Halloween, Halloween, Trick or Treat

Katy was a princess for Halloween. She had told us quite awhile ago that that was what she wanted to be, so Kendra had purchased the princess outfit. Recently, when she couldn't make up her mind about what she wanted to be, I would help direct her back to the princess outfit: you want to be Dorothy the Dinosaur? How about Dorothy the Dinosaur dressed like a princess? You want to be Dora? How about Princess Dora? You want to be a kitty? How about a kitty princess? We had the costume, and gosh-darn-it, she was gonna wear it one way or another.



It was, of course, cold and rainy for trick or treating, but my little princess was excited anyway. I left a bowl of second-rate candy on the porch; I was saving the good stuff for distribution by Katy and me when we finished with her outing. We headed toward Claire 'n Abby's house, since there was a small group from the neighborhood going trick or treating together. I grabbed a picture of all the girls sitting together on the stairs in their various outfits, then we were off.



Initially, Katy wanted me to come up to the door with her, but she quickly got the hang of trick or treating and it was easy to encourage her to run up to the door herself or with the other girls. At this age, the concept of "together" is still pretty loose and the girls would sometimes be at a house begging for candy at the same time, while other times they'd be at different houses as someone would fall behind or someone would run ahead.



I tried to encourage Katy to hang back with Abby a little, since she is younger and was very clingy to Ron, her dad. Eventually, we had to split up, since Ron and Abby had to go catch up with Claire and Katy was ready to get back to our house. At her age, there still isn't the overwhelming need to hit every house at Halloween. As we were walking back home, we were passing by houses that we had not stopped at: when I would ask if she wanted to stop on the way, she said no, that she had enough candy.



At home, the second-rate candy was still about half-full, so I brought it in and mixed in "the good stuff." I sorted through Katy's candy to find stuff that she could eat, and then we sat on the stairs and waited for trick or treaters. As generous as I try to be with the candy, Katy makes me look like a scrooge: she would scoop candy with both hands and cheerfully distribute it to the masses.



About 7:15 or so, there was only a little candy left and it was pretty gloomy and rainy, so I turned off the light and Katy and I went to visit her preschool teacher, Miss Linnea; Linnea had sent home a note saying that she'd love to see the kids in costume and that any of the kids who were in the area were welcome to come and trick or treat. We arrived at the same time as her classmate, Gwen, did. After we went upstairs to her apartment, another classmate, Lizabeth, arrived. The kids had their pictures taken and got some candy and were excited to give the dog treats.



We got home after 8pm, at least fifteen minutes after Katy should have already been in bed sleeping. Halloween is a special occasion, though. She got ready for bed like she always does, we read a book and she happily went to sleep, likely thinking / dreaming about all the fun we had. It was a good Halloween for both of us.