Halloween has come and gone....Success or failure? What do you do when your kids had to pee and you are in gridlock?

Ok, so now here in Las Vegas they have trick or treating in outdoor shopping areas. I never heard of this back east. There hours of trick or treating are 4-8 at the shopping areas which works out well because our neighborhood does not start until 6pm so that allows a lil time at the shops before dinner and back home.

Our first Halloween here we took Devin all dressed up as a monkey to The District over by a casino in Henderson. This is where Devin was photographed by the local newspaper and was the only kid from that event featured. We were proud first time parents to have their 4 month old in the paper already :). The major negative about this place was there were seriously long lines to wait to trick or treat at the stores. So, we decided to skip The District this year and try out Town Square which is another outdoor shopping area since Devin definitely was going to want to trick or treat.

being a kitty cat meowing while she crawled

We arrived at Town Square around 4:15 and it was packed already. The lines were 20-30 kids deep and parents where shoving their kids forward to try and cut my 1.5 year old kitty off. F off lady! You are messing with the wrong mom if you think your 8+ year old child can butt in front of my 1.5 and 3 year old children. I mean, I expected there to be a lot of children/parents from less fortunate areas since this is a safe place to trick or treat and maybe their neighborhoods are not....but that in no way means you can be rude and pushy when you are waiting for a frickin thing of sweet tarts. Ok, now that I am past that rant....Devin and Riley were photographed all over the place. Random moms and grandmoms asked for my or Frank's permission to take their picture. I do not know these people from Adam, but hell at least they asked. Frank was asking me if this is the type of attention we always get and I smiled and said yes. I tell him all the time that random people tell me how cute the kids are, but at least now he sees what I am talking about. He probably thought I was just making it up.  A guy with a media necklace also took Devin's picture but he never asked our info so I have no idea what paper he is from.

Devin was also entered into a costume contest for the center by suggestion of UNLV cheerleaders that were there. In entering the contest, he got to take a picture with two cheerleaders and it was made into a trading card. The guy running the contest told us to come back at 6 and I told him we most likely would not be in the square at 6 and he said it is highly suggested that we be there for the winners announcement (as he smiled and said he has good pull.) Devin then gave him pounds and blew it up and I think that sealed his fate because at 6 pm Devin was announced as winning funniest costume out of all the kids that entered. There were two other winners, scariest and cutest. Devin won 4 tickets to UNLV's season opener basketball game, but unfortunately we will be out of town that weekend so our across the street neighbor and his friends are going to go.

Now Town Square was a total bust as well besides the fact my kid got recognized for being awesome. Stores were out of candy by 4:45 and the lines were amazingly long for the stores that did have candy left. We walked to the car just after 6 when the contest ended. It took us 57 minutes to get out of the parking lot. Frank ended up having to go to one of the bars and get take out kids meals for our two. I wish they gave beer in take out cups because I definitely could have used one of those last night. Devin had to go potty after Frank went to get dinner and we were in gridlock traffic....I searched my car for a water bottle since I am NOTORIOUS for having a bazillion in there but none. Shit! I couldn't let him pee in the parking lot with 100s of people around. Then wait, I had a nalgene in the back seat...emptied it out and he peed into that. Thank God for my nalgene container. He told me he felt "much better" after he went and that for sure bought us a lot more time to sit and wait to get out. I just kept thinking of that scene in Dumb and Dumber when Harry and Lloyd were on their way to Apsen and peed in the beer bottle and the cop drank it. I made sure to tell Frank not to drink the nalgene when he did get back in the car. My friend Mandy also went to Town Square and it took her over an hour and half to get out of the parking lot while my other friend Tina went to The District and said it was a total success! Not sure how the trick or treating was for her there....but she said it was a breeze to get in and out. BOO!

Once we got home around 7:15, Riley went straight to bed and Devin and I walked around our immediate neighborhood for an hour. He was exhausted by then and since there were hardly any trick or treaters out, each house was giving him 2-3 pieces of whatever they gave out. He filled up his little PBK spider within 15 or so houses and we came home. He laid out all his candy and we put it in piles of like things. He went to sleep soon after that as well. They were wiped out!

I am SO glad I bought pretzel bags now. I did not want to buy candy because too many kids are fat and I do not want to contribute to keeping them fat and because I do not give our kids candy so any leftovers had to be something they are allowed to have.....we had two, yes two trick or treaters. Last year we blew through our treats we gave out and this year....two kids came! I am going to have to do a mock trick or treating with the two kids tonight so I can get some pics for Riley's photo book.