Halloween was a success this year even with a few costume setbacks. I picked up Charlotte’s super girl outfit at a thrift store a couple weeks ago. It was probably too small for her, but she was able to squeeze into it and didn’t complain. We thought we had a Harry Potter robe coming our way, but at 6 pm the night before Halloween, we realized we were robeless and had to scramble to come up with something. It might have been obvious in the end that Levi was wearing a hacked up fitted sheet, but with the glasses, scar, crusty old broom, and Gryffindor emblem, it worked out pretty well.
Both kids had a blast at the party at Levi’s school. In the afternoon, they went trick or treating through the businesses in downtown Corvallis. I think they each ate maybe three or four pieces of candy, which wasn’t too bad (better, in fact, than the way I was stealing and snacking on their mini chocolate bars last night). This afternoon we’re headed straight to the dentist in town who buys candy for $2/pound every year on November 1, and then the candy will be permanently out of our house.
Hope you, too, had a happy, healthy holiday!
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Great costumes! The downtown trick-or-treating is always fun and didn’t we luck out with the weather holding?
I’ve been thinking about that dentist’s candy buy-back program. We haven’t participated before although I consider doing so every year. I don’t like how much candy we have in the house, but the fact that all the bought-back candy is discarded sits poorly with me. What an incredible waste: to produce, transport, sell, purchase, and make available all of that candy… and then throw it away?? I *believe* the purchased candy was previously sent on to overseas troops but that part of the program was controversial in its own way and has been discontinued. But surely there’s a better option? I have no problem with this kind of candy in (very) small quantities as an infrequent treat, and I think the best option for our family would be to keep a few favorite pieces and donate the rest. Some people would argue that that’s simply passing the buck (hoisting an unhealthy product on to another family), but it seems the candy could be donated in a way that make available just a few pieces per recipient. Thoughts?
(I don’t mean this as a criticism of your family’s choice to participate in the candy buy-back program. As I said, I always consider it myself and to date, my husband and I have just been sneaking candy every evening so our kids don’t have to eat it all. Hardly the better option! Thanks for letting me discuss this. 🙂 )
I agree that throwing thousands of pounds of candy away is a total waste, but the excess of the entire holiday means that there’s just a tremendously large amount of candy out there, and it’s way more than anyone should be consuming. I feel like for me and my morals, the alternative would be to not participate at all, but that’s just no fun, and no one is going to notice us trying to make a statement. I’m really not into garbage, but I’m also really not into feeding my kids a ton of sugar, so I guess that just makes me a total hypocrite in the discussion. Oh well.
Just saw your response and wanted to say thanks for taking the time to further share your thoughts. I don’t think your position is hypocritical, by the way. I’d still like to figure out a way to donate/share out the candy so that smaller quantities can be enjoyed by a greater number of people; I think that would be the best option for our family. In any case, we probably need to do something different next year as we *still* have candy in the house…
Thanks again for your response.
i offer my kids to trade in their candy for new art supplies of their choosing..one went for it the ohter didnt..but in the end they agreed upon it, and with just a night or two to have a candy treat, it worked well, less junk for them and new crafts to dig into!
Sounds like a good plan!