Trickless treat Halloween

I'm that weird mom who doesn't like her kids trick or treating. Not based on any religious or spiritual reasons, though we are a Christian family. Actually, I just don't like my kids eating very much candy - especially of a non organic variety. Crunchy crunchy mommy. 

Clover's personality makes it difficult to bestow indulgences upon her because if you let her have something once in a small quantity, all of a sudden she's constantly complaining about how nothing else is as yummy as that thing and she doesn't want to eat any of the real food that I give her.  Instead of a fun experience it becomes a demand for more.

Then come the long speeches about how she's going to let her kids eat only yummy things that they like, and monologues about what she would be able to do if I was dead (I'm not even kidding about this. Eat junk food, go wherever she wants, and ride a bus to public school are on the top of her list). It wouldn't be so bad if the kid was good about eating normal food, but more times than not she leaves the table having eaten nothing.

As a compromise on the whole trick or treating thing, we've gone to Dogfish head alehouse for the past two years. The girls get dressed up and have mommy intervention-free meals with french fries and chicken strips. They also leave with very small treat bags. Mommy and daddy get awesome beer. Everybody wins.

While we waited outside for daddy to meet up with us, my four year old says all nonchalantly "look for traffic! Mama, that sign says traffic." We've been working on her reading with her lately, but wow...I guess when you crack it open a little, the whole reading thing just bursts through the dam! Then she tried to walk through the gate into traffic and I was like "come on girl! You can read the sign!" lol. 

With great reading power comes great responsibility....

Both years we've gone they've had the same face painting lady. Last time we had to stand in a line as we were trying to leave. Bless her heart, this lady was like Mr. Bean's character in Love Actually. Just adding a sprig of this! and a flourish of that! and it just neverrrrrr stops. Each kid walks away with a masterpiece on their face. Super impressive. Not very time efficient - especially when you really just want to go.

We hit her booth while we waited for our food this year, and the face painting was far less involved than before. Part of that could have something to do with my desperate plea for no glitter.

I also happened to meet a guy who bought my kindle off of craigslist. We met in the entrance of the restaurant and did the exchange. Felt a little sneaky for some reason. Now I have some fabric cash. Winning! 

After work traffic here in the DC metro area is pretty horrible, and we were stuck right in the middle of it when we left. Sir Hawthorne was not too pleased as we just sat there on the road for a while, and I ended up having to pull into a shopping center to nurse him. 

Tim and the girls found what I can only assume is a foam boob in the parking lot. Clover insisted it was a doll hat. A major disagreement between the girls in the car resulted in my taking away the boob hat ("It's a hat!" "It's a num num!"), which is why it is still sitting on the dash in there. Keepin it classy in the suburbs.

Hope everyone had a safe and happy halloween. Next stop, Thanksgiving!