The Airman Who Saved Halloween (and the wife who kept things going in the meantime)

Tonight I found myself in a little bit of a pickle. As I went to get ready for trick or treaters, I couldn't find most of the candy I bought.  We had a bin of banana Laffy Taffy from the case lot sale, a bag of Crunch bars, and some suckers leftover from Amy's birthday party goodie bags, but I also had a hunch that wasn't quite going to cut it...and although I was sure I bought four more bags of candy at a sale at Safeway the week before, and that I threw it all in the closet at the top of the stairs to hide it from the kids, it was no where to be found, even after a careful sorting and reorganizing of that space.

My kids weren't the only ones in the neighborhood excited to trick or treat, and I was pretty my half-full pot wasn't going to get us very far through the night.  Desperate times call for desperate measures, and I rationalized my actions by thinking that what I was going to do may make me a terrible mother, but if I let my kids eat all candy they got when they went trick or treating through David's office building, I'd be a terrible mother.  And if I could be a little sneaky, they wouldn't miss it anyway.

When the kids went to the Halloween festivities at Dad's work, they came home with enough candy to fill a gallon jar and then a gallon freezer baggie.  First I picked through it and took out all the stuff my little ones don't need, like jawbreakers and gum, and the stuff that no one in the family really cares for (but is still good!), like Butterfingers.  All that went into the treat pot, and the pot went on the porch, and we went out as a family to venture for more candy.  I was confident that we'd replace what I gave away without too much trouble.

South Dakota must have gotten the crankies out of its system in our miserable windstorm last week,  because the weather tonight was the best we could ask for of the Dakotas in October.  I got a little chilly with a sweater by the time we went in, but the kids just needed long sleeve shirts under their costumes and they were good to go....with what seemed like every other kid on the base.

By the time we got back from going around the block, which was all my little ones could handle, our candy pot looked dangerously low...and we still had two hours left of trick or treaters.  I weeded through the Ben and Kate's candy (Amy was good to go for the rest of the neighborhood with Dad) and added to my pot.  A little while later I just dumped in the rest of Ben's bag, knowing that Amy would come home with quite a haul.  It was actually a bit of a relief to know we wouldn't have such an insane amount of candy in the house, and Ben and Kate were watching Pinky and the Brain (we decided to pull out the DVDs for Halloween) sucking on Tootsie Pops, so they were oblivious to my scheme, thankfully.

By the time Amy and David got home, the gallon bag was empty, and the jar was running low.  As soon as I could sneak it away, I grabbed Amy's bag. Knowing she'd be more likely to catch on, I picked out the hard candy and gum (still haven't gotten over the time she lost a piece she was chewing on in the car and I found it an hour later, stuck to the back of my pants while I was walking through the grocery store), and David finally asked how I managed to loose the designated trick or treat candy.

I told him I was sure I put it in the space at the top of the stairs.  I checked the cupboards, and even looked down in the basement to see if I put it next to where I kept the pot we would use to pass it out, but I was baffled as to where it could be.

David double checked where I thought it was, then he disappeared down the basement. I was very sure I didn't put it there, but figured I could very possibly be crazy, and told him it was in a Safeway, or maybe a Walgreens, bag that was tied shut.  

He found it.  It was in a laundry basket stashed off to the side of the wall. And suddenly everything made sense.

Last time we did a big laundry folding marathon that, with David and I working together, took most of "Clash of the Titans," (I've tried not to get that behind since that wild night, and so far I've been moderately successful) I tossed all the kid's summer or outgrown clothes in a laundry basket to sort later, and then I put that laundry basket in the closet on top of the stairs, and eventually it ended up next to bins and boxes I used to sort clothes for hand-me-downs or whatever.  I guess the candy fell in the basket.  But the important thing is that it was found, and properly distributed to the princesses and goblins. 

And even after donating about 3/4 of my kid's overall spoils to the neighborhood, they still went to bed on Halloween night with this much stashed:

And would we really need more than that?