Enchanted Bitterness

The first trick or treating outing for our family was so many things but mostly ridiculous. Start with the weather - 22 degrees and dark at around 4:30.
Add the get up - The Cinderella costume was not so well thought out. All I was concerned about was the layering and Sylvie ended up with a turtleneck, a down vest and two white sweaters on the top and track pants and sneakers on the bottom. She could barely move her arms and was constantly tripping on the skirt/pant/shoe combo.
Then, add the wig which was technically a Sleeping Beauty wig and, had I tried it on before we actually were walking out the door, I would have shorn to a more manageable size. It had to be held to her poor little head with at least 10 bobby pins. The first time you experience bobby pins should not be to hold on a 12 pound wig to your three year old head.
Mix in the totally illogical idea of ringing doorbells, saying a new phrase and collecting candy in a bag to be eaten later. WHAT?!?
Sylvie, Max and Gracie - three three year olds on their first Halloween. As we were leaving the house, another group of trick or treaters showed up with a Dad dressed in a HUGE bull costume that literally had a battery powered airblower. His bull head was close to 8 feet tall. This freaked everyone else out. A few steps past our house, our neighbor was having a haunted garage. Gracie was so freaked out by the bull that she wanted to be carried, Sylvie was so psyched to be Cinderella outside that she ran and did twirls down the street while Max headed straight for the haunted garage. We were already split up.
Did I mention that we had two dressed up babies in adorable costumes TOTALLY covered by the snuglis that they had to wear in order to make the 3 block trek. All you could see of them was two sets of eyes, some random fur and a couple pacis.
Our neighborhood had sparsely Halloween friendly houses which made the trek even longer. At every house, one or the other kid tried to make their way past the candy into the warm, well lit house of a stranger. "I wanna go to go home" started after one block. At one house, we rang the doorbell and were greeted by a pre-recorded THUNDERCLAP which literally made ALL of us jump and, as the three sets of parents shook their heads in disbelief, the three children turned to run down the 20 steps. Don't try to run down 20 steps in a costume, especially not a ball length gown or a unicorn rider get up.
Back to the candy. It wasn't worth it. Every bowl of mixed treats that was presented to the three year olds was so mind-boggling it took 5 minutes of encouragement and rule presentation to get to the turn-around: "say trick or treat!" "only take one!" "say thankyou!" "put it in the bag!" "say thankyou!" "let's go!" "don't go in the house!" "do you want m&ms or skittles?" WHAT!?!
Put it this way, at each house, Sylvie grabbed at least two pieces of whatever she could, tightened her fist around them, hugged them into her chest and said "I am going to hide this from you and eat it right now" The whole time continuum was busted.
I made the mistake of planning dinner AFTER the trick or treating so I kept saying "You can have candy after you eat some macaroni and cheese and hamburger" Please.
Best part: There is an entire bag of candy on top of the fridge that Sylvie has totally forgotten about. I don't even think she thought about it for one second after leaving the last house. It never existed.