<p>I trick or treated till about 16 and I didn’t have an much younger sibling to make me look legit! I just didn’t want to give it up. :)</p>
<p>I don’t care costume or not, I would give candy to your son if he came to my door. I’d much rather see any teen trick or treating than throwing eggs or shaving cream and getting into mischief.</p>
<p>I’m a college freshman and this is the first year I will not be trick-or-treating (I would go out, but I have an evening class on Halloween). Many people are happy to see us out (my friends and I go out in intricate, clever homemade costumes like “domino” or “suffragette”) because we are polite, friendly, not grabby, and we are out a bit later than most of the little ones, so they can dump all their unwanted leftovers on us! </p>
<p>I give most of my candy away now, but I still love going trick-or-treating because I think it’s a very rare thing in our modern society, where we are always walled-off and isolated from our neighbors, to have a day when it’s OK to knock on a stranger’s door and ask for candy. I see it as an exchange–a bit of candy for brightening someone’s day with a funny costume. And of course, older trick-or-treaters absolutely need good costumes.</p>
<p>I’d give you candy, etselec, even next year!</p>
<p>My DD and her best friend offered to take one of my best friend’s daughter (7 at the time) trick-or-treating during their junior year. They dressed up, too, and had a great time. During senior year, DD had to work (Baskin Robbins) Halloween night, but she dressed up as Peter Pan and worked her shift in costume.</p>
<p>we’re in between - the first few hours are lots and lots of little kids… but after about 9, the tone changes and if you just turn out your lights the mid teens pass you by - on to easier treats. We never offer a bowl, even well mannered kids might get overwhelmed… just hand out a candy. This year I am toying with the idea of bags of chips or pretzels, mainly to keep H and I out of the chocolate. Has anyone tried that? How did it go?</p>
<p>I always try to give out pretzels, chips, whatever is not sugar, though can be hard to find, and I get candy as well, but just that day to avoid eating it. Gave up on the dreaded raisins that my kids hated. Was suprised at the reception, quite a few choose pretzels, and non sweet goodies, over the chocolate! Variety pleases, I suppose.</p>
<p>I will hand out candy to anyone, of any age, in costume.</p>
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<p>SOMEONE had better notice the pumpkins I carve this year, because they’ve already cost me more hours than Christmas shopping. A couple of weeks ago I went to a pumpkin farm with a friend for a ‘fill your car for $60’ picking. So I have lots of pumpkins, and spent several hours on Saturday hollowing out pumpkins for the seeds. Roasted them and will send some to D1, and take the rest to D2 when we visit her this weekend for parent’s weekend.</p>
<p>So since I had four pumpkins already cleaned out, I decided to download some pumpkin stencils/patterns last night and do some fancy carving (well, at least something that doesn’t look like a 7-year old did it). I got really excited about some cool patterns I found, and last night around 11PM, decided to give one a try. While I was downstairs in the kitchen doing this, our dog was very intent on going outside, so I let her out. She was out for 15-20 minutes, which is long for her, but I figured she must have smelled something or was waiting for some critter to come back (our yard is fenced). Since my hands were deep in pumpkin and I had a mess in the kitchen, I let her stay out (big mistake).</p>
<p>Around 4:15AM, she woke me up, throwing up on our bedding, the most vile brown, dirt looking stuff I’d ever seen come out of her. I assumed she must have found some sort of poop or whatever. Husband picks this morning to go extra early into work, and had left at 4AM, so I’m trying to strip the bed, get laundry started, etc. I quickly ran through the paper towels I had, and then realized my husband had finished the last of the laundry detergent yesterday. All I had was Woolite - not a Consumer’s Report top choice for difficult stains. But as I was almost falling back asleep, I heard it again, and this time it was all over the bedroom carpet. Looked like mud. So I get out this little carpet steam cleaner I’d bought last year and never used. I’m dead tire, trying to read the instructions while watching to make sure she’s not going to hurl again. I finally got it figured out, and within 5 mintues realize it’s a piece of crap… I don’t know what kind of stain it’s supposed to work on, so I throw it away (all it really did was spread the icky stuff around). At 6AM I’m heading out to the grocery store for paper towels and real detergent. I did the best I could, but you can still see it (have already made an appointment with a professional carpet cleaning service for Wednesday). </p>
