I had two moments that will stay with me for a while after last night’s Halloween festivities.

The first was Ellie (age 5) who just before leaving the house to go trick or treating squealed, “Mommy! Watch me do the skip of joy while I think about Halloween candy!”

The skip of joy was a series of whiplash inducing movements up and down our hallway. Frantic, spasmodic at times, front to back, side to side–exactly as one might expect a candy induced seizure to look. The skip of joy was such a welcome change from the earlier puddle of sadness when she heard a coat was required for leaving the house and would be covering up a large, perhaps offensive portion of Cinderella’s gown.

The second memorable moment was watching Chloe greeting kids at the door with such delight until the door actually opened and then she put her game face on and wowed the crowd with some of the best Halloween screams I’ve ever heard.

When she did finally come around, provided the group at the door was shorter than four feet combined and costumes resembled happy, barnyard animals or sprites that fly around sprinkling pixie dust I could convince her to at the very least shout some form of goodbye when they were safely twenty feet from the property line.

I would shout, “See you later alligators!” and she would follow with, “Bye Gators! Luv You!”