Spiders, Witches and Fairies. Oh MY!

Our kids had so much fun on Halloween this year (all 3...even the big, bearded one that I'm married to). We didn't do the usual trunk-or-treat at the church...instead, Chris took the kids and went all around the neighborhood.

It all started, though with our traditional Halloween feast of 'Baked Spider' (thanks Heather for the great idea).Before we could finish dinner, though, there were kids ringing the doorbell. At least the kids got a little bit of good food in them before all the junk.



Our deal was, Chris would take the kids around trick-or-treating, and I would stay home. I had this big plan to be 'part of the neighborhood' by sitting out on my driveway and making homemade donuts for my neighbor kids (and I had plenty for anyone else who wanted them). Now, lest anyone think I'm ultra homemaker girl, let me say for the record that I just fried up some of those gangsta canned biscuits...you may have to ask PP how they got that name. That kind-of backfired on me when only a couple of families in my neighborhood came to taste the delicious, oil-soaked 'naughites' (as they became affectionately known among some of the kids who did come).

Meanwhile...the kids were getting ready to go...

Hannah is completely in love with the new Disney series of fairy books, so she decided to be a fairy this year. She loves anything frilly. And hasn't she got the 'Aren't I adorable' pose down pat? Well, we think she's adorable, so I guess that's okay!








Rachel wanted to be one of her favorite book characters, too (you'd think my kids are total book worms...they're not, but they do enjoy a good read). She was Hermione (I like the red-eye in the pic...it makes her look especially fearsome). Her dad even carved her a wand from the good-for-nothing tree in our back yard. She was very proud to have it.

So then, they were off...and they left me there to make the donuts.

Like I said, not many people from our neighborhood came to have their tasty little 'naughty'. But I found plenty of other takers. At first, I wasn't going to give them to people I didn't know, but after I had made a bunch, and ONLY people I didn't know came, I decided...'if I don't want to look like one of these, I'd better give them all away'. So, the people came...and came...and came...we had so many trick-or-treaters. It was really fun. People were telling me they could smell the donuts all the way down the street. I felt like the 'Pastried Piper'. At one point, this HUGE group came and I just happened to have a bunch of donuts ready right then. One of the parents passed out donuts, while I passed out candy. Toward the end, another mom came up and asked if she could have a donut. She started eating it and danced down the driveway singing 'I got the last one'...She shared a couple of bites with her friends and one of them assured me he'd be back in the morning...I thanked them for stopping by, and as they left, one of them shouted, 'bye, Donut Lady'. Does it get any better than that? A food nickname? Wow...I'm honored.

Eventually, I ran out of candy, so I packed it up and went in. As I was doing so, the giant group of people in the bed of a truck drove by and shouted, 'Thanks Donut Lady...see you next year!' (I was really feeling the love)
The fam got home after being gone for 2 hours, with quite a haul. I couldn't believe how much candy came home with them. Hannah must have used her 'I'm cute' pose with some of them, because she ended up with way more candy than Rachel. As they dumped out their new stuff, I remembered that there was a bowl of candy on top of the fridge from last year...LAST YEAR (Amy's totally laughing at this, I'm sure). While the kids were pre-occupied with their new stuff, I covertly took the bowl of the fridge and disposed of all old, nasty candy (except for the Sweettart chicks and bunnies my husband wouldn't let me throw away (left from Easter - it's an illness) because he needed some treats for work - it's kind of sad...I love you!)


We finally got the kids ready for bed but we just couldn't seem to separate them from their bags-o-loot.

Here's Rachel having SWEET dreams.










And here's Hannah showing what a MONSTER all that sugar can turn you into.

It was a great night!