Halloween on Ockley

First let me say, I totally underestimated the magnitude of Halloween on Ockley! I went to Toys-R-Us about 2 weeks ago and they had candy on sale for $1.74 a bag, CHEAP! So I decided to "stock up" and get 6 bags for Halloween. When I was purchasing this candy I was also thinking to myself that we would have some left over and that I was probably buying way too much. Then on Halloween I visited Anna at the UPS store and she gave me a big bag of taffy since a customer had given them 4 large bags that morning. I thought that maybe I would add some of this to the Halloween stock pile and give it out, thinking that I would have some left over for us to enjoy. I was so wrong! We got our first trick or treaters at 6:30. Since I thought that I had plenty of candy I was giving out 3 treats a piece at first. That eventually turned into one piece when I realize how many kids were on my street. It was ridiculous! I knew that people packed up in vans to come to Broadmoor to trick or treat, but I guess I just didn't realize how many people actually did this. It really should be on the sales discloser when you buy a house over here! Anyways, I was totally out of candy by 7:15 and had to turn the porch light off. John got home just about that time and I sent him back out to get more candy. He bought 12 bags! So once he got back home the McKee light went back on and from that point on it was NON STOP! There were times when it was like an assembly line at my front door. Kids were lined up to the driveway!! And by kids I mean, some kids, some teenagers with no costumes, some adults with or without costumes, pretty much just everyone in Shreveport/Bossier. John said that it was like Mardi Gras trying to drive down our street. Thankfully the Denlers showed up at some point, and I had official candy passer outters! In the group was Katie, Kevin, Josie, Kevin's brother Rick, and Rick's kids Jordan and Cole. Jordan and Cole took up the job of passing out the candy and at one point Jordan just went and sat on the porch because she was tired of opening and closing the door. It was awesome! I will hire them again next year. Josie also got in on the action towards the end, but was fired due to her lack of ability to give out one piece of candy per kid. She just wanted to give them all handfuls, which is about 3 pieces for her but still. The Denler crew rolled out at 9 and John decided that it was time for lights out. Also we only had about 1 bag of candy left and he wanted to save that for us. So if you have been counting you will notice that we went through 18 bags of candy!! AND that is with us only giving out one piece per kid!!! Let me tell you, it is high pressure passing out those little jewels! The kids will come up and open their bag (most don't even say anything), watch to see how many pieces of candy you pick up, follow your hand as you drop it into their bag, then stare into their bag to see what they got. Some just look back up at you to see if you will give them more! And we did have a few who's parents were holding their bag so you just put the candy directly into their hand! Crazy! Apparently there were several parties going on in the front yards of my neighbors also. Katie said that there were people making hot dogs, frito pie, handing out drinks, some had mini haunted houses, a real block party! How do I compete with that? We are going to be known as the cheap house that only gives out one piece of dang candy! Oh well, we had enough for all of the kids and that is really all that matters. I will be excited for Lillian to participate in the block party when she is older, also I will be glad to not have to hand out candy! Lillian still dressed up even though we didn't go anywhere. She wore her skeleton onesie that Beth got her and she was a total hit. (It was a little big, 0-3 month and she is still in newborn.) Before John got home I had to hold her when I went to the door and everyone said she was the cutest! One little girl asked if she was my baby and when I said yes she proclaimed, "And you're so skinny!" Hilarious!!! I did get a lot of "Is that your baby?" questions, which I find odd since really, who's baby would it be? All in all our first Halloween on Ockley was a success. Next year I will be much more prepared!