Here are our Halloween pumpkins. Mike's is on the top, mine on the bottom.

As expected, our home was inundated with hoards of little trick or treaters. We had bought five bags of candy and thought we'd be fine, but ran out around 7:15. We started off letting kids pick out their own candy, but quickly shifted tactics when two girls who were old enough to know better picked a huge handful rather than just one. As our stockpile started dwindling, we entered panic mode and started rummaging through the house looking for forgotten candy. We found some Kit Kats and Nestle Crunch left over from Easter, a few bags of cookies in the pantry, some coconut M&Ms that we didn't get around to eating yet, and packages of gum. Hooray! Back in business! We just barely made it to the last trick or treater without running out.

Our candy predicament aside, we had a great evening. Our meal turned out well (to be blogged about later). We enjoyed our last night of "13 Nights of Halloween" watching "Nightmare Before Christmas." And we filed away several lessons learned:

1- Buy one more bag than you think you'll need.

2- Hand out treats to the kids rather than letting them pick. This lesson is based not only on the greedy girls but also on numerous indecisive five-year-olds.

3- Use apple cinnamon scented candles in your pumpkins and it makes the porch smell really nice.

4- Throw pumpkins away first thing the next morning, as pumpkin fuzziness, mushiness, and bug infestation are directly proportional to time elapsed since carving. Other option is to carve closer to Halloween.

5- Use gloves and/or a shovel to throw away pumpkins.

6- Don't store refrigerated roll dough in the pantry.