It's official: I hate Halloween.

Add this to the list of things that prove I'm a bad parent: I hate Halloween, the holiday that the kids adore, that's supposed to be tons of fun for all, blah blah blah. I. Don't. Like. It. There's nothing redeeming about it. Like Kevin so aptly described it "It's a bunch of kids wearing disguises and begging for candy." (This, of course, does not stop him from still taking part in the disguises and the begging.)

This year, it all started a month or so ago when I temporarily lost my mind and spent a small fortune on Disney Princess (blech!) costumes for all three girls at the Freaking Disney Store. I don't know what the hell came over me - I could have gotten costumes very nearly identical for about 1/3 of the price at Target. Whatever.

I spent close to $40 on Halloween candy. I have to buy LOTS, because we have a very, very busy crowd in our neighborhood for Halloween, and no matter how much I buy, we always run out long before the trick-or-treaters are done for the night.

So we ate an early dinner tonight and got the kids all dressed in their costumes, put Finn in the stroller, put the big plastic cauldron filled with candy on the front porch (because Michael and I both want to take the kids trick-or-treating), and we didn't even make it all the way down our front path before our house was hit by the first wave of trick-or-treaters. I'm talking 50 or so people, including adults dressed in costumes. I saw several mini-vans dropping loads of people off across the street.

See, this is why our neighborhood is so busy on Halloween - because people come in from other neighborhoods. And you know what? That kinda pisses me off. It doesn't seem fair to me. I'm sorry if your neighborhood doesn't give out the good candy - it's not fair to overburden my neighborhood and take candy that I really intended for the kids who live in my neighborhood.

So we push and shove our way out onto the sidewalk in front of our house, watching the swarm of people helping themselves to our candy. Michael said, "It feels like we're being robbed." I'll say. Then this family comes along, with a very large dog which is not on a leash. Daisy proceeds to lose her shit. Screaming and crying in terror ensue. The man and woman walk past Daisy and make some comment like, "What's her problem?" I'm pissed now. I say to them, "You're kidding, right? You don't even have your dog on a leash? And there are crowds of kids walking around?" The woman curls her lip at me and says, "Whatever, lady," as their very large, unleashed dog makes its way into my freaking yard. I say, "That's my yard. Get your freaking dog out of my yard."

It was a wonderful start to the evening.

We make it to the house next door, and Annabelle is now screaming and crying because of all the scary costumes. She's begging to go home. Sigh.

So Michael continues on with Joey, Lilah, and Daisy (who, wonder of wonders, was not scared of the scary costumes, was scared of the dogs out and about, but was still willing to go trick-or-treating), and I take Annabelle and Finn home next door, making our way back through the throng of people, and see that we've been gone for about 10 minutes and the 15 pounds of candy I left out is already gone. Nice.

Happy Freaking Halloween.

(Kevin went trick-or-treating and spent the night with a friend, so I didn't get any pics of him in his werewolf costume.)