Trick or Treat

Tonight didn't exactly go as I had envisioned. I was going to cook dinner early then get Justine dressed in her mermaid costume complete with a long, flowing red wig. From there we had plans to go to Firewheel Mall to trick or treat.

When I was cooking dinner we got a knock on the door and it was the next door neighbor. Rose, a 4th grade girl. She asked me to help her get into her house. I asked if she was locked out and she said yes. I asked where her siblings were and she said they were at friends houses. She said she had already called her mother and she wasn't getting home from work until 10pm. I suggested we call her again and we did. Straight to voicemail. I left her a message that her daughter needed in her house and I didn't know what to do. Thirty minutes later we had yet to hear from Mom. Waylan decided to go check the house to see if any windows were unlocked. The garage was open but the door into the house was locked. He climbed into the attic to see if he could enter from an inside attic entrance but no luck. By now, not only is Rose waiting to get inside so are 2 of her brothers. I'm not exactly sure how many siblings there actually are. Knowing we will be leaving soon and these kids could potentially be sitting outside until 10pm we decided to call the non-emergency line at the police department to have someone "official" check out the scene. Meanwhile I called Mom again and this time she answered. From her accent I am guessing she is from someplace like Nigeria. I could barely understand her. And her not being much of a happy camper didn't help the accent. What I gathered is that the kids are all supposed to be with their friends until she gets home. I informed her that was not the case. I brought one of the kids over and they talked on the phone...I don't know the content of the phone call. Then another knock on the door. It's the police. We were informed that there is no minimum age limit for latch key kids and therefore nothing we could really do with these kids. We were also informed that it is a terrible idea to attempt to get into their house. If something could go wrong it probably would (he said speaking from experience) and we could be held liable. Additionally, the officer learned their aunt lives down the street and that is where the kids are supposed to be. I was relieved to learn a family member lives here too because the kids are always home alone. Mom must work 2+ jobs because in the 7 months we've lived here I think I've seen her once. And I've never seen a father.

With that drama behind us (while simultaneously trying to cook dinner) I started getting Justine dressed in her costume. She wasn't all too cooperative. I so wanted to tell her that if she didn't get dressed we would not go trick or treating for candy but I didn't want to have to follow through with keeping her home on Halloween so I didn't. Finally, after much coaxing, I got her dressed. Now it was time to get her wig on. No deal. She isn't having it. We (now with Waylan) discuss with her that she will need to be dressed in her entire costume to go out and get more candy. Still no deal. So I just put her hair in a pigtail and went to get myself ready. I came back to Justine and she had pulled her pigtail out. Such drama...I wasn't ready for any of it. Waylan told me I was doing this all for myself and I needed to give it up. He was right. I spent money on that costume and wig and wanted so much for her to wear it. And I wanted her to go trick or treating because I knew she would have fun. So we said forget it and decided to stay home. I wasn't very happy about it but so be it.

Well, now we have a different problem. We have no candy to hand out! So Waylan got in the car and went to get candy. Meanwhile Justine is attempting to eat her candy she's already received from her parties and she hasn't eaten dinner yet. But she refuses to eat dinner so I refuse to let her have candy. Yes, another battle.

Waylan returns with a TON of candy! I fill up a huge bowl then we set it aside to go trick or treating in the neighborhood. We turn off all the lights and head out. Our street was deader than a doornail. Noone home and no trick or treaters. So we go to the next street over. A few people home and a few trick or treaters but not many. We hit them all then decided to come home to pass out candy. We turned on all the lights and got 3 whole trick or treaters. Woo hoo! Justine managed to steal a piece of candy then off we went to the tub. The doorbell rang when we were upstairs so it was probably a 4th kid but we will never know.

The rest of the evening was the normal bedtime routine and our Halloween night was done. Not like I had envisioned but...oh well. Now I have a TON of candy to eat (and hide from Justine).