...The horrors.... oh dear lord, the horrors.... all the cheap chocolate... my poor pores!

Sunday we decorated for Halloween - the cobwebs around my house were inspired, and my children are great budding cobweb artists. Their kids are going to love them for this. Monday was Halloween, and I was the one taking the kids out trick or treating. We saw a couple of great houses - one was blacklighted, had a strobe light running *and* had a motion detected stream of smoke at the front door. I *must* have that for next year.

Must. Must. Must. Have. Hear that DH? MUST. HAVE.

Anyway, halfway through a new neighborhood my knee screamed and said NO MORE, and I was limping the rest of the night. Don't worry folks, it's better now. Some ice, some heat, some rest, and some time.

The DD's had cuteness comments lavished over their costumes - A was a devil, B was an angel, and those were their costumes too... Ok, I'm being hard on A. They were both wonderful in thanking people and wishing them a Happy Halloween, much to the surprise of quite a few people on the block. I didn't really see any inspired costumes while I was out trick or treating...

...but when I got back home, that's when I saw the really good ones. DH told me that there was a child who was dressed up as Zero - from Nightmare Before Christmas. He let the kid take whatever he wanted from the candy bowl because it was the coolest costume. I told DH that I would have *given* the kid the bowl of candy if I'd seen it. We're big Nightmare fans.

When DH went to take the kids to his mom's for trick or treating, that's when a couple more showed up. Two boys probably taller than I showed up with bubble style sunglasses (very 70s), dressed like junkyard kids and started throwing Fat Albert lines at me. And I dished them right back. They thought that was pretty cool, and I let them know that their costumes were definitely happenin'.

Then there were the three teenage girls. As they came towards me, I figured they just raided a grownup closet and made things fit. But oh, I was so wrong. They had it down - the makeup, the hair, the jewelry, the dresses - they were the witches from Charmed! DH hates it when he misses a really good costume, and he really missed out on this one.

There were the usual throw-on-a-fright-wig and grab a pillowcase teenagers. Eh. There was one kid that took a handful of candy after each of his siblings took just one piece politely, and when I cleared my throat and said 'just one piece', he put one piece *back*. His mother said she was sorry... I said I was too. I think they both got the message, because that kid walked away with his head hanging down. I hate being a damper on someone's Halloween, but when you tell one of the siblings, in response to a question, that they can take just one piece that doesn't mean you can come in and NOT take just one piece.

And everyone else was so polite about it. I gave one very little kid 5 Tootsie Rolls though, because he was so cute, and other kids pushed him out of the way. His brother tried to grab candy out of the bowl, but that was only because I didn't see his little brother. I gave the older kid an extra piece of his choice for doing that for his brother.

10 bags of candy. That was this year's Halloween giveaway, and it *all* went. It was a nice night out - not too cold, no rain, no fog. Perfect for trick or treating.

My kids stuffed their Halloween bags full, and we sorted the candy and checked it over. The trading of pieces began, and the giving of candy to Mom and Dad began. I've got a baggie that I dumped into my jar here that was partly rejects and partly my take of the draw.

Last night I took down the webbing with the kids, and DH changed out the flicker flame bulbs that we put up in our outdoor lights. I heard that a friend of DH's gave me great compliments on the web because it's so difficult to get it to look the way I did, and he knows this because he couldn't do it himself. I told DH to let him know to come see me next year and I'll give him web lessons. A high compliment when someone says the webs look almost real...

...and that's it from this corner of the web.