Trick or Treating at Microsoft

What’s one nice thing about being so busy at work that you never get to take vacation time? You end up with a whole bunch at the end of the year that you have to take off... Or you lose it. And at a company like Microsoft, they aren’t going to let you lose it. Andy was so busy all year that he barely took a day of vacation. The result? He has taken one to two days off every week for the last month or so. We have had a lot of fun and gotten a lot done because of it. I will miss it when it is over!

One of the days that he took off was the day before Halloween. But we still headed into his work so that Charlie could have his first Microsoft Trick-or-Treating experience. Actually, it was my first time at the affair too. Microsoft has a facility called the Commons on Main Campus that is basically like a little mall and a big food court. It is pretty nice. This year they did it up for Halloween and all of the vendors had buckets of candy for the kids to enjoy.

We headed in around lunch time and had fun looking around. Charlie was pretty excited about the DJ they had in a little dancing section, until the DJ started talking to him. Then he got really shy. They also had some fancy pumpkin carving going on, which more interested me then it did Charlie. We got a family picture taken in front of a pirate ship, which was perfect given Charlie’s costume... Although we don’t have the print yet. They had set-up a treasure hunting place where the kids could dig in hay for gold coins that kept Charlie entertained a couple of times. And he got his face painted with a ghost.

Of course, we also ventured from store to store and let Charlie get his candy. This was good practice for the actual event. (The day before they’d gone “trick or treating” at preschool as well, so he had it down pretty well by Saturday.) After awhile I realized I was really thirsty, so we headed to one of the free drink stations so that I could get some water. Charlie was very excited to get his own chocolate milk. The kid is never happier than when he has a whole chocolate milk to himself!

We had a great time at The Commons and hopefully can go back again!