Lo-Down on the Loot

Halloween is over which makes me sad; however, it was one of the best Halloween's ever. McKinlee was a blast this year. Her first attempt at Trick or Treating was at the grocery store Giant Eagle. They gave her a bag which she thought was really cool, until...someone put candy in it. I watched her as her eyes got really big, she looked at the candy, then at the person, then at me and repeated...then she grabbed the candy looked at it and smiled at me like she had just discovered a candy bringing bag. The rest of the time she held out her bag with no hesitation to collect her goods.

Later we went to a local nursing home. McKinlee proudly held out her bag to collect and if the old people couldn't reach her she would reach up and grab what was in their hands and placed it in her bag for them. She was the hit of the night. By the time Halloween actually rolled around she was well practiced and knew exactly what to do. She excitedly went door to door and collected her goods. Smiled and pointed that she was ready to go to the next door. We had several friends join us and after trick or treat afterwards we ordered pizza and let the Kids play. I laughed as I watched Mckinlee sneak around stealing candy out of the other kids bags when they weren't looking. Later she would sneak out of the door and run down the sidewalk, I was wondering what she was doing and in an attempt to keep an eye on her followed her out...pretty soon she would return with a bag full of candy that the neighbors had left out in case they had any leftover trick or treaters. She did this three or four times. Until they finally pulled in their bucket o' candy then she stole their Jack-O-lantern.

We also went to a local shopping center's trick or treat. They had a horse drawn hay ride that Josh and the girls went on. The horses were wearing poo bags and it was a little too much for me to handle so I went down and visited with one of my Young Women who was handing out candy while they rode the carriage...the girls were excited to find me and wave to me as they passed. Sadly I had forgotten to bring my camera.

I realized how big Mia has gotten, she held the banner for her class during the School Halloween Parade, and later when we were trick or treating, she was preferring to be with her friends over holding our hands. Mia cleaned out her own pumpkin for her Jack-o-lantern, and even carved some of it out herself. In all it was a great year...we estimated that we have over 20 lbs of candy. We are set for a while.