I got a call from Erin at 4:40pm to let us know that TorT at the Festival (the shopping mall near us) is way cool and much easier on the kids than the Circle. Since the kids had just woken up, and Truong was home, and it doesn't get dark until 6:30pm, I figured why not? It wouldn't hurt to get some more practice and it'd be nice to get the kids out for a bit. So 15 minutes after Erin called, we were out the door.
We made out like bandits. The merchants at the Festival gave out way better candy than the Circle (we got handfuls from each store) and there were no lines. Kael was comfortable mumbling Trick or Treat and it was a very enjoyable outing. We ran into the Bickmeiers at the end of the loop and as we walked back to the cars, the boys ran around hollering and whooping, having a great time.
We then headed home for dinner (5:45pm). I scrambled to get dinner made for the kids and started getting the bracelets ready when the doorbell rang. Holy cow -- I'm not ready! Turns out it was Sheri, Jeff and Ava (18 months), Truong's co-worker and her family coming over to TorT with our kids. I set them to work on cracking the bracelets while I get dinner for the kids ready. Not that they ate any but in making the effort to have dinner ready, I at least fulfilled my Mom Responsibilities.
The kids set off and I stayed home to pass out the goodies. This year's crowd was pretty disappointing -- we got about half the traffic we got last year (so about 150 kids). But it was still a lot of fun handing out treats and seeing what costumes kids came up with.
I of course forgot to take pictures on the actual night (doh!) but you've already seen the kids' costumes from our first TorT expedition. The costumes didn't change except Kael's got a little dirtier and Malia's tutu got more scrunched.
Kael and Malia had a great time and came home pretty amped up (the lollipop Truong gave her at 7:30pm had nothing to do with it, I'm sure). We had to force feed them dinner and they finally went to bed at 8:30pm (Malia) and 9:20pm (Kael). Kael woke up at 1:00am scared and told us that he couldn't sleep alone. So Truong took the comforter off our bed and bunked on the floor of Kael's bedroom. His alarm went off at 6:00am and I was seriously mad at him for leaving it on. I had a fierce internal debate about whether or not I should haul myself out of bed to wake him or burrow further into my bed and finish off the rest of my sleep. I eventually decided that since he came home early for me to take the kids out last night, I should reciprocate the good deed by waking him up. So I stumbled down the hall to Kael's room where I yanked off his comforter and stumbled back to bed. One good deed deserves another, right?
Oh and my final thought on TorT'ing: I swear parents who walk their kids to the door just do it so they can take a peep inside other people's homes. I can't tell you how many people have commented on our house. The front door opens into our living room which I've converted to a playroom, complete with a giant chalk board for the kids. The floor is covered with foam mats to prevent injuries (ha! right...) and there are toys lined up. It's a nice set-up for the kids. I had one mom actually stick her head through my door and exclaim "I love what you did to the living room - you converted it to a playroom! And it looks so nice! You get really good use out of this room! Hey Hon (to her husband who's talking on the sidewalk with a buddy) -- we should do this to our house!" She was definitely one of the odder parents of the night.
Kael getting down and dirty with my pumpkin. Mrs. Morin carved a pumpkin at school and had the kids touch the guts and seeds so Kael took great relish in telling me how slimey and ooey-gooey it was. 
Yup. It's really slimey and ooey-gooey. His job was to get the seeds out and he's not liking it. In fact, he picked out about 5 seeds then he quit. 
Our pumpkins. Truong's the one on the left and mine is on the right. I saw a lady take a picture of my pumpkin as her kid was getting treated at our house. I'm such an artist...
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