oh, the cute

it's a little hard to see his costume in this picture, but river was a raver for halloween. we went to a grown-ups party last night and a kids party today, since we figured river was still too little to get much out of trick-or-treating this year.

I got this question in my comments:

Whats everyone doing for safety precautions for Halloween? [...] Last year my youngest son came down with a massive fever after Halloween. I almost thought about just taking the kids to our church's fall festival this year instead of door-to-door to prevent that from happening again. I don't know yet. What's your advice? Am I over-reacting or just being a concerned mom?

trick-or-treating seems just a tiny bit risky to me, much like playgrounds with swings and many of the best things in life. Personally I have extremely fond childhood memories of halloween, and I look forward to sharing many aspects of this wacky holiday with river as he grows up. but I guess everyone has to do what feels right for their family. In terms of safety precautions, I would make sure that kids go with a trusted adult until you're sure they know not to go into strangers' houses, and what to do if an emergency or difficult situation should arise. I don't know how true the stories you hear about poisoned candy are, but I guess it wouldn't hurt to check that the wrappers don't look tampered with, too, before anybody eats their candy.

if you're concerned about a fever, though, I'm not sure what this has to do with halloween. are you just worried about your kids compromising their immunity by getting too cold or eating too much junk? otherwise, i'm not sure how trick-or-treating and coming down with something would be related, in fact, going to a party seems like it would create a higher risk of passing bugs around. thanks for the question, though.

so what did everybody end up doing for halloween?