out with our 4 boys. When one group of kids came and shouted trick or treat he responded with, “Oh, what the heck, give me a trick.” The kids looked completely bewildered while their English parents stood on the street in hysterics 🙂 It was a fun night!
Same situation, here. My husband and I live in Pennsylvania, so we have a few pictures with a snow-covered lawn and the jack-o-lanterns sitting at the edge of our shoveled driveway. Unfortunately, we don’t have much TOT-ing to do. With one of our sons off in the Army and the other in Princeton, the only thing left for us is handing out the candy. Maybe we’ll be able to go again soon, though. 😉
We took our daughter (3.5) out with her “boyfriend” trick or treating this year. It was him who had us in hysterics for once. We came across a house that was truly decorated for Halloween…complete with a graveyard and teenage “dead people” laying there. Every so often, one of the kids would sit up and scare a kid. When we came to the house, Matthew looked at the teenager that sat up in attempt to scare him and said “look boy, I don’t care if you are dead, you’re not stealing my girlfriends’ candy, so go lay back down in you gavelard” He is 3, and it was the funniest thing ever!
Last year my then four-year-old greeted every door with “trick-or-treat-I’m-allergic-to-tree-nuts-and-peanuts!”, no matter how many times we told him we would figure it out at home. This year he was warned so many times not to say it that he stood silent and serious at each door. Luckily his brothers were loud enough for the whole family.
I love the look of skinny jeans and boots, but I feel so uncomfortable in them. And I’m a size 0-1! Chalk it up to my insecurities I guess.
My four-year-old kept forgetting the “thank you” part. Typically, a “What do you say?” clued him in, but one house, he was so eager to move on, I think he would’ve forgotten his own name.
“What do you say?” I asked him.
“Happy Halloween!” he said .
Me: “And …” Him: “Have a nice day! Have fun …. Oh yeah! THANK YOU!”
We were all chuckling by the time he was done!
My son acts really weird when he meets new people. He silently pretends he’s a robot. So every single person who tried to speak to him on Halloween got “the robot” (literally the robot dance with no music)…… except he was a cowboy.
I just ate three pieces of Halloween candy. And I have a Halloween post I haven’t posted yet. Maybe I’ll wait til Christmas.
My daughter had just turned 3 last Halloween, so she was a bit new to this whole “ring the bell, scream trick or treat, and get CANDYYYYY from total stangers” ritual … so her 5 year old brother was showing her the ropes. She caught on very quickly to this lucrative scheme, and as she hippity-hopped up to house number 5, with a HUGE grin on her sweet little face, she declared loudly to my brother (walking with us): “Hey Unka David! I’m TRICKIN’ MY TREATS!!!!”
So at one house, our 3 year old took some candy from a woman…and then they had that awkward moment. After he took some candy, he looked at the woman with his candy bag, and she looked at him…and he looked at her (like he was waiting for her to do something). Finally, our boy says “ok…well happy Halloween then,” and waves as he turns and walks away. Funny!
There weren’t a whole lot of trick-or-treaters in our neighborhood and most houses were giving out 2 and 3 pieces of candy…My almost 4 year old went up to a house, happpily shouted, “Trick or TREAT!” and the lady put a single Tootsie Roll into his bag. He looked down, looked back up at her and said, “That’s it? Just one little one?” And walked away with his head down as she laughed and called him back and gave him a whole handful of Tootsie Rolls. He jumped up and down and shouted, “Thank you, lady!”
When he got to the end of the sidewalk, he told his dad, “I don’t like Tootsie Rolls.”
We caught one of our neighbours off guard without any candy so he gave my 5 year old daughter a toonie. While checking her loot (an impressive pile from only 7 houses!) at home, I explained that the man had given out money because he didn’t have any candy. Without hesitating she exclaimed “poor guy, we should share ours with him!”
This made me smile. We don’t do Halloween here but wish we did. However, I was prompting a thank-you for delivering a drink to my T.v engrossed 4 year old this afternoon and I said ‘What do you say’ to which I got an automatic ‘hello.’ We both laughed a lot over that one.
I was trick or treating with my three (almost 4) year old. He was Larry the Cucumber from Veggie Tales, which people thought was very cute. At one of the houses a woman asked if he would like some more candy and offered him an extra lollipop. He looked at her and very seriously said, “No, I already have a lollipop.” Thankfully she laughed and was not offended.
Ha! What’s important is that he said please! When I was giving out candy, I’d crouch down and let the little ones pick their own out of the bowl. Then I’d laugh uncontrollably while one kid picked out exactly one sucker and his buddy shoved both hands in for a massive double fist handful. Kids are so funny.
My 3 yr old has a knock-knock that I can’t get him to get over. “Knock Knock.” “Who’s there” “It’s me! A Logan!” If you haven’t heard it before, you chuckle because it’s unexpected. Unfortunately, that encourages him.
Crappy Boy is polite! Some kids in my neighborhood were not so nice. With Miss L, we practiced and practiced and practiced. She loved saying “trick or treat!” But then the time came and daddy had to say it for her. She just stared at them, a timid little Ewok. One lady asked how old she was. She couldn’t find her words until she had gotten her candy, the woman had shut the door, and we were back on the sidewalk. She then shouted at the door, “I’m two olds!”
Last year my five year old niece found herself a few kids behind her younger brother and sister. As she waited in line at one house, the other two moved on to the next house. When she was done she ran after them (in a costume that makes her looking like she’s riding a pony, BTW)screaming, “WAIT FOR ME, PLEASE! WAIT FOR ME!”. She gets up to the porch, panting, and says, “would you just listen to me? I sound like a raving lunatic!”
