Sugarpalooza 2011

I'm not crazy about Halloween.  It's not that I care if the kids pretend there are ghosts or vampires.  I don't think that will steer them into demonic practices.  Although they were clowns one year.  (Back off.  Clowns are scary.)  But my yahoos have never really gotten into being or getting scared.  They are more into violence. They typically stick with anything that carries a weapon. The deadlier the better.  


My issue is with the math.

The equation is long.  You might want to grab a pencil.

The amount of work to get the costume(s) and get the child(ren) in said costume(s) + buckling and unbuckling one or more children in and out of car seats 1 kabillion times > the amount of GOOD candy generated.

In the past this equation has been true. Painfully true.

But have I mentioned that I have THE BEST MIL on the planet?  THE ENTIRE PLANET!!!

A couple of years ago I was looking around for costumes for The Yahoos.  Trying to come up with 3 (at the time) costumes is pricey.  So I asked the MIL if she could sew the kids' costumes.  I think they were cowboys/cowgirl.  She did such an incredible job.  The quality was top notch. Here is my absolute favorite picture of Little Middle Yahoo modeling (part) of the costume:

Seriously, who could resist this?

Thus started our little family tradition of me taking total advantage of the grandmother's sewing skills and letting her make the kids' costumes with no cost to myself.  So these days:

When work = 0, then any amount of candy is awesomeness!  

Plus, these days, we typically go to our church's Fall Festival.  This takes care of the whole buckling/unbuckling torture endured by both me and the children.   Of course, we still hit the hot spots where premium candy is distributed.  Anyone want to take a stab at what this household holds in high regard as the best candy in the free world?  Here's a hint:  We named a child after it. 
 

This year the 3 Big Yahoos were channeling The Force:  Annakin, Yoda, and Padme` Amidala.  Sweet Yahoo kept getting ticked off because everyone thought she was a pirate.  Finally she just started saying she was one when people asked her what she was.  It was just easier that way.  She's a little like me in that.

Baby Yahoo was channeling, well, himself.  The tail on the monkey costume I got for him wigged him out.  So I was the cool, go with the flow, experienced mom that let him go as himself.  Let's face it...when you have a face like this, why hide it behind a mask:

 

Here are a few pics of the yahoos enjoy themselves. 

You might notice that Ninja Yahoo is conspicuously absent from some of the latter pix.  At this point I need to point out that in our home we have the 24 Sugarpalooza.   For 24 hours you can eat all the candy you want but at the end of the 24 hours the candy is gone (not gone, of course, just hidden. Hello!).  So in these shots we are going on hour 23.  It's about now that the stomach ache set in.  He opted to cease Trick or Treating at my mom's and instead vegged out on the couch watching cable, something he never gets to do!

Hope all of you enjoy your own little Sugarpalooza 2011!