Ungood, at first. One of THOSE kids actually came over and asked if our boy could come trick-or-treating with the rat kids and that mean, rotten punk behind us. He came over more than once, asking. I find that deeply troubling. And then, when the rats, the punk, and the older brother of those kids came over, they kept asking how our boy was, where's our boy? And the topper? When our boy (being tailed at a discreet distance by his father) reached THOSE kids' house, he was invited to go to an archery range (part of his costume was a compound bow) on Sunday. Yikes.
These kids blew our boy off for months. Literally NO contact, though they were, daily, outside with the rats and the punk behind us who are so scary. They viewed our boy as an absolute last resort, after all other play options were exhausted. EVERY time they came over (before they just stopped coming over at all), it was followed by very pointed, "Have you seen my iPod? I think I left my phone here. Have you seen my wallet?" The younger of the two boy is a liar beyond any pathology I've ever witnessed--I have never, in my life, met a kid who lies so often about so many things. He just makes stuff up on the fly for no apparent reason, other than trying to be impressive. You have a new car? His grandpa has a new ROLLS! You have theater butter popcorn? He has real theater popcorn specially shipped in from a real theater in New York City! You have a new phone? His step-dad has an experimental iPhone SG78, which is only approved for use by NASA scientists! Worried about the noise of a sleepover? No worries--he has a special ELECTROID CURTAIN that muffles all noise, even from inches away! It was funny at first, but it quickly became so damned irritating it's near-impossible to be around him for even a minute or two. And now they want to hang out at an archery range with our son? And then what? They want to come into our home again? With the lice? We can't have our boy at their house because those other kids are a constant presence there. You remember, the kids who plan ambushes against other kids? The kids who kill small animals? The kids who ditched our boy and have since treated him like hell?
I don't trust this. Not even a little bit. I don't like it. And, of course, our poor boy wants it to be sincere. Even though he knows it's not.
Our boy carved both a pumpkin and watermelons. The flesh from the melons is going into homemade watermelon sorbet.
The crowds were pretty thick--at least we didn't run out of candy like we did last year. It was close, though--we went through two GIANT (the mega-packs) bags of Mars candies, plus two regular bags of Snickers. More little kids without costumes than I would like--even the most broke can slap a kid in his parents' clothes or put on a funny hat and some "hobo" makeup from mom's makeup bag. Oh, well. Some very cool costumes, and some very, very polite kids. Not TOO many "you're too old for this" types, though the rat kids across the street's 20-something year old brother was out sucking for candy. Ew.
The high point? When a MOST excellent and enthusiastic young ballerina, who wished me a VERY happy Halloween, turned to her mom as they walked away and said, "She's a NEAT lady! She is the NEATEST lady!" Hey, you know what? Neat is good. I like neat. Thank you, sweetie.
Oh, they took the dog trick-or-treating. Only one small barking contest with another dog, otherwise he was great. Calm, enjoyed the kids, an all-around good doggie. Next year, when hubby does Dorothy from Wizard of Oz, Charlie will be Toto.
Leaving the decorations up (against my better judgment) so the Niece-in-Law can see them. We didn't do our full-bore usual, no fog machine and strobe, and only about a third of our usual headstones and webs. We had one day to do it--see, we were afraid the kids on the street would tear it up if we left it up for weeks like we usually do. We had put up a few headstones and some webs as a test, but wound up having to pull it down because of the hurricane. It looked pretty good, but nowhere near our best effort. Hopefully those kids won't tear it up between now and tomorrow night.
All that aside, the boy seemed to have a good time. Because he's just magic that way.
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