For some reason I’m lazy and unprepared when it comes to every aspect of my life except the holidays. We have a “Happy Halloween” banner in our dining room, pipe-cleaner spiders lurking around the house, and I ordered Mary Virginia’s dress on September 1 because I could not wait another day. Technically, I made David’s costume over a year ago. That we did not get around to carving our pumpkins is entirely beside the point.
On the evening of Halloween, we made a giant batch of pumpkin chicken enchiladas, and then rushed around the house locating various costume pieces. Just as the chaos was reaching a tipping point, we ushered the kids outside for a photo. Once I had the kids lined up, Caleb turned around, lost his balance, and fell down all four stairs. Somehow he got tangled up with Mary Virginia on the way down, and she also fell the whole way on top of him. Caleb smacked the back of his head on the concrete walkway, and if that wasn’t bad enough, Mary Virginia’s princess tiara became a bit disheveled. It was nearly as harrowing as the time her sock became bunched up in her shoe.
Caleb’s fall scared me — not just “Halloween scary.” For a moment I was worried we were going to have to spend Halloween trick-or-treating in our local ER. Then Caleb stood up, flexed his bicep, and whipped his cape around to remind me that he was dressed as Superman for a reason.
With all the kids back in position, precariously standing on our death stairs, I grabbed the camera, held it up, and nothing happened. Dead battery.
Dead battery?
Dead battery ARE YOU KIDDING ME DEAD BATTERY!?!? I bought that dress back in September!
Tom tossed me his phone and we took two quick photos. It is, after all, 2015. Who uses actual cameras anymore?
After trick or treating, the kids went to bed and Tom and I performed our parental duty of going through their candy to sort out anything that was either too sticky-chewy or too delicious (like the full-sized Twix David scored). They have so much candy, even after I ate 12 fun-sized candy bars without even pausing to chew.
I asked Tom if we maybe wanted to let the kids choose a toy and “buy” it with their candy, but I think I said something like, “Tom, should we do that thing where we let the kids trade their candy for a toy?”
And he must have been in a chocolate stupor as well, because he responded, “You mean we throw away one of their toys and then get rid of their candy? Sure, let’s do that!”
