Halloween 2013

My Halloween lunch date was yummy, Katie is always thrilled to go out to eat with her Dad, and Drew was content in his car seat carrier.  We ventured to the newly developed Issaquah Highland shopping area and ate at the RAM, checked out the new HomeGoods/Marshalls, and then Justin dropped me off at the kids’ elementary school so I could volunteer at Jason's Harvest Party.  This was my first time helping in Jason's classroom this year, with a nursing baby it's hard for me to go in as often as I'd like.  I was impressed with how well organized his teacher was.  I manned the snack table as the kids rotated through five different fun (or yummy) stations. 

We had pizza for dinner and then the kids got ready to hit the neighborhood.    I think I had the best looking group of trick-or-treaters out there. 

Seriously, just look at that adorable little monkey a little closer! 

Actually the monkey stayed home all night with either me or Justin, but still, so cute! 

Our beautiful Cinderella (though I just noticed we didn’t have her crown on yet and she’s slobbering profusely)

Dorothy and her little dog Toto who had to stay home as to not take up precious space in Carly's basket.

Love this picture of Katie!  

She had a blast!  I was surprised that she wasn’t shy and had no problem saying trick-or-treat and used her manners saying “Thank You!” and “Happy Halloween” Though it was funny she’d get mixed up and after getting candy from someone she’d turn around and yell “Trick-or-Treat”.  She had no problem keeping up with the other kids and lasted over an hour before she declared she was ready for bed.  Love that girl!

The trick-or-treating logistics this year were quite different then in years past.   Each of the three big kids wanted to go with their friends, we started out together, but after a little while Abigail was off on her own in the with a friend, Carly and two friends went off with one of the girls mom's, and when Katie was ready to head home Jason went with a group of boys (and a dad) until Justin could catch up to him.  Lets face it, with five kids spanning over 11 years were not going to have the same pace and trick-or-treat together for an entire evening. 

At the end of the night we had more candy then should ever been allowed.  I was surprised that Jason and Katie were both in bed before 8pm after enjoying just a few treats.  The girls stayed out a little longer and then got to sorting as soon as they got home. 

Abigail was excited, as I suspected, for my "fun" post-trick-or-treating activity - Halloween Statistics.  Carly indulged me and assisted me with her compilation and I handled Jason and Katie’s stats after they were in bed.

Abigail’s:

Top 5 Most Popular Candy:

#1 – Starburst

#2 – Laffy Taffy

#3 – Whoppers

#4 – Snickers

#5 – Kit-Kat

Approximately 14.5 pounds, 548 pieces

Carly’s:

Top 5 Most Popular Candy:

#1 – Jolly Ranchers

#2 – Milky Way

#3 – Snickers

#4 – Twix

#5 – Smarties

Approximately 12.6 pounds, 502 pieces

Jason’s:

Top 5 Most Popular Candy: (none of which he can eat)

#1 – Snickers

#2 – Milky Way

#3 – Twix

#4 – Almond Joy

#5 – Reese’s PB Cups

Approximately 2.4 pounds of nut-free candy, combined total with Katie of 11.2 pounds, 287 pieces

Katie’s:

Top 5 Most Popular Candy:

#1 – Snickers

#2 – Kit Kat

#3 – Gobstoppers

#4 – Almond Joy

#5 – Crunch Bars

Approximately 0.8 pounds of nut-free candy, combined total with Jason of 11.2 pounds, 121 pieces

An interesting tidbit of information is that of the candy Abigail collected she could eat approximately 54.4% of the candy due to nut allergies.  

In contrast Jason and Katie could only eat 28.5% of their candy.  I think this is due to Abigail being more familiar with what she is able to eat so when presented with a bowl of candy to choose from she would grab something she knew she could eat.  Jason and especially Katie aren’t nearly as familiar with what is safe and what isn’t.

That brings the Fletcher’s total 2013 Halloween candy collection to approximately 38.3 pounds, 1458 pieces with the Top Ten Most Popular Candy being as follows:

#1 – Snickers

#2 – Milky Way

#3 – Jolly Ranchers

#4 – Starburst

#5 – Kit Kat

#6 – Twix

#7 – Laffy Taffy

#8 – Whoppers

#9 – Twizzlers

#10 - Gobstoppers

I gotta admit the excitement of such a large loot is tainted a bit by the fact that we purchased a large bag of candy at Costco on Halloween and still have over half of it left over.   And unlike Halloweens past we bought a huge bag of chocolate candy bars so three of our kids can't even eat any of it.  We usually buy the big (and less expensive) variety pack with Nerds, Laffy Taffy, and Starbursts. So to bring home loads of chocolate candy isn't as awesome when you have loads of chocolate candy already (and no way to return it).   This also means I have very little trading power if I want any non-chocolate candy.  Make sense? Turns out we didn't get much foot traffic on our dead end street.  In hindsight we should have sent the kids out for 20 minutes, given out what we didn't like from that and skipped buying anything.  Or if we really needed to buy candy ourselves we buy stuff all of our kids can eat so what we have leftover doesn’t have to be eaten by just the few of us that are allergy-free.  Yes, I know I'm a bit crazy.  Despite the chocolate catastrophe we had a wonderful Halloween and I’m sure somehow we’ll manage to get through it all.