Trick-or-Treat!

After dinner, we put Oliver in his costume. Aunt Julie had asked if she could send another costume this year, and we said yes. We reserved it until today. Oliver went trick-or-treating as a dragon! At first, he was really ticked about getting dressed up.

Outside, our crabby dragon refused to walk anywhere. Andrew carried him to the end of the block, and then he had a discussion with our little man. The promise of ringing doorbells finally convinced Oliver to give the whole trick-or-treat thing a chance.

It was a smashing success! The woman at the first house put some prizes in Oliver's pumpkin, and he was sold. From that moment on, nothing could get between him and all of the doors on the block. He just wanted to ring doorbells and hold out his bucket. He wasn't able to say, "Trick or treat," but he was very willing to say, "Please!" Twice, the homeowner took too long to give Oliver his treats, so he just reached in and helped himself. Slightly embarrassing, yes?

Here are a whole mess of photos of Oliver in all of his trick-or-treat glory:

We got to the end of the block, where we'd planned on stopping. Oliver was eager to push forward. Andrew and I decided to enjoy going to a few more houses with our little dragon.

We told Oliver when we were going up to the last house. A middle-aged woman burst out of her home and ran up to us. She explained that she heard us tell him it was the last house, but she just had to see the adorable "dinosaur." She then dropped a whole handful of candy into Oliver's pumpkin.

Oliver knew we were done for the night. He didn't throw a tantrum or even fuss, but he refused to walk home himself. Andrew carried him the block and a half home.

I took a picture of Oliver's loot. This was actually taken after I picked through it and removed all of the unappealing candy (like Smarties and Sour Patch Kids), which, I admit, I put in our bowl to give out to other trick-or-treaters. Can you believe Oliver got all of this candy in a block and a half?! These people were just dumping their candy into his pumpkin. Insane.

Oliver never actually knew what he got from each house. He just loved the receiving of the mystery items. Once we were home and had Oliver changed into more comfortable clothes, I gave him a single Kit Kat to enjoy. As if the kid needed any more thrills. He thought it was the greatest thing ever, and, unlike last year, there were no vomiting episodes after the candy indulgence. Here I am with my favorite toddler as he enjoys his special Halloween treat:

We ended up with so many trick-or-treaters this year that we actually ended up giving out all of the candy Oliver had acquired on top of all the candy we'd purchased for tonight (Reese's, Butterfingers, Crunch bars, and Hershey's). Andrew had to make an emergency run to Walgreen's, and I had to turn off the porch light for about fifteen minutes because I just didn't have anything to give the kids. He came back with a boatload of goodies. It's the end of the night, trick-or-treating hours are over, and we're now sitting on two bags of Reese's. Can you guess what I'm eating right now?