Halloween, come and gone.  And another fantastic Prince Edward Island Halloween for the record books.  Halloween is but a one day pass to the ultimate in children’s Mardi Gras-like carnivals.   During which, one is (of course) encouraged to eat as much sugar and grease as is possible for human consumption, forgoing anything of nutritional value.   All while moving at a feverish pace from one venue to another as if one is a rodent running circles on a hamster wheel.  And I am not even talking about trick-or-treating.  I am just talking about school-based Halloween activities.

We had more excitement today at school than I think we will have combining all other holiday/fun day/field trip activities over the course of an entire year.  Halloween is a kid’s dream come true: a time when they actually have so much candy at their disposal, even they come to the place where they must refuse eating the sugary stuff.  One little guy ‘cut himself off’ after a binge of gorging on candy and treats, complaining he had eaten too much.  Let’s just say that this child had probably consumed enough chocolate at this point to have made candy for a small country’s Christmas, Valentine’s Day and Easter candy supply, combined.  This is the expectation of course.  We eat until our intestines fall out.

And we wonder why we have so many digestive issues in our part of the world.

But there is just no way of convincing children to eat anything else but candy, on Halloween.  To start the day off, I was on early shift for the school’s breakfast program.  Don’t ask me why we bothered serving oranges, apples and granola bars on the morn of Halloween.  The kids were coming off the bus eating candy that had been handed to them by their well-meaning bus drivers.  Not sure why my offer of a healthy snack did not meet with more enthusiasm.  But for some reason, today we were just not the smashing sensation we usually are in the early hours of the school day.   And just for the record, any parents who sent healthy snacks to school today?  You might as well have saved yourself the five minutes it took to wash, dry and pack the apple.  I can promise you.  It never even drew so much as a second glance. #apple.are.boring  #candy.tastes.better

Oh, the fun of Halloween.  And lest I forget to mention the costumes.  Oh, the costumes.  Little ones with velcroed backs and zippered fronts; snaps and ties and buttons  galore.  Gauze and felt and fleece and foam.  Has everyone forgotten that these little people need to pee, oh, about every five minutes?  What is a teacher suppose to do with these marvelous Walmart creations?  I say Halloween costumes should be disposable.  Flushable.  When kids finish their business, one should be able to flush that thing down the pipes and go grab another fresh one from the pop-up container that has contained within it several vacuumed sealed, pint-sized costumes.  One poor little lady came beautifully dressed up as a witch.  By the end of the day, she looked like a gypsy on uppers.  My own child could have been thrown into the washing machine, costume and all.

But that is just the fun of Halloween.  It is a day of excess.  Too much candy, too much excitement, too much mess, too much activity.

I was expecting that bedtime at our house tonight would be like attending a House of Horrors.  My own personal version.  Surprisingly, it went quite smooth.  I had prepared myself for the worst, and was pleasantly surprised with how well everyone settled down for the night.  I am not sure why this surprises me so much.  After all, what goes up must also come down.  And after a day of flying high on candy and Halloween hype, not to mention the fumes from the smoke machine used for our school’s Haunted House, this mama is ready for a little kick-back, down time.  And judging from the quiet I hear on the floor above me, I think the kiddos are feeling the same as me.

Happy Halloween, all!