Maybe you were wondering if my neighbor strung up an extremely scary, life-like mannequin to decorate his house for Halloween?? Yep, he did. Freaky!

I opted for a far less threatening, kid-friendly pumpkin arrangement on the porch

My candy strategy for the trick-or-treaters this year was to buy cheap candy I don’t like. I learned my lesson after I bought Laffy Taffy to hand out last year. Let’s just say there might have been more Laffy Taffy in my belly than in the candy bags of the trick-or-treaters…eeeeek. This year’s stash consists of:

Gummy Life Savers: Gross.

Hot Tamales: which I actually do kind of like, but can control myself around them.

100 Grand Bars: Ok these actually turned out to be delicious. So delicious that Ben is hoarding them and not handing them out tonight!

Before the trick-or-treaters arrived, we made a quick trip to Costco because we had some time to kill and…it’s Costco! Aka trick-or-treating for grown-ups!

Look at the size of this pumpkin pie – keep in mind, those are man hands. It was only $6 and was HUGE!

I purchased some Old Fashioned Oats:

And Ben picked out some red chili flakes.

Because we’re really exciting like that I also REALLY wanted one of theeeese:

but I refrained, and had copious amounts of samples and a bite of Ben’s polish sausage instead.

Well the doorbell’s a ringin’ – time to start handing out that candy! Have a great night everyone!

**Edited to add: Ben just informed me that Iowa, Ohio and parts of New England are the only places that have “Beggar’s Night” which is when trick-or-treaters come around the day before Halloween. I guess I thought that’s how everyone did it! FYI!