Halloween trick or treating.

Trick or treating!

I love it. Maybe I am living vicariously through Anna, but Halloween brings out all my childhood giddiness. Actually, it is probably realistically all the free candy!

Anna had two costumes this year. One for Richard's office party (where the motherload of candy is found), and one for neighborhood trick or treating (a first for our family). Her first costume was the princess costume. Every time she put on this princess dress, her face would light up, and she couldn't keep from dancing. She really loved the crown too. Because I love theme costumes, I made sure that Richard and I were appropriately dressed as well. Richard was a King and I was a Queen at his office party. He was the only employee to dress up!

This was our first "real" trick or treating experience. Richard's office party is like shooting fish in a barrell-- hundreds of cubicles and offices filled with candy. It is the motherload. It stocks us with candy for at least a month (and that is saying something in our house), and in past years, being the spokesperson for Anna, I was able to pick out the candy at each location, which made our haul extra good because I only took the good stuff. This year, Anna got to pick out her own candy, and like a cat, she too is attracted by shiny, colorful things-- which meant a lot of suckers, airheads, fruity flavored candy. I was chagrined to find that she scorned most of the best candies: Reeses, Snickers, Twix, etc. But, I guess it is her Halloween.

So for the actual neighborhood trick or treating, we cherry picked a neighborhood that was sure to be a winner! A wealthy neighborhood with safe streets and friendly, generous, families. There were some awesome decorations. There were a couple of houses we had to avoid because their decorations were just a little too awesome for Anna. She would tell us when it was "too scary."

For weeks prior to Halloween, Richard and I had been training her to say "trick or treat" when she would knock on the door. Every evening, we would take a small candy, and practice with her so she would be ready for the big night. Although she was shy at first, by the end of the evening, she was proclaiming "trick or treat" with real confidence. My little froggy melted my heart!