the last trick or treater

I have found that I am not the saddest about the first change to happen. I am saddest about the impending last. Today, that meant the last kid in our house left to go trick or treating. (Geez, wasn't it just yesterday they all went out together? Nope, that was 2009. Terzo was five. Secondo's costume from that year is still my all-time favorite.)

At the moment, Terzo is the last kid in our house, period, because Primo didn't come home for fall break (football) and Secondo is still in Kentucky (FFA).

For the first time in his life, he had no one to go trick or treating with. Living in the middle of nowhere on a farm means that you can't just join up with the local gang and make the rounds. You are dependent on friends inviting you to their neighborhood, or agreeing to go into town with you. But when most of your friends are all invited to a party and you are not, that presents quite a problem.

I am not too proud to admit that I spent the morning scrambling to find a place for him. Halloween cannot be a heartbreak holiday.

Thank goodness for different friends and a kind mother, who took him in for the evening. He had a blast in their neighborhood, playing manhunt and bagging over seven pounds of candy (he weighed it as soon as we got back). And the Great Pumpkin had paid a visit while we were out! That is one tradition I am so grateful still continues, and so was he.

Just so a little bit still stays the same.