Trick or Treating Parade!

These are just pictures from ads, but this was my son's costume...He was James, a friend of Thomas the Tank Engine and this was my daughter's pink unicorn costume.

Our front door

Every year for the past three years, we've been going to a local Halloween Parade for children. It's organized by our Fire Department, and the community participates. The fire department closes off the local streets, and folks on the roads where the parade goes through decorate to the nines and get dressed up in costumes to give out treats to the kids in the parade. It's great.

This year, the weather was misty, but warm. There were a LOT of children participating! Everyone seemed to have a wonderful time. I know we did.

This is the first year my son actually participated in Trick or Treat. Every other year, he melted into a tantrum at the first house. Last year he was at least interested in the fire engines so we could finish the parade. However, this year, he had a wonderful, wonderful time.

The parade started by the fire house, and there are fire trucks at the beginning and the end of the parade. The children stopped by each house along the way, and get their treats. One house was all spookily decorated with tombstones and webs and spiders and fog. Another house gave out whole Nestle bars. Our favorite house was guarded by Pinkbeard, the Pirate. He invited us to share in his treasure. He admired my daughter's costume because it was his favorite color, pink.

At the end of the parade, the firemen gave out doughnuts and apple cider. It really was a lot of fun.

Before we went to the parade, we went trick or treating in our building, and my son had fun knocking on the door and saying Trick or Treat...or "buh oh bee" and thank you. He did terrific. My daughter enjoyed it too. Both kids ate several lollipops, and my daughter also had a doughnut, some cider, and a Tootsie Roll. They were both literally bouncing by the end of the night. I was so happy we finally had our first "normal" Halloween.

The only disappointing thing was that we only had two trick or treaters. That was so sad. For decorations, we had our jack-o-lanters lit up outside on our terrace, and we had a beautiful group of pumpkins and a lovely apple that my son made at school. We also had a big, black, hairy spider that would go down on its web whenever there was a noise. I also had lots of stickers and tattoos to give out. Now I still have a bunch of stickers and tattoos...

How was everyone else's Halloween?