Hectic Halloween

Halloween was NUTS !!!!!!

We planned on going to a party with some other people from Jen's playgroup that was starting at 6:00pm. Jen had to work until 5:00 so I figure she won't get home until 6:00 since she almost never gets home on time. I thought an hour to get stuff together and kids ready would give me more than enough time since I get home at 5:00. NOPE. I get stuck in a meeting at work (you know the 3 hour meeting where no much gets done) and don't leave until 5:00pm. Crap. So I come home to find that mom has put the kids in their costumes for their photo op and so they are ready for the party. It wasn't until then that I noticed that William's costume was actually made of quality material and real thick, almost like a kiddie Cardhart. He had jeans and a shirt underneath but it wasn't that cold outside. I decided that if he started to look too hot that I would just strip off the jeans and shirt and let him wear the costume sans clothes. Andrew actually liked wearing his costume this year but not so much for the head gear. So I am scrambling to get myself and kids ready. Jen comes home around 5:45 and she is running around trying to get stuff done and packed up too. I can already see it's going to be a stressful night. It's not supposed to be.... it's freakin' Halloween. So everything packed up we leave around 6:00 and drive to her friends house. We walk up and there are kids everywhere, running all over the place. I know a few of the mother's (kinda) but have no idea who any one else is so it's a little awkward for me. Jen and I get something to eat and decided it was pointless to try and feed the boys since they are downstairs where the chanting has begun for the "lord of the flies" group down there. There are a couple of little girls in that group that are holy terror personified. Little alpha females. I would love to have a little girl, but I see this and THANK GOD that I have all boys. Finally someone says "we start to trick or treat in 5 minutes". So 15 minutes later with the majority of the little darlings running all over the driveway they try and get a photo with all the kids, all I can say is good luck to that. So more farting around with trying to get kids and parents together I am ready to take off with my boys and do our own thing, but decided to try and stay with the group. So we finally unleash about 20 kids on the blackhawk neighborhood. God have mercy on their souls. The kids run from house to house with the little alpha females leading the pack. Some parents try to slow them down, but it didn't work that well. William was kinda keeping up with the group, but started to fade back. I couldn't tell if he was getting tired because of all the layers of clothes or he just wanted to do things at his own pace. William would actually wait for his turn rather than push his way forward like most of the other kids which made him a little slower than the others. Jen stayed with William while I brought up the rear with Andrew. Him and I would hit a house every once in a while, but he got more of a kick out of just walking around than actually trick or treating, but he walked the whole time. He was fascinated by all of the decorations on the houses. So after half an hour or so we head back to the house for more playtime, but I tell Jen we need to take off. We head out and stop by my brother's house for a quick visit and to play with the new puppy since he is just around the corner. Then we decided to run over to one of Jen's co-workers houses to see his Halloween display since he goes all out, and he really did again this year. This is the same guy that has Disney in every square inch of his house too. He gets the Styrofoam pumpkins and carves them with images so they can be reused every year. He had about 25 on display in front of the garage door and probably another 10 around the front yard. So another quick visit there and we head out to the in-law's house. We get there for another visit and for snackage for the boys since they hadn't eaten anything all night. So finally we head home around 10:00 get the boys to bed and collapse ourselves.

THAT'S IT I have had enough... Next year we stay home. If people want to visit they can come to our house and I am going to take the boys at their own pace in our neighborhood. The last thing I want is for this fun holiday to be stressful for everyone like other holidays. It's supposed to be fun for cripes sake.