A Midway Halloween

Halloween has been my unspoken benchmark for if we are truly on our way to settling into Midway. I figured if the kids had friends with whom to go trick-or-treating, that would be good enough for me.

We had that and so much more!

This is the first year I haven’t attended Halloween class parties and I felt such a loss as I realized despite the chaos, I really love those things. Darn middle and intermediate schools–I want elementary school again!

Hadley dressed as a zombie doll and Bode was an executioner. When Bode was at Vanderhoof Elementary, they would do a costume parade. All of his fellow kindergartners were dressed in sweet costumes like firefighters, unicorns, and princesses. Directly behind them in the line were the sixth graders whose common theme/color was zombie black and I marveled “what happens between kindergarten and sixth grade?”

This is what happened.

Bode was in an uncharacteristically bad mood before we left and didn’t want to take pictures (I later found out he hurt his foot). But really, do you want the man who is about to murder you with his ax to smile?

They call her “Doll Face.”

I was worried Halloween in Midway wouldn’t measure up to Skyline Estates. Next to the Fourth of July, Halloween is the best time to live in our old neighborhood with a party at the fire station, a fire truck-led costume parade through the streets and, of course, The Great Pumpkin.

I’m happy to report Midway is every bit as fun. We’d hoped to hit Park City’s popular Main Street celebration that afternoon (voted one of the best in the country) but I was busy moving Hadley out of my office and settling her in to her new room downstairs. My friend Sarah invited us over for dinner at 5 p.m. so the festivities were off to an early start.

On Sunday, I told Hadley she needed to find friends with whom to trick-or-treat or she’d have to go only with ME (oh, the horror) so she quick made plans with friends Zoie, Katie and Lizzie.

Old Woman Zoie and her little brother

Bode and Co. had a blast racing through the streets. We’re pretty hardcore when it comes to trick-or-treating. We’ll make small talk but we’re not in to to be social like my friend Sarah who stopped to chat–we were in it to win it!

Parents scored almost as much of the kids with various neighbors cooking up everything from fresh doughnuts with a killer warming tent to hawtdogs to a popcorn stand to hot chocolate to dozens of glazed doughnuts with a firepit to “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” on an outdoor screen to Willy Wonka commandeering a tractor-pulled wagon ride on our street.