Potty Training and Halloween

This Halloween weekend I spent with grandkids... the littler ones, ages 1-4. The weekend ended on Halloween and Trick or Treating in Edmonds,WA.

My daughter, who was anxious to show off the cute chicken outfits she had made was in a hurry to get on with the festivities. I think she is a big kid at heart! She told her neighbors a few weeks before, they would have to wait to see the costumes, she wasn't giving up the secret. The plan was, we would rob all of Edmonds of it's candy, then hit her neighborhood in Redmond.

Our first Trick or Treating was with her brother and family in Downtown Edmonds, WA. It was great! Or at least I enjoyed it. We were 3 Funky Chickens Trick or Treating with 4 Dashing Pirates! Yours truly, was one of the Chickens.

All the streets were blocked off and music blared through loudspeakers in the town proper with songs like Monster Mash! As 3 Funky bright colored chickens, our progress was definitely slowed by the Paparazzi swarming us for photos and navigating through crowds with our bright orange, ackward chicken feet. The Dashing Pirates were making much better progress!

Ah, but I haven't forgotten about the Potty Training....be patient now. Time was ticking and the kids were wearing out. The 3 Funky Chickens still had to rob the neighbors in Redmond of their candy! After doing a thorough job in Edmonds, the chickens said goodbye to the Pirate Cousins and made a hasty retreat, by way of McDonald's...where they ran into the Pirate cousins again! This proves all great Cousin minds think alike!

 Off to Redmond, the chickens flew, a car full of colorful birds...and giant chicken feet, too! As luck would have it, when you are often in a hurry...something leaps out of nowhere and slows you down! Remember, I promised you Potty Training? From the littlest chicken Avery, all strapped in the back seat...comes that old familiar call! "Mommy, I have to go Potty, right now!"

Mommy chicken says, "Remember I put you in a diaper...just in case. "You can go in the diaper, it's ok."
Little chicken says in a distressed voice, "No, Mommy...I have to use the Potty!'

Juggling food and a stirring wheel with her wings, Mommy chicken pulls into a deserted parking lot behind a 76 gas station. She takes baby chicken out of his carseat, wrestles with getting his pants down around his bright orange chicken feet and calmly says, "Ok, little chicken pee on the tire."

Baby chicken is beside himself with distress and yells, "Mommy, I have to go on the Potty!" At wits end, Mommy chicken puts baby chicken back in the car and pulls up around the corner to the gas station! Nana Chicken, in the passenger seat, is laughing uncontrollably by this time! So uncontrollably, she might have to use the Potty!

Finally, with Baby Chicken safely back in his carseat and properly Pottied, Mommy chicken removes her feathers and drives to Redmond looking more like a plucked chicken!

This story actually has several morals to it:

Never put a trained chicken in a diaper and expect him to use it!

Mommy chickens often have their feathers ruffled when dealing with their children, but should never take their feathers off!

Or

Nana Chickens know that these moments are the precious memories that make raising youngins so worth while!

P.S. News has it that Redmond was robbed of it's candy by a small flock of chickens on Halloween and the old one was cackling hysterically...all the way home!