Trick or Treat!

We had so much fun tonight! Our street and the next street over are both really popular with Trick-or-Treaters of all ages. Even teens! We had a couple hundred kids come through and it was slower than usual. Yes, I said 200! People new to the neighborhood generally have to be warned ahead of time to buy enough candy and they still never believe it until they see it!

A bunch of houses really go all out. One guy was starting up a chain saw as kids came up to get candy (don't worry, they were at a very safe distance). He also had a scary video showing. A bit much, but you get the picture. Lots of ghosts, and flying bats, and spider webs, and fog machines, and cauldrons burning. One yard had REAL people lying around looking dead. I poked one with my light saber to check. :) It's a bit wild and a real blast. Wall to wall people. The kids LOVE it. Me too.

The funniest part of all this is that we really do live in a very sedate neighborhood. Lots of lawyers and ministers live here (they even get along! :).

Tonight I was expecting all this, so we entered into the spirit of it. Fun. :) BUT, I was floored at one costume...

...The young teen girl dressed as a baby and wearing DEPENDS (and I think that was it) on her lower half. I think her mother needed to have a little chat with her and the message she was sending to every salivating male she came across. And they WERE salivating. Trust me.

My favorite costume was a boy wearing a black sweatshirt with barbie dolls attached to the front of it? Can you guess what he was supposed to be?

...

:) Did you guess?

...

A babe magnet! Isn't that clever? He's 10 so it was extra funny. I think. His mom said he came up with it in his own, but I have to wonder...

Then we went back to a neighbor's with her kids and looked through our "loot." Found out our neighbor was handing out gold $ coins (real ones), so the kids were THRILLED about that. :)

I demanded all the Twix and Kit Kat bars and those sweet children handed them over in fistfuls! Can you believe it? :) I was joking, actually. I knew where our neighbor Kim had his stash of Dove Chocolate (because Holly had already sneaked some into my favor bag at our Halloween dinner :)... and was planning to "reallocate" more of them. :) But, Twix and Kit Kats will do just fine in a pinch. :)

So, our night of fun is at an end.

Tomorrow we have our "Monster Halloween Feast." Can't wait!!! :)

Why Is Today Wonderful?

Let me count the ways...

1) Grandma took the kids yesterday so hubby and I could have some time to ourselves.

2) We did our weekly grocery shopping in TEN minutes.*

3) The sky is a gorgeous blue, so beautiful that you can hardly tear your eyes away from it.

4) As mom dropped off the kids today, she told me I was looking THINNER!**


* Yes, that is no exaggeration. We RAN through the grocery ten minutes before closing and bought $108 in groceries. I won't have to go back for another week. IT WAS AMAZING!

** This from the same woman who when I was 5 months pregnant and retaining water like a camel, wanted to know what happened to me? "Honey, you used to be so slim and trim." HELLO! Pregnant!!! So, she's a tough sell on the "thin" look. Made me feel great! (In a sad, I-can't-believe-I-don't-need-therapy kind of a way).

Lemon Diet Pepsi

I just opened my very first lemon diet Pepsi.

And, well, what were they thinking?

I think there was a reason this stuff disappeared from the shelves two years ago!!!! Even, just plain 'ole wonderful Pepsi would be better. MUCH better.

It's called NFL Kickoff and according to the (funny) commercial, I'm obligated to drink it so that I can get double Pepsi stuff points. After watching the commercial, I'm wondering why the Steelers aren't drinking this stuff. :)

However, it's a LIMITED EDITION flavor with a special NFL football on the can. So, I should force myself to drink it just so I can be trendy. :)

'Cuz, it's all about trendy, right?

(grin)

(Don't worry, I'm not really finishing it... I've never been very trendy.).

But, I've heard some people really do like this stuff. Let's see if they do.

Online Surveys & Market Research

Flowers

I can't believe it's already been 10 days since my birthday! It was a really nice day. I even got flowers! Yes, FLOWERS! I never get flowers, but a dear friend made sure I had some this year. (Thanks!!!) :) And they were absolutely completely gorgeous.

So, I've been nursing them along but today I decided that some of them had to go. Why don't roses last longer? But, to my delight, I discovered a lot of the mums still have life in them! So, I clipped stems and did some rearranging, and ya know, I think I'll get a few more days of enjoyment out of these! What a delightful surprise! :)

I'm even thinking I might find some cattails somewhere to add to it since it's pretty much down to Fall flowers in the vase. And I just peered out the back window at my neighbor's yard. He has some yellow black-eyed susans just begging to be picked and added to my flower arrangement. Hmmm... I'm feeling a clandestine operation coming on! :)

Who knew I'd get so much enjoyment out of a bunch of flowers? :)

Boo at the Zoo

Every year we go to the Boo at the Zoo festivities at Oglebay Park Zoo. It's such fun!

So, last night we dragged out our Halloween paraphernalia and got all gussied up.

At first, the boys weren't too thrilled with their costuming choices.

1) Use last year's costume.
2) Finally wear the cowboy or knight costume that have been nixed 2 years running.
3) Wear the Darth Vader costumes that I bought last year at Target's 90% off sale.

Yes, I bought THREE Darth Vader costumes. I mean, after all, if ONE Darth is scary, how scary would THREE of them be?

Eventually, the boys decided it would be GREAT FUN to all dress alike and we had no dearth of Darth. :)

Sarah had her costume planned for months and was a pink diva cat. I was a witch, so I said she was my cat. :)



Note that Rob had ONE job. Make sure the boys leave the house with their capes ON. Ahem.

Here's the Darth picture AFTER I discovered that little faux pax. Ahem. Ahem.



If we are going to have no dearth of Darths in the family this year, we need at least one Princess!

And here she is... under duress. :) Just look at that expression!



"Save me Han Solo! Save me! Before I expire from embarrassment or rip someone's leg off."

Yeah, I'm dangerous at Target when they mark things 90% off! I mean, it's like they are DARING me to leave it in the store!

Rob says he should have started the Darth Vader Diet a LOOOONG time ago (in a galaxy far far away....).... Although, he was prepared to test his theory that melted chocolate could be dripped through Darth's mouthpiece.



We did have a hairy moment when we realized that the well-fed dragon is eating pink diva kitten this year!



Fortunately, there are some rescue llamas on the job and they particularly enjoy saving kittens. Or, maybe they just like the color pink. Well, whatever. Whew! :)



We ended our visit only to discover that SOME of us received suspiciously DEFECTIVE bags of CANDY. Ahem. DARTH!!! :)