Let me start by saying that I am SOOOOOO incredibly glad that I am not in charge of organizing and putting on this event. It is A LOT of work, and like most things, you can never please everyone. And, I will say, the organization of everything was fantastic- the people who organized it did everything right.
But I am not sure we will ever attend a Trunk or Treat again.
It is tradition in our ward to have a chili pot luck. I made my wonderfully delicious chili (a recipe I got from my Grandma- how could it not be good?). Unfortunately, on the ride over, Ben took a corner too fast and some chili spilled on my wrist and burned me pretty bad. I can see the headlines now: "Pot Luck Chili Scalds Stay At Home Mom." I had to wear a cold paper towel on my wrist the whole night. The evening was not starting well.
Then, we walked into the gym, and I almost walked right back out. It was so incredibly incredibly incredibly crowded! Seriously, I think the entire town was there. I really don't like large crowds. Especially in confined spaces. And especially when there are kids that are bigger than mine running around with pretend Samurai swords, pirate swords, and guns.
There was one rule in regards to costumes: No masks. I think they should have forsaken the mask rule and forbidden fake weapons that can impale small children.
Something more along these lines, for example:
After dinner there was a carnival of sorts. This is when Claire had her complete meltdown and freak out. I had to take her to another room while she tantrumed and calmed down. She was so completely over-stimulated, it was awful. I felt bad for the poor girl.
Because there were so many people the lines for all of the carnival activities were incredibly long. Audra did fine. Claire and I went back, and once she got a package of M&M's she was fine. But I was glad when the actual trunk-or-treating started. I'm pretty sure the girls were too.
This is Claire after she got her loot. Just like last year, she wouldn't let go of her candy once she got it. So we got to deal with lots of tantrums when we got home.
I'm sure next year we will go because the kids love it so much. And I am also sure we will wonder why. I hope next year they forgo the carnival and just do dinner and the trunk-or-treat. Otherwise, it is just too much. Oh, and no AK-47's next year.
5 comments:
I find that the main problem at things like that is parents forget to be parents. They let their kids run wild and do whatever they want, when they should be making sure they aren't impaling kids with their weapons, etc. I am in the Primary Presidency now and we were in charge of ours this year, it was last Friday. I think it turned out well, but I definitely saw some kids and wondered - WHERE ARE THEIR PARENTS??? Hope your wrist feels better soon!
Trunk-or-treat is a little different here in good ol' downtown Seattle. It's a Stake activity, for one, since there are not as many kids in our wards/stake as in most areas of the church AND it is put on by the Stake Primary Presidency AND all it is is Trunk-or-Treating. And maybe donuts. That's it. No carnival, no dinner, no activity. It's kind of genius really. And since it's a Stake activity, it's huge but in about an hour and a half it's over with. We actually thought it was the greatest church activity ever last year...and such an efficient way for even little kids to get TONS of candy (for better or worse). :) What you are describing is why we avoid about 90% of ward activities.
Our ward didn't have a trunk or treat this year, which I am pretty bummed about, but I know what you mean about the "organized" chaos. It is hard to control all of those kids that are super hyper. I always question if it is worth going or not, although I wish we had one this year to go to.
We opted not to go to our Trunk or Treat this year mainly because I didn't want Spencer to get a ton of candy and I didn't want to have to buy a ton to hand out. I don't think we're missing out at all. Glad you survived! Your girl's costumes are darling (even thought the mermaid tail was a pain!)
Too cute - love your comment about the mermaid tails. You guys do a lot of fun stuff! I agree about the weapons though - although my kids tend to impale each other with unlikely things anyway.
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