Favorite TOT 2015

We didn't have any "scare" reactions that were exceptional BUT we did have a group of kids get extremely exited over our large-size Reese's, they were all going "all RIGHT!" and "Nice!" I loved that. That's what I always aim for, seeing that smile. <3 I love being the "good candy house."

From the opposite end - taking my kids ToTing - we got so many reactions as two Luigis (Super Mario). Amazingly, my kids were the only kids in more than an hour of walking who were Luigi and I guess having them match in outfit but not in size, with their little painted mustaches (I used eyebrow pencil, LOL), people just fell all over their double-cuteness. And my heart practically burst when my kids were the ambassadors of Halloween at practically every single house, "Thank you! Happy Halloween. See you next year!" and their sweet comments to other people, they take after me that way, complimenting people on their setups.

I got to hand out candy at the downtown trick or treat event, so no scares for the little ones. There was a vampire wearing a crown who hissed at everyone - King of the vampires! I think he was the most in character.

A set of 5 - 7 year old girls, one in a good princess costume, the other in an evil princess costume. They were both polite & excited, but the bad princess did remember to act out her part. When she saw there were skull chocolates, she switched her choice & made appropriate remarks. Then she backed away doing the redrum finger.

happiest child of the night was dressed as a banana.

Most well received treat - caramel apple pops. Next year if the shop stays in that location, I'm going to get five pounds of caramel apple pops to hand out.

least liked treat - none. The kids got every scrap of candy, and the free comics a friend had sent over. (Comics were a big hit with the older kids.)

We ran a brain wave transfer experiment with a volunteer ToT and a gorilla patient. Hubby commented that a lot of the kids sat there with the electroshock hat on with their eyes closed. I surmised maybe they thought they were going to feel some buzzing or something and were afraid what might happen to them so had their eyes closed in anticipation. Would have been fun to have added a rigged cushion to the volunteer chair that would buzz or something when triggered by us to enhance the experience.

We had probably 90 patient volunteers, great participation out of around 200, and some of the funnier reactions were when kids and parents pretended to be getting a shock and would contort their faces and bodies with the sound of the hat soundtrack. Made for great cellphone video captures on their friends' phones.

In general we asked them if they were feeling anything strange. Did they feel like they wanted a bananna? Hubby would thank them for contributing their brain waves with the gorilla and he gets smarter each time we add more human brain waves to him. Everybody laughed. A few kids and even some participants made comments like the gorilla's not going to get smarter with my friend's brain or with mine. Lots of laughs from the crowd of kids. Some said they had their brains removed by a zombie already. And one kid...man he's going to be a haunt actor one day...went through the hat experience and proceeded afterwards to drop to the ground and make noises like a gorilla, and scurried all over our patio area on his fours. Un-Real! I wanted to hire him for my haunts. He was probably 8ish I guess.

Great group of people coming through. All in costumes and boy have to say some really nice quality costumes too. Some great homemade ones too. My favorite was a young girl dressed as a character from Avatar. Great outfit, really nice face and hand makeup and perfect hair. People really seemed to have given a lot of thought into what they were this year. Lots of parents dressed up with their kids too.

I walked around with the kids, so I didn't get to see how things went at the house. Out and about there were more kids than I expected since it had spent the morning raining. Stand out costume of the year to me was a girl who was about 10-12 dressed in a homemade robo-warrior armor. It was pretty cool. I had one little adorable little girl in a princess costume ask me what I was supposed to be. She had no clue who Harley Quinn is, so she decided that I was a super-hero ballerina. That was pretty cute.

My husband said that there was a group of teenagers who came by towards the time everything was winding down that was kind of funny. He said that they took his glass of apple cider while his back was turned and downed it. He assumed they were hoping for booze, but were probably disappointed that he didn't have any in his cup for that very reason. He said that they stuck around for a few minutes and were pretty complimentary of everything and were overall what he remembers being like in high school. He also said that he had a few people come by for seconds of cider and to warm up by the fire.