Trick or Treat Cleveland style

A few weeks back the little lady announced that she wanted to be a turtle for Halloween.  After failing to find a reasonably priced turtle costume in her size on the Internet, we turned to Target only to find a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle costume hanging limply on a hanger.  She took one look at it and passed.  (I was kind of hoping she would take a liking to it; Michelangelo and his nunchucks were a childhood favorite of mine.)  As we scanned the aisles for inspiration, she finally settled on a costume.  This time announcing that she would be a pirate and the little man would be a parrot.  Thankfully, I found this in my inbox one day.  A trip to Michael's and $18.00 later the little man had himself a parrot costume. 

Our Halloween festivities began Thursday evening with a candy crawl on Lee Street.  Both the little lady and man were slightly timid walking into each store to collect their treats. We considered this a warm up for the main event.

Saturday evening we attended a popular Cleveland family event, Boo at the Zoo.  Jeff and I agreed that while hosting such an event at night is adventurous and offers an elevated sense of excitement, hundreds of children running around in costumes after dark seemed a bit unsafe.  Thankfully, our sweet ones are of the age where they are willing to stick close to the stroller or seated safely inside of it.  All in all, it was a fun way to spend our evening.  The "spooky" train ride was definitely a highlight.

Being that we 1) live in an apartment and 2) live off of a busy street, we scouted out the perfect neighborhood to trick or treat in.  Jeff promised that it would "be the kind of neighborhood that hands out full sized candy bars." 

We lucked out with the perfect fall evening for trick or treating.  Our little ones quickly favored knocking on doors (or repeatedly ringing door bells) by themselves, leaving us to watch in amusement from the sidewalk.  By the end of the evening, our little pirate and parrot could no longer hold their pumpkins for they were filled with full size candy bars and various other treats.  On our walk home Jeff cheerfully explained the parent to child ratio of consuming their candy loot.  They ignorantly listened on, nodding in agreement.  The full size candy bars meant nothing to them; they were holding out for...(wait for it)...

SMARTIES!