Ghosts and Goblins

As usual adventure ensues when we leave the house. Holidays or special events are no exception to this. Halloween with multiple children ranging in age proved to be just that. Adventure seems to be what we inadvertently set out on every time we open the front door!
This year Halloween consisted of Madelyn going as a fairy princess person thing - - - (not really sure what to call it. She saw that beautiful flowing purple dress and a pair of wings and that was it. She had her heart set on that costume!), Aiden went as one of his new favorite characters: Yoda and sweet little Jacquelyn went as the Itsy Bitsy Spider (complete with a coordinating bow - - of course).
We like to be the parents that go "all out" attempting to make fun family memories! Oh and memories were made! The initial thought was to take the kids to as many events as possible to, shall we say, "load up"! As every good parent we like to "preview the kids candy" after they go to bed so the more the merrier applies to this situation.
Tradition would have it that I make homemade chilli early that morning and let it simmer all day. We enjoy it in sour dough bread bowls, with the traditional monster punch right before we head out to trick or treat. Despite the 85* weather this year was not any different and it was YUMMO! Tradition is tradition! Even if fall does not come here until December!
Our first attempt to Trick or Treat was the local city event at the mall. Children go from store to store and collect candy. Well it would appear that the entire city, all 150,000 of us go to the mall for this event. We could not even move. Keeping track of our busy kids along with the friends we had gone with was an obstacle. We will not be attending next year for obvious reasons.
Next : on to the main event! TRICK OR TREAT! Since we were about to move into our new home we thought this would be a great opportunity to meet our new neighbors. Off to trick or treat in our NEW neighborhood. It was a great thought in theory. It never dawned on us that we live in a brand new neighborhood. Our house was one of the firsts and well, we had very few neighbors at the time! Lots of construction and very few neighbors. The kids were able to collect some loot , most of which was eaten in the car from what was to be our new neighborhood to our house. Naturally Elliot and I "previewed" a few select pieces as well!
I have grown to love our family's adventures regardless of what they may be or what are intentions were when we left the house. The great Omanson Family Adventures seem to never be few and far between.