No! We are going to eat this Christmas I think. Though getting slim pickings leaving the hard bubble gum and atomic balls of doom. They each have a tub and take out three for lunch and three for dinner! At least veggies are eaten frantically when the tubs come out.
Oh and btw the last halloween post is *exactly* what happened to us at the first door. We both said crap, noted who was assigned to what child, and laughed hysterically.
i was totally suprised by my 17.5 month old who LOVED trick-or-treating. i thought 1, maybe 2 houses but NOOOOOO she didn’t want to stop, once she realized people were GIVING her stuff she was all about it. i almost felt bad for her when hubby and i ate all of her candy when she only got the pretzels….. 🙂
We went trick or treating for the first time this year (it is getting bigger over here England side!) I loved how my four year old was getting her own candy, and then getting one for her sister (almost 2), and then her little sister got her own candy! She walked away with twice the amount her sister did! It was very cute watching my little pumpkin (literally) wander after the other kids (there was a big group of us) in a daze, not sure why strangers were giving her sweets… but liking it!
Not me, they poop rainbows. Who wants to clean that up?
Carrying Yoda = extra accuracy!
My friend keeps raisin boxes to hand out to trick-or-treating teens who don’t bother to dress up. His clever idea was undermined a bit though by one of the kids with the best costumes who spotted the raisins and said, “Awesome! Raisins! Can I have those?” … so they’re not undesirable to everybody after all.
Wow!
My kids were great at the trick-or-treating. My 2-year-old made it to the houses on our street, and the almost-5-year-old went farther afield with her Daddy and the kids next door.
We also had a party this year. I was setting out new plates of food when my 2-year-old came to me and tugged my hand. “Mama, what’s that?” she asked. I looked around the room. We had lots of spooky decorations, but she had helped put them up and was comfortable with the spider stickers and black rubber rats. “What’s THAT?!?” she asked, starting to sound a little hysterical. I followed her line of sight and realized that one of the kids at the party was dressed as a werewolf, with a very realistic wolf’s mask. Poor little girl thought there was some strange dog-boy wandering around our house and everyone was acting like it was normal. I took her over and had the boy remove the mask, but she was a little leery of him for the rest of the party.
I love it, is made ma laugh!
Just like your remark about the skinny jeans…
I love your style!
This was the first year I took all three of my children Trick-or-Treating…
My youngest son is 2.5 years old… and hadn’t quite figured out the concept of offering his open bag for people to deposit candy.
Perhaps we should have practiced at home first! 😀
Each time we reached the door, he would clutch his bag tightly and stare the residents down! Almost daring them to lay a finger on his precious bag!
We would remind him to open his bag, and the poor giver would usually ask, “Don’t you want any candy?”
I finally had to pry his fingers off the bag and carry it myself. 😛
My 6 and 3 year old went to a house near my mother in laws, she was standing outside waiting for them, so they were confused. She said “what do you say?” (sound familiar, lol) and they both yelled “THANK YOU!” Ok at least they said that part 🙂
My son was honest for Halloween. I kept going to homes we’d already hit and he’d say, “We went to that house already, Mom”, like I didn’t know who I was or where I was… he was half right.
Love your blog. Great sense of proportionality. 🙂
That’s precious.
My 18 month old really hasn’t gotten the hang of Thanksgiving yet.
He pretty much did something different each time (trying to go into house, once actually said, “Tik or tee”, etc), but my favorite is when he ran up to the woman, said, “Tank Uu!” and ran back off, without candy! Whoops.
We were part of the storm system here in Maine. Didn’t do too much, but apparently no one trick or treats here. I’m from Colorado, so I’m totally used to it, and I even found a little pumpkin costume for my now 9.5 mo old. We had one girl, and I knew she was coming. 🙁
We don’t have Halloween in the Netherlands, or at least, don’t celebrate as Americans do. We have “Sint Maarten”, which is practically the same. Kids go from door to door with a lantern. They sing a song and in response candy is given. And when the neighbour in question doesn’t open the door, another (less friendly)song is sung about said neighbour.
My youngest daughter (6) was singing at one door, recieved the candy and told the lady: “I don’t like that one.” Lady: “Oh.” Daughter: “Can I pick another one?” Lady: “OK”. Luckily the lady laughed about it. A few doors along the road her cousin did the same to another lady…
Last year when my son was 1, he was more interested in everyone’s dogs instead of the candy. Wanted to go in to greet all the pets. This year, he didn’t grasp the concept at the first house until he saw other kids. Then I saw the light go off- what? I get candy without doing anything?? By the end of the street, my now 2 year old is sprinting up and down driveways as fast as his little legs will go yelling “MO CANDY!!!” He’s moving so fast all the candy is bouncing out of his bucket. Funny thing is, when we got back to the house, he snacked on carrots & grapes.
There was just one thing that was said that I don’t want to forget.
Is the candy gone yet?
I didn’t read all the posts above, but I love u! Not in a creepy way… I don’t actually know u, but with 3 under 3 when I check my email and there is a post from u I know it’s gonna be good! Love the line about skinny jeans… Couldn’t stop laughing…prob gonna return my jeggings tomorrow! Haha
Just wanted to let you know that you weren’t that late on you Halloween post…
I have a friend whose boys are still wearing their costumes…it’s January.
Excellent, and a “please”, even!