Halloween stuff.

Sunday was the annual Monster March, which starts just a few blocks from our house. I didn't get any pictures of the main parade, but here are Spiderman and Optimus Prime milling around on the sidelines.



The Monster March was bigger than we expected.



An hour later I went to the store (on the parade route), and there were still folks walking back from the parade.

Halloween! This year I couldn't bear to give away candy. So I hit Party City and picked up all manner of favors: bouncy balls, bubbles, temporary tattoos, clappers, bookmarks, and three different scary rings. The kids had been crazy curious about them, so I let the kids go through the treat box and pick out some toys. These I set aside and explained that they could trade their trick-or-treat candy for the toys.



Yesterday was a full-on assault of alternative grocery stores in my area. The goal: ingredients to make mostly-paleo almond butter cups. Vanilla for me, chocolate for everyone else. I really only needed coconut cream concentrate and something to make the cups in--the recipe suggested a mini-muffin tin and paper liners. I went to New Seasons, Trader Joe's, and Whole Foods, only to not find the coconut stuff. I chose what I thought would be closest--coconut manna--and set out to find a mini-muffin tin. No luck! But at Kitchen Kaboodle, they had a muffin tin AND these adorable silicon muffin cups. They stand up on their own, and no need for a liner. Plus they take up less room than a muffin tin! First you make the candy mixture and coat the bottom of the cups, like so:



Then you wish you had gotten coconut butter instead of coconut manna, because the candy mixture is all clumpy.



Then you pop them into the freezer to harden. Then you add the filling and spoon the (warmed) candy mixture over the top. Also, you forget to take pictures because your kids are helping and you don't want them to spill the candy mixture everywhere. Oops! Then you carefully put them back into the freezer to harden again. The cups, not the kids.  The cups taste awesome and weren't that hard to make. Also, they don't require traveling to five stores every time you make them, just the first time. I am not a food photographer, especially with my pocket-sized point-and-shoot. Which dried out and works again, by the way. Hooray! There are speckles in the picture because the cups had just come out of the freezer.



The kids got to eat one each, and I didn't get pictures but there was chocolate everywhere. Then dinner and on to the evening's festivities! I never got any photos after this.  This year Stu took the kids out and I stayed home for the trick-or-treaters.  Something about Stu not wanting to give away non-candy items.



Anyway. The kids came home with candy loot. Stu and I carefully went through the candy, separating out the stuff we would allow them to eat. Then we let them pick three things from the "OK" pile to keep. The non-chosen of the candy? They traded it in for the toys. After that, I bought the candy from them, including the peanutty and milky stuff. We were supposed to go to Party City today so they could buy stuff with their Halloween money. But the kids were playing with the new toys last night and this morning, and didn't want to go out today. We'll try again tomorrow!