The "Pumpkin King"

With Halloween quickly approaching, I've been discussing with Pete what we should do about the candy the boys will receive on Halloween, since a good majority of it will be candy that Kristjan can't eat (that's how it was last year). So we debated over buying our own "safe" candy for the boys to trade with the candy they get. But instead, we came up with a new Halloween tradition that we'll be starting this year (not sure if they've continued this or not, but I got the idea from the Brignone family. I'm pretty sure a few years back they had their kids trade in their candy for a small toy. Or maybe it was for Easter. Either way, I'm sure it was them who first came up with this idea). We explained to the boys last night at dinner that on Halloween, after we come home from all our fun, the boys can each have a few pieces of candy. The rest of it, we'll put in to a pumpkin (one of those plastic ones you take trick-or-treating) and we leave it out overnight on the table. Then, during the night while we're asleep, the "Pumpkin King" (from The Nightmare Before Christmas) will come and take all the candy and leave each boy a small toy in it's place. We told them it's like when Santa or the Easter Bunny comes. They got excited over that. Of course, the constant questions of "how does the pumpkin king come inside the house?" and "is the pumpkin king coming tonight?" were never ending. But we think this is an awesome idea and the boys will enjoy it! Now that is covered and we know where we're taking the boys for Halloween, it's time for the great "Pumpkin King" to go shopping this weekend!