The Candy Caper

While our kids didn’t go Trick-or-Treating, they did get to go to some amazing Harvest parties at different churches. They got to dress up and came home with loads of candy.

I stuck to the rule I grew up with. They each picked out a few favorites to keep, then it all went into one big family bowl. They were allowed to pick out one item, once a day until it was gone. This method really cuts down on fighting over who got more candy. I know it’s not easy for the kids. I still remember the heart break of having to hand over all my loot as a child. Jer and I had a couple fails in gathering the candy. Things happen if you don’t move it to the family bowl quickly enough. One evening we didn’t even make it home. I had just given birth our fifth child, Ike. He was born about a week before Halloween, but we piled into our minivan and headed for the Harvest party. I mostly sat with our infant, while Jer and the kids ran around to the different stations where they played games, bounced in houses and all kind of fun stuff. As we left, volunteers handout tightly wrapped bags of candy.

The kids were beyond excited. I told them they needed to wait until we got home to have a piece. It wasn’t like they hadn’t been eating sweets all evening and it was past their bedtime. Not a great mix for kids but hey, us parents bite the bullet for days like these, right? Our two-year old, Abe, almost had a melt down when I went to take his stash as we prepared to leave. I caved and let him hold it. It was so tightly wrapped he couldn’t possibly get into it, could he? We had about a twenty-five minute drive home. Quietly, his greedy little fingers must have worked hard, because by the time we got home, not only had he gotten into it, he had eaten every single piece that was so generously supplied to him. I almost didn’t believe it. How could he have possibly gotten into it? How could he possibly have eaten it ALL? I asked the other kids where it went, thinking maybe one of his siblings took it. The all raised their bags, with innocent eyes, to show me they only had their own. I knew they were telling the truth when Abe walked in the house and down to the end of the hall and promptly emptied the contents of his sugar-filled stomach onto my carpet. So much more fun to eat a piece a day and make the holiday last for several weeks, don’t you think?