Halloween Bugs

Here in Des Moines, Halloween night is just another night. Oh sure, there are parties and such and big people celebrating, but in kid terms, it's nothing. What we have here is "beggar's night" on October 30. Yeah, that's what I think, too. For some reason a good while back, it was determined that Halloween was out of control or something and having little kids on the streets while big people partied wasn't a good thing. So, Sunday was our day to let the girls have fun. We dressed up our cute little ladybugs and set off. The plan was to bring them to the local mall trick or treat at 4, spend an hour there, then come home and take them around to our closest neighbor's houses during the official 6-8 Beggar's Night time frame.

The mall was a ton of fun. The girls had a blast going from store to store. We saw a couple of friends, too, so that was nice. Emily reached her point of saturation early and seemed only interested in what was already in her bucket. I could see her little mind thinking, now how long do I collect this stuff without actually eating any? Of course, she hadn't napped like her sister had, and her mood wasn't as good after a while. She had to be carried a little in the end. The only thing that saved us was SpongeBob. I wish I remembered what store this was, but this wonderful guy dressed in a Sponge Bob spongy outfit just delighted Emily and she had to run to him and cackle. Yes, she cackled. This is my best Halloween picture. I can't wait to scrapbook these things!

As for the neighborhood, we saw when we got home that none of our close neighbors had lights on, so we decided to just give out candy and let the girls play. We didn't even give out a lot either -- for some reason, there weren't the trick or treaters this time like we had last year. Aww well. More dum dums for the girls.