Halloween chaos

Our little man was a pirate for Halloween last night. Here he is trying to do a scary-pirate pose while trying to keep the parrot on his shoulder and the too-small hat on his head. His Dad pulled him around the neighborhood in a wagon and I handed out candy. The parrot didn't make it out of the driveway, the eye patch was gone moments later and the hat too. He still was a cute pirate!
Of course, it couldn't be a holiday without some chaos thrown in. Katie's cheer practice got moved to 5pm, which meant I had to get off work early to get her to the gym on time. Then, because of construction, the trip to the gym and back took an HOUR.....for a 5 mile trip. By the time I got home I was scrambling to get everything set before the 6:30 pm Trick-or-Treat kickoff. I washed out the muddy wagon and dried it off, found the big black candy cauldron in the garage, washed it and filled it with candy, set up our 'station' at the end of the driveway to hand out candy (pumpkins lit up - check, lanterns - check, chairs - check, sweatshirt - check) got some food into Levi and then got him into his costume. Placed a blanket in the wagon, attached glow sticks all around the wagon for visibility, handed him off to Chris and just barely headed out with the candy as the first hay-ride full of kids arrived.
Exactly one hour later, Chris and Levi returned, I grabbed Katie's too-small cheer skirt and headed back to the gym to pick her up. They swapped out her skirt for one that fits much better and we then headed off to pick up some friends of hers so they could now go trick-or-treating. I am sure the neighbors were amazed, astounded, shocked, thrilled, laughing (pick a word) when a gaggle of long-legged, 15 yr old girls came begging for candy. Katie was a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader, the other girls were similarly clad. They weren't the only high schoolers, either. I guess here you go trick or treating until you get your HS diploma.

After everything settled down we began to talk about how it will be next year. We will have to use the little tractor and pull the small wagon full of hay and kids. No simple wagon will fit them all. At least I hope that is the case......