A sucker born every minute

I love holidays. Doesn't matter which one. I love all of them. And I want my kids to have every chance to have fun. So when we got back into town late Tuesday afternoon, after 3 1/2 fun-filled days at Grandma and Papa's house I was really excited to find out in the Sunday paper that Kroger was having a special Halloween 8 hour special "celebration." To me, it didn't really matter that we had only been in the house for an hour and 15 minutes after several days away. If there was a fun opportunity- by golly, my family was going to participate.

The Sunday circular promised: and I quote: employees will be in costume, pumpkin carving, trick or treat lane, costume contests for the kids, doughnuts and cider and samples through out the store. That says, dress 'em up and load 'em up to me. Thankfully, after being out of town for several days, we were out of various staples (a good excuse to go to the "party" at Kroger.) As we pulled up in the parking lot, it occurred to me... what IF we are the only people in the store with dressed up kids? O already had her princess outfit on but just in case, I decided to leave Turner's pumpkin outfit in my purse and put it on in the store.

This is where you are to refer to the picture. (note the look on O's face, it says it all.) Ummm... that was the extent of our Kroger experience. Disappointing to say the least. There were a few more samples around the store than normal. And we did take advantage of the Tombstone pizzas on sale for $2.99 (limit four, so we did.) Other than that- Olivia was the ONLY kid dressed in costume. Seems like she should have won the contest, but needless to say, I was too embarassed to ask if that was still going on.

We were at the deli pretending like we were going to order something so that Steve could take advantage of the samples when another mom and daughter were actually buying something. The mom asked, "Oh, did she have trick or treating tonight?" I played if off like "Silly two year old, what are you going to do?" by shrugging my shoulders and smiling. But Steve decided to chime in by saying, "We read in the add that Kroger was having party tonight. What a let down." Boy, did that make it look like we don't get out much or what?? The other mom and I gave each other the knowing smile and she and her daughter made a kind comment about O's beautiful gown. When we got to the car I let Steve have it about needing to explain it to the other mom. His response? "E, it's Kroger! What did you think was going to happen?" And then it occurred to me... I'm still 6 years old at heart. Believing it's all going to be as good, if not better than what "they" say (whoever they are.) I guess that's why I believed in Santa until I was 11. Well, live and learn. I won't fall for that next year... but there is this REALLY cool free carnival at a local church tomorrow night...