We started a tradition a few years back, the local kids gather at our community school and pile into a car to go trick-or-treating. We live in a very rural area so our houses are often miles apart and the kids usually manage less than a dozen homes. So we often end with a treat. This year, some incredible people created a haunted house complete with flying ghost, real sparks sizzling from a scythe sharpening fiend, and witches stirring smoking cauldrons.

Worried my little one might dissolve into tears, I came along to hold his hand. I needn’t have concerned myself. After the first go round (even though one of the kids two years older was too frightened to go again), he turned to me very seriously and said firmly, “Don’t be scared, Mom. Hold my hand tight. I’ll keep you safe.”

Yep, he knows how to make Mom melt. Yes, he got to eat as much candy as he wanted. Maybe he’s not so much brave as smart!

In the photo, you can see he is ready to karate chop any alien that dares cross his (or his mom’s) path.