We decided to skip the Ballard downtown Halloween bash for a saner holiday at home. The night was clear, but cold. I came home late from work which set the evening on a later bent. We got ready and costumes were donned reluctantly by the bovine and excitedly by the fairy.
Sara was so excited to show off her costume to our neighbors. She quickly remembered how to get candy. She was a little slow to say "trick or treat" at every house, but was intrepid in the acquisition of candy. At one point, she insisted on going to a house by herself. We walked to Jon and Claire's to visit. I was surprised by two facts: 1) no one trick or treats in the interior of Ballard and 2) lots of people have candy. We got hailed 2-3 time to take candy. It's a gold mine waiting to be discovered. The downtown bash takes lots of treaters away from the neighborhood.
Laura got her second wind and was happy to participate as long as she was on my shoulders and moving.
She was fairly cold by the time we got back to the house. We quickly put the girls to bed and shuttled over to Erica’s house for our traditional “beer and candy” evening while handing out candy. Our street still holds it’s own in attracting treaters. In fact, our section of the street is very popular. I think it’s mostly because of Erica’s house. People remember that there’s good candy there. It’s still not as many treaters as the early days (70-80 versus 30-40 kids now) and the kids are noticeably older. We even had an 80 yo woman ask for candy (and not in costume). Our other next door neighbors were marked as “cool” by the middle school treaters for wearing matching blue Totoro sweat shirts.