Every year, my kids have always stuck together on Halloween. They'll pick a different section of the neighborhood to go through, or one year we were in a totally different neighborhood (my niece was born on Oct 31 and had a big party that year), but they always stuck together.
As they got older, I expected them to start doing other things. One would go off to a party instead, ext. But so far they always stuck together. Until this year. My oldest got invited to hang out with his friends in a different part of town. Didn't know if it was a party, but from watching him on the map it looks like he went candy hunting. My second born had a similar invite with friends in a different part of town, but left with them in the morning. Daytime party, evening candy run. My thirdborn had a friend come to our place, and they did a (very successful) candy run. I'm convinced they min/maxxed the neighborhood because they were out as long as my daughter and returned with a dragons horde of sugary treats. Then my daughter was invited to her friends house, which I walked her over and they went Trick-or-Treating in that part of the neighborhood.
My wife and I actually just stayed home and gave out candy.
So I expected the kids to gradually disperse over the years, but it happened all at once.
Meanwhile, my brother and his wife moved into my late grandfