I'm exhausted. Who started this Halloween tradition of letting a kid have a piece of candy 10 minutes before bedtime? David started talking in funny voices, running in and out of the house, freaking out about the need for water, and, of course, lobbying for more candy.

The Halloween birthday party

I had to pull David out of Sunday School early to go this party, but he wanted to stay and finish making Shabbat candlestick holders. As if I'm going to say no to that. He finished retaping his costume in the car.

David's getting much better at birthday parties. He only knew two kids at this one and within minutes was fully engaged. The fact that he can now disappear and play happily for several minutes makes it all the more jarring when there is a crisis. What? I need to stop talking to an adult and stop you from kicking someone? But, it mostly went well. My hardest part were the gluten free ice cream cones. The host kindly put one of ours on the cute ice cream clown faces, and David's clown and hat looked just like everyone else's. I mean just like everyone else's. I couldn't see any difference and had to trust that she handed him the right one.

Trick or treating at my mom's house

I don't know if it's the dead-end streets with little traffic or the elaborate haunted houses a few of the neighbors put on, but my old neighborhood has become the go to place to trick or treating. Literally hundreds of kids come to the door. And my kids love to help pass out the treats.

We have a lovely evening at my mom's. Lovely means all the cousins played downstairs, my sister and John made dinner, and I got to catch up on the family news. Well, it wasn't so lovely when David decided he didn't like what he'd asked for and wanted something else. Ah food issues. Where is that on my to-do list?

Then we had a very sad crisis where Rose discovered she'd lost a key element of her costume--the vampire teeth. How can you be Little Red Riding Hood vampire without the teeth? She explained it to many of the houses we visited, and they were duly sympathetic.

We went up and down our old street and had a grand time visiting our old neighbors. Then I had a grand time passing out tattoos and admiring costumes while the kids divvied candy, and then exhaustion set in see above.