The Entire 8 Seconds

A sort of cryptic title, I know.

I liken doing things out in public with my toddlers to a wild rodeo, and this weekend wasn't our first rodeo, but it was the first time we held on for the entire 8 seconds.
It was a busy one. We usually go to the church Halloween party and "trunk or treat." Walking around the parking lot where volunteers have decorated their tailgates with spooky things and sit there handing out candy to the little ones. On Saturday, that's where we were. For the first year with two walkers who were able (more or less) to understand the concept of trick or treating.
Well, Tyler understood it. While he was holding out his bag and whispering "Trick or treat" so softly people had to lean in to hear him, Kendyl just looked at all the costumes with huge eyes and that tiny, "no expression" look on her face.

This was our training wheels. Again I explain what a bad Mormon I am.
The church's festivities were held on Saturday night, in order to keep the Sabbath day holy. I had already planned to use this fortunate series of events to give my children two Halloweens. They had never been actual trick or treating, and we were going to visit the best neighborhood in the Valley for Halloween night.
I know, bad, Halloween cheater, whatever. I was fully planning on going to church the next day to offset the sin of cheating on the church with Halloween.
Well, Kendyl didn't sleep. She was awake from 12:30 at night to 8:15 the next morning. So... um, we didn't go to church. And then we broke the Sabbath by going trick or treating later that night. (After both Kendyl and I took 4 hour naps)
But the kids had fun. Lots of fun. Kendyl was a princess and Tyler was a... um... I guess a dragon from Disney's How to Train Your Dragon. He had stripes, orange ones. I really don't know, we watch too much Blue's Clues to get any Disney movies in, and we got the costume for free. He was running around too fast to get any pictures, maybe our friends caught him on their camera.

Well, we made it up and down one street. Kind of. Kendyl decided to collapse on someone's doormat, before they even gave her candy. She wouldn't be coaxed to her feet, she just laid there with her fingers in her mouth looking up at the leering skeleton trying to put a Twix bar in her bag. That's when I knew we had reached the end of the road for trick or treating. I carried her the rest of the way to our friend's house, and she cried the entire ride home in the carseat.

So, not a total loss. Kendyl dragged out her princess dress this morning and is now laying on it in front of the TV. They both slept well last night, and even though they've had candy already this morning, they are calm and worn out from the weekend's festivities.
I have to see this weekend as a success. I have to also remember, "fun" now, at these young ages, is just training wheels for the fun we are going to have when they are a little bit older and I don't have to worry about them bolting inexplicably into the street, or putting handfuls of their own candy into the bowl of the house that we are trick or treating at. (Tyler did that last night, much to everyone's chagrin)
And now I'm going to go sift through those bags for chocolate. Just for their own good though, what toddler needs own their weight in chocolate anyhow?
Next year it's back to simply the church function... who in the world needs two freakin' Halloweens.
We held on for the full 8 seconds though.

This is what my back looks like... weird.