How I do Halloween

I was never that into Halloween, I would usually go to parties but I was never that good at putting together a great costume, and my pumpkin designs were the basic triangle eyes and toothy grin.   But now that I have kids, particularly ones that are getting older, I have improved my Halloween game.  So this is how I do Halloween now:

I pick up the costumes as early as I can. Luckily so far my kids are able to pick what they want to be (sometimes with encouragement, which makes it easier) pretty early and don't change their minds.  This year I picked up Q's costume at Costco in early September, and E wants to be something rather popular so I knew we could easily get it, and we did that at the beginning of October.  I never dress up, but this year I might put my miner coveralls and hard hat on to answer the door.

I just get our treats at the grocery store or Costco. I like to give out chocolate bars that I like, Dave likes to give out chips.  We usually hand out two or three items per kid.  There is never any shortage of candy in the stores, but I don't want to be rushing to get it the day before.

We don't usually have too many decorations for outside, I don't know where people store all of this stuff (although I enjoy seeing their displays), and I don't like the gross creepy things.  I got a few items at Michaels this year to put out and that satisfied E.  And best of all they were 40% off!

I don't buy our pumpkins until a week before Halloween at the earliest.  I have found that they go rotten pretty quickly and the squirrels start eating them if we leave them outside.  I do take my chances because sometimes they are all gone at the grocery store, but the local produce stores will usually have some left.  We get two or three pumpkins and do some fun designs. I always want to do something a little different and I will spend the time doing some fairly intricate carvings.  Last year we got some white pumpkins and painted them too.  We'll see what we come up with this year. 

Dave takes the kids out trick or treating, along with other kids in the neighbourhood, and I stay home to give out the candy.  I still get to see the neighbourhood kids and I like to keep track of how many people we get.  I keep a tally, and it's usually between 40 and 50.  I also drink wine ;)

When the kids come home we look at what they have.  I like to sort it out, although E doesn't care about that as much.  We let them have a few things, but not too much.  

After a few days, we will just put the leftover candy in some bowls in the kitchen for everyone to share (although Q is too short to know they are there), and I will throw some away.  The kids don't seem to mind and I'll still put some in E's lunch.

We also have had these tacos for our supper.  They are great because you can make the filling ahead of time and it's a quick finish in the oven.