Gearing up for Treats in the Street

Every year Old Towne Orange has a really cool event for kids called Treats in the Street where they close the Circle of Orange to traffic and set up booths for vendors, food and music for kids to go trick or treating. All the businesses hand out candy and there's a school band, the fire truck, hay rides -- all the fun stuff for kids to do. And it's always packed. There's a line of kids that form a complete circle, hitting all the businesses for candy. It's crowded and noisy -- and really fun. You see kids wearing really cute costumes but it's the adults who dress up that really are something else. Last year was the year of Stars Wars so we saw a lot of Storm Troopers and Darth Vaders. There was the Superman Family. Cousin It. You pretty much see a little bit of everything.

The kids are still napping (it's almost 4:00pm) so I'm going to have to wake them up if we're going to make it. This poses a huge problem: Kael is an absolute beast when he doesn't self-wake from a nap. TorT is from 4:00pm to 5:30pm and if he wakes up at 4:30pm, get dressed, get in the car, find parking... it'd be a miracle if we made it in time. BUT if I wake him up, I run into the issue of him being so foul tempered that he will refuse to wear his fireman costume. Same goes for Malia and her tutu. On a good day I may be able to convince her to wear it for a little while. Get her in a bad mood and she's liable to rip the thing off and run around in just her leggings.

It's 88 degrees out right now, a little smoky from all the fires. Not the best of conditions, especially since Kael's costume is a heavy cotton (turnout pants and coat). Poor kid - I hope he doesn't roast in there.