<p>In the meantime the neighbors are probably thinking there’s some sort of crisis at our house because you never see all our house lights on from 4:15AM to 7AM. So I try to catch some zzzz’s during the day… the phone always rings about an hour into a nap, and the cleaning lady is here (but trying to be very quiet - she feels really bad for me). When I finally go out with the dog in the backyard to see if I can discover what the culprit is, I found it. Yesterday afternoon, I had added some organic plant food meant to stimulate root growth in transplanted plants. I found little holes around all five transplanted bushes where she had dug up the dirt and eaten the plant food. I looked at the bag of stuff, and saw what probably was like dessert to her (minus the dirt) in the list of ingredients: bone meal, crab meal, dehydrated manure, alfalfa meal, other kinds of enticing meals. Ahhhhh… now I knew. So I called the vet’s office, and they referred me to call the 800 number on the bag, which I did. I followed the prompts and eventually ended up with a recording that says this particular product is non-poisonous and non-hazardous to children and pets. It can cause nausea, thirst and a couple of other inconvenient things, but is otherwise harmless. But she had to eat so much dirt to get to the good stuff, that that’s what upset her stomach… and it explains the ‘mud’ that she threw up everywhere. I hope it tasted as good coming up for her as it did going down.</p>
<p>So I finally got all the laundry done, got a couple of hours of sleep, and hope to God that someone appreciates that pumpkin I was carving when my little Angel got into her mischief.</p>
<p>teriwtt - Oh dear. I’ve had days like that. And they usually only happen when H is elsewhere. </p>
<p>By the way, “Spot Shot” in a spray can is a miracle product.</p>
<p>“I’m considering turning off the lights and “not being home” this year.”</p>
<p>If you do that, you might experience “tricks.” What I suggest is putting a big empty bowl in front of your door with a sign that says, “Please take only two.” That way no one will blame you…</p>
<p>Last year was my youngest sons last year for trick or treating when he was an eighth grader because now he’s in the HS marching band and our games are on Friday nights. Our community does trick or treat on the last Friday before Halloween. That means that cheerleaders, football team and band members don’t trick or treat. And if their parents attend the games (we do), then our houses are dark and there are no treats. </p>
<p>My rule is that if kids come to the door in costume they get a treat. If they come without a costume or with a minimal costume, like their soccer uniform, they have to sing a song. </p>
<p>We’ve had less and less trick or treaters as our neighborhood ages up a bit and the HS students are involved in the HS football game and the trick or treat kids travel to developments where the houses are closer together.</p>
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<p>We get 3-400 trick-or-treaters on our street, people in hilly areas drive their kids down to the flats. We started having a Halloween party for our kids as soon as we moved here, but as they got older it morphed from a trick-or-treat party to a haunted house party. My H and kids build a very elaborate haunted house in the garage, and the friends staff it. It makes a nice transition for teens. They can still participate in Halloween, but they don’t have to be out on the streets.</p>
<p>Marinmom–that’s what my kids did, too! They used sheets to set up a walk-thru on our front porch, dressed up, scared the dickens out of the trick or treaters–it sure made forgoing the candy easier–they had a great time!</p>
<p>Our h/s always hosts a big costume party and if they’re home when the trick or treaters are out, my h/s aged kids like handing out the candy. They really enjoy the little cuties. Sometimes my son dresses as a monster, sits along the pathway like he’s “stuffed” and then moans or does something to startle older kids. (More than once he’s scared a little one and felt really bad.) I always let my kids divide up the left overs and kind of purposely over buy so they get a treat too.</p>
<p>My S2 also participated in putting on a haunted house with some neighbors for a couple of years post trick or treating and had a lot of fun.</p>
<p>Last weekend, he and a gang of high sch. friends went to a nearby amusement park that re-opens for weekend nights during the month of October with a scary Halloween theme plus riding all the roller coasters in the dark. The kids had a blast.</p>
<p>Packmom–are you in PA? Every year, my adult D gets together with friends from college and goes camping at Knobel Grove, which opens up its roller coasters for a Halloween event. It’s one of her favorite things to do (she’s a Halloween fanatic, she also does Haunted hayrides, apple and pumpking picking, and every other Halloween/autumn thing to do–maybe because her birthday is Mischief Night!)</p>
<p>Nope, I’m in the sunny (and dry) south!</p>
<p>And, rereading my own post much later that night, I must ponder–what is “pumpking picking”…?</p>
<p>I think the Spooky Amusement park thing must be the last way they can get a buck out of the locals. Our closest park - Dorney Park in Allentown - has Halloweekends. My son went to an amusement park in upstate New York last weekend that did the same. As warm as this October has been, it’s a great idea.</p>
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<p>Just what it sounds like (no hidden meaning)… you go to a pumpkin farm and pick pumpkins. I’ve just finished carving two more of the 18 or so (gourd to large size) I got pumpkin picking a couple of weeks ago.</p>