trick-or-treating, the lazy way

the hub is fortunate enough to work in a very kid-friendly office. visits from employee offspring are regular and welcome occurrences - probably because the environment is not one that requires silence. in fact, on a regular day, the building is abuzz with noise - between regular discussions amongst the cube dwellers and enthusiastic telephone conversations, they're often louder than when kids are in the mix. heh.

last week, they opened the doors to welcome all the little ones to come for their annual "trick-or-treat the cubes." i got the bean all gussied up in her minnie mouse costume (sans headband/ears, which she flatly refused to wear) and we trucked our happy asses out to BFE to visit daddy at work.

she was instantly transfixed by the halloween decorations that adorned the cubicle walls and had fun sitting at her daddy's desk, looking at the framed pictures and twirling around in the swivel chair.

that two-year-old ADD kicked in quick, though, and soon she was wandering the aisles, with the hub proudly showing her off to his fellow cubedwellers. she stopped to pluck a lollipop out of an unsupervised bag of goodies, and i giggled at the sign.

"pop!" she said. "mommy. help?"

not really wanting her to walk around the joint with a lollipop in her mouth, we distracted her by pointing to other kids and ushering her to the next cube, where this caught my eye:

she had a great time picking through the box, trying to choose one, and settled on a purple one. mmm, grape - mommy's favorite! heh.

at this age, non-candy items are still cool. especially when adorned with one of your favorite characters.

these "pawpints" led her to even more treats offered by smiling staff members.

some of them made up cute little goody bags, complete with eyeball-shaped containers of bubbles.

back at daddy's cube, she finally got a taste of that lollipop.

i always smirk at this picture, which is one of his favorites of me. i'm such a klutz. and really bad at snowboarding.

meanwhile, the bean had moved on to a bag of m&ms. she was having quite a field day, because despite my own addiction to sugary confections, i've tried really hard to keep her from learning of their very existence. ha! i knew it was only a matter of time. hopefully she didn't get my out-of-control sweet tooth.

look, she found a twin! with her costume having been readily available at the disney store, i was actually surprised that there weren't more of them. and check out these super girly-girls - they were totally comparing dresses and shoes. it was hilarious.

upstairs, there were cupcakes and juice - as if the trick-or-treaters weren't already all sugared up. get 'em all riled up and then send 'em home with their parents to bounce off the walls. i got your number.

luckily, when it comes to this stuff, the bean is satiated with just a few bites. especially when there's so much to see and do.

that's all, folks. when the shoes came off, we knew it was time to get out of there and head home.

and then our actual halloween was pretty low-key. living in a gated apartment complex limits the trick-or-treaters quite sufficiently, and we didn't even have to buy any candy to give out. most kids either head to shopping centers, the park, or the super nice neighborhoods in the northern part of town. the teen was out trick-or-treating with BFF and friends and then headed to the movie theater to see paranormal activity.

so, left to our own devices, we picked up some dinner at san sei, flipped through the channels and read books to the bean, who passed out for the night pretty early. i was amused at us being total halloween scrooges (boo, humbug! as my friend quirky said), but i know this'll probably be the last year we can get away with it.

next year! we'll be more festive next year. i guess.