Halloween Happenings

Friday was the "Pumpkin Parade" at my daughter's elementary school.  The kids bring decorated pumpkins to school, display them on stage, then form a parade to view the pumpkins and show off their costumes.
Some of my favorite pumpkins:

Because we'd been in such a hurry to get to the Pumpkin Parade, my 3-year-old son missed his breakfast at home.  We had some errands to do, so we stopped to get him a kolache.  What did I get?  Black coffee and nothing else!  (Had a protein bar in my purse, so I was all set.)

Later we took the kids to Fiesta Texas (Six Flags) for Fright Fest.  It was lots of fun, and the weather was perfect!

Giant Ferris Wheel

Despite my efforts to avoid buying candy for trick-or-treaters, I freaked out at the last minute and remembered the last couple of years when they came in droves and cleared out all the candy.  My next-door neighbor even had to come over to get some more because she ran out so early.  I knew I wouldn't have enough non-candy items to give out if we had the usual army of tots.

No, this is not the extent of the non-candy items I purchased for trick-or-treaters.

I went and bought several bags of candy just before dark.  Yes, some of it was chocolate, but I was confident I could resist the lure of binge eating it by the fistful.  Mostly, however, I was excited to solve a Halloween mystery:  It DOES exist!  A candy that doesn't call my name, that is.  Kids love 'em, but these are completely safe in my presence - Sour Patch Kids.

Sour Patch Kids Candy

I'm not saying I didn't sample a little candy.  I did.  I wish I hadn't, but I did.  What I didn't do was go nuts.  I wrote down EVERYTHING I ate too.

At one point the bell rang, and I could see through the window on my door that there was a tall figure standing alone on my porch.  Here's what greeted me when I opened the door.

My (normally) perky blonde neighbor

Took me a minute to recognize her!

I haven't gotten in nearly enough exercise this week, unless you count walking the kids down the street and up the hill.  Um, probably not.  So tonight I had not one, but TWO friends asking if I wanted to go walk.  So the three of us (me, Denise and Mandy) went for a walk.  Denise has a great little trail all mapped out.  It's 3.5 miles, and it's got some nice little hills along the way.  It was still really warm, even with the sun going down.  It certainly wasn't the November evening I see in the movies.

I'm wondering how everyone did with temptations this weekend.  For those of us who were less than perfect, just turn it around now.  Go work out, plan out your day's meals, whatever works for you.  We are about to be bombarded with two full months of opportunities to mess up our healthy plans.  How will you deal with it?