<p>Teriwtt–you misunderstand me–I know what pumpkin picking is, I was quoting my own typing, in which i had mistyped it as “pumpking picking” and had an image of a Pump King, never mind…middle-aged brain at work, :).</p>
<p>Maybe pumpking is another name for The Great Pumpkin?</p>
<p>Get this…as I was sitting at the sewing machine last night, making my 16 year old’s costume, he came in and started talking about what he wants to be next year. He said that it was finally time to be Jack Skellington. I said, “Okay, since it will be your last year.”</p>
<p>“Last year?” he asked sadly. I said “After that you’ll be in college.” “Oh” he said, disappointedly.</p>
<p>Terri, you’re inspirational. Maybe I should start carving,though seems there’s less reason. Is a little sad this year, no offspring at home. Besides a little trick or treating, my Ds since kindergarden have had a Halloween party, though usually on a weekend around the time. They made all the goulish snacks, planned games, had friends come costumed. Over the years, it became a ritual among their friends, and the Ds were perusing magazines for new ideas every fall. This year I sent a few things to S. America to add to the Halloween party goodies for the Rotary exchangers in my Ds group.</p>
<p>I dressed up and trick-or-treated freshman and sophomore year of high school. Junior year I dressed up and went with my friend to take his little brother around trick-or-treating. Senior year I dressed up “one last time”.</p>
<p>Now in college, I’ve been on the giving end of trick-or-treating; one of the sororities sponsors a “Trick or Treat on Greek Street” each year. Kids who can’t trick-or-treat (I believe this is due to “bad neighborhood” status) go around as a group to each of the fraternity and sorority houses. We dress up and give them candy–they love it!</p>
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<p>Don’t be so impressed. Four may the most I carve since I’m leaving Friday for parent’s weekend. I had four cleaned out pumpkins because my daughter wants homemade pumpkin seeds when we come. So since they were clean, I carved them. Now granted, the extend of my creativity ended with stick figures in art class, but with the stencils they have out now (I found some on-line for free), it was just labor intensive. And they do look cool. I’m going to take a picture of the ones I did and send it to my kids. I’m sure their response will be, “Mom, glad you’re enjoying the empty nest thing, but couldn’t you have made some of these when we still lived at home?”</p>
<p>mezzomom - what time should we all be there? that sounds like SO much fun! :)</p>
<p>OP back with a post-Halloween report. After the first few houses, my 16 year old brought his candy bag back and said for the rest of the night, he was just going to be Little Sis’ chaperone. He said he could “see in the adults’ eyes” that they thought he was too old.</p>
<p>This Halloween was son’s last grammar school parade. The kids are dismissed at 11:30 & then go back to school at 2 for the parade. Trick-or-treating begins after they are dismissed from the school yard. It’s a madhouse. The neighborhoods around the school are bombarded with kids & we adults follow them around with an adult beverage in a plastic cup, enjoying the whole scene. I still had to fit in a couple kid chaufering tasks. Took son to hockey practice & left the candy bowl on the porch. A half hour later, almost all of the 10+ bags of candy were gone. Some creepy kid must have dumped the whole bowl into his bag. This really annoyed me! Hope his teeth rot. I had to shut the lights off by 7:30 because I was all out of candy. I usually enjoy sitting on the porch & giving out candy on a beautiful weather night, too. I’ll NEVER trust the trick-or-treaters again. </p>
<p>16 year old D had a great time out with friends. If anyone was showing disapproval, she wouldn’t be the least bit bothered. It’s still a big social event for h.s. kids around here.</p>
<p>We had a much nicer time last night than last year! Nearly everyone was in costume. Not nearly as many older kids as last year, but those who did were in costume - many of them elaborate and clever. One group of older girls was about half and half. I stole someone’s idea from here and teased them that those not in costume had to sing, and I got the first few bars of Happy Birthday! 
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<p>And very few forgot to say thank-you! Lots of adorable little kids, too.</p>
<p>I have to say, they were cuter and more polite here, too. (Nothing like three year olds very seriously telling you to “have a nice day!” after thanking you for your candy. Big “aww” factor.)</p>
<p>I did tell a couple older non-costume wearers that sorry, I needed to save the candy for the little kids in costumes, and they actually said that made sense.</p>
<p>The most bizarre comment I heard last night was the little girl who nicely said “Thank you”, then started down the driveway, turned, and yelled, “Jesus loves you!”</p>
<p>We had three pretty large groups of middle school kids with no costumes. I made them tell me what they were. They’d all make up something. I would have gladly given candy to a teen with the terrific costume my son had on (made by me, of course!)</p>
<p>You’re kinda than me, missypie. I usually say something like, “Where’d you get that ugly mask?”</p>
<p>Love it. Next time, I think I’ll tell them what I think they are. (Right, something very girlie for the middle school boys in jeans and t-shirts.)</p>
<p>The teenage trick-or-treaters seemed to dry up around here this year, with both my boys being away at college. It occurred to me last night that it wasn’t just random coincidence that every Halloween in the past, several large groups of giggling teen girls would show up at the door with pillowcases. This year… (crickets chirping…).</p>
<p>For the big kids that are sad that they are getting ‘too big’ to trick or treat. Not to worry, when you become an adult, there are costume parties to go to. There are more in our area for adults then for kids. Also, in the case of our college freshmen, relatives have been sending him lots of treats because ‘he is so far away from home’. </p>
<p>The teenagers here help out with the halloween party for the younger kids at school. Many have more elaborate costumes than the elementary kids.</p>
<p>I had an interesting Halloween yesterday. Drove up to Gainesville and back with a friend of mine whose son is applying to UF, just to look around the campus. The weather was beautiful- warm enough for short sleeve shirts but nice and breezy. Anyway, there were lots of kids wearing costumes on campus to class. It was kind of fun to see that. They just got up in the morning and said, “hey, I’m going to go to class dressed like superman/princess/vampira today.” What fun to be able to be loopy like that.</p>
<p>Last night, while sitting on the porch handing out candy, my husband commented to me that he saw several kids who were too old to be trick-or-treating. I told him I really didn’t see the harm in it … kids of all ages enjoy having fun and eating candy, even old farts like us. As he popped another piece of candy in his mouth, he said he guessed that was true. I am a school nurse and saw lots of current and former students last night. I especially enjoy seeing how the older ones have grown.</p>
<p>I was so pleased with the trick and treaters last night. I used up my candy and resorted to breakfast bars for last group. The little kids were so polite, saying words like, “My favorite candy!” or “You rock”. The (mostly) dads waved from the pavement. The little ones wore elaborate customes. Not one of the older girls were “sexed-up”. I look forward to next year, & will take the time to decorate.</p>