Withdrawal

My kids will wake up this morning with Halloween withdrawal.

It first occurred with The Artist when she was 2 ½. For a week, she’d been allowed to wear costumes to school, to the library, to the store. She’d eaten mounds of candy, gone trick-or-treating downtown and in our neighborhood. It was a great year.

Then Nov. 1 occurred. And instead of getting to wear her Cinderella dress (again), she had to wear regular clothes, including – gasp – pants.

Tears ensued. She undressed herself twice that morning, and Kyle had to calm her down and explain to her that Halloween was officially over.

This has been The Engineer’s first Halloween to really experience all of the activities. She has been so adorable trick-or-treating because she says, “Treat or treat!” as she holds out her jack-o-lantern candy pail and then yells, “THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!” like she can’t believe she just got free candy again.

Somehow, we have been trick or treating not once, not twice, NOT EVEN THREE times, but FOUR times. FOUR.

I blame it on the weather.

So I spontaneously took the girls Saturday to Farmers Market to trick or treat. It was quick, small, and precious. Got The Engineer some TorTing practice. Get her ready for the big leagues come next week.

Then we find out Sunday that it’s supposed to rain Wednesday. Not just rain, but storm. Hard.

Our town hosts downtown trick or treating every year right before Halloween, and this time it fell on a Monday. So, sure. Let’s do that. Why not? We did, and by this point we have way too much candy and my kids are Olympic-class TorT professionals.

Then my neighbor texts, saying that since it’s supposed to rain Wednesday, she and another neighbor are taking their kids to a nearby neighborhood to trick or treat. Would we like to join?

Well, of course.

And the kids had a blast – the neighborhood had houses close together, everyone was walking comfortably on the streets, and we were finished within 30 minutes. Perfect.

And then it cleared up for Wednesday.

Well, great.

Four trick or treats over the past five days has worn this mama out – and the kids out, too. But those costumes got some good wear, and we all made sweet holiday memories.

And we have candy store piled until next year.