Friday, October 31, 2008

HALLOWEEN



Halloween is here again tonight. They even closed the Salt Lake Temple so everyone could get home early.

Here you see a picture of Mom and Pete's Mom at Cathy's wild psychedelic Halloween party. We have had a ton of kids come by our Sherwood Drive home and empty all our candy supplies. I wanted to put the full mount male lion on the front lawn but was worried that someone might paint ball shoot it. It used to be pretty menacing when we placed it on our front lawn in Michigan.



Our kids, when growing up, were great halloweeners. We had so many children at home that it was a real event. I started to chart and plot their production; we first counted the number of pieces of candy they would bring in. Then we went to weighing the booty and the largest combined haul one year was 96 pounds of candy. No wonder they were so nuts.

They were quite brilliant and organized in their Halloweening approach in Bloomfield Hills. The homes were not so concentrated as here in Salt Lake so they made plans. A drawing of the neighborhood was mapped and strategies were organized. Al and Mary were the most efficient and had the greatest production.

They took two Halloween outfits; one they wore down the street and one they wore on the way back! At the end of the block, they put on Ghost sheets with holes cut out for the eyes and worked the same street backwards posing of course as new kids. They would get 13 pounds each and since we did not buy candy, they tried to make it last until Easter..I now find out.


Here we see a picture of Al's kids following in their mother's footsteps as they visited our home. It is a happy time for all.

Love, Dad

8 comments:

Mommymita said...

Its fun that the kids could trick or treat at your house.

We averaged about 13 lbs for all the kids combined. I think I got sick of candy as a kid because I can't even look at it now. They each ate about 5 pieces tonight. I'll let them choose one piece a day for the next week and the rest is going to Paul's work

We did do the weighing and sorting though and that is always fun

Emily said...

Joseph had 107 pieces and Caroline 67--we didn't weigh the candy this year.

Becca said...

I really liked when we used to sit and sort our candy and then trade with each-other. Then the trick was to find the best hiding spot in the house so that no one else stole your candy.

Dad Wirthlin said...

I remember ne time when there was so much fussing about the candy, I put it into one big pile much to the chagrin of the kids.

Becca was right.. they found the best place to stash their treasures.

I would always sneak the Almond Joys but pretty much stayed out of it.

Mary said...

I always gave you the Almond Joys and Mounds as a tariff. David didn't get any Almond Joys this year and only one Mounds. I thought about saving it for you. :)

Mommily said...

Dad--I remember the year you made us all combine our candy. I had gone trick or treating for 4 hours. I had collected a larger amount than I ever had in the past only to have it dumped into a combined pot when I arrived home. I think the older brothers were secretly excited because they could always find mom's hiding spot. On the positive side that probably saved me from extra cavities that year.

Cathy said...

Hey Dad! Great pictures!

Yes, Halloween was one of my favorite holidays growing up. Pete thought I was funny because I scanned and printed out the map of our ward directory and highlighted the houses that we would go to and plan the route. Phillip got 92 pieces of candy.

Maybe we should start passing out tooth brushes.

Dad Wirthlin said...

Good comment Cathy.. you arefollowing in the tradition of the "Wirthlin" kids.

One thing is that the water in Bloomfield Hills, MI, was flouridated and we had few cavities back then.

This should pick up the work of our good dentists here in Utah.