Last year we did some early trick or treating around the condo, but this year we stayed home.

We didn't carve pumpkins. They're crazy expensive here: like up to $130 for what we would consider a regular sized carving pumpkin in Canada. They're air flown in from North America. We also turned down real trick or treating with the neighbours, because it just didn't feel right.

I offered to do an Easter egg style candy hunt, but the girls wanted a knock on the door experience, so we did it in our house, with just our family.  Each of the 3 adults picked a bedroom to hand out candy from. The girls dressed up and knocked on our doors shouting "Trick or Treat" until we ran out of candy. I chose the bedroom with our dress up clothes and had just enough time to change outfits between knocks on my door.

Jonathan's Trick was that he chose this moment to shave off his beard and mustache for "Movember," and surprised the girls with his new face when he opened his door.

We did mostly homemade costumes like always. A friend of MsC's offered to lend her a costume, but she told her "It's more fun to make your own." She was an evil queen, and enjoyed raiding my jewelry box. We also devised a crown Halloween morning from wire and beads. MsC practiced her makeup options for weeks and insisted on doing her own.

At 3 years old Ms I was very clear she was going to be a penguin - No idea where that idea came from. I made her a paper mask and put a white circle on her black t-shirt.

MsE had a harder time deciding what to be, but settled on Mal from Disney's Descendent Movie. Mal is the daughter of Maleficent. We tried to find the right clothes at home for Mal, but MsE was not satisfied. She's a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to costumes. Instead we picked up a purple princess dress costume we saw at Toys R Us. The costume came with a crown and MsE loved it all. It's hard to tell in the picture, but I made MsE's bangs purple like Mal's by adding face white paint to her hair and then painting over it with purple eye shadow.

We all ate our fill of candy after. For a pretty simple plan, there was lots of laughing and shreeking and everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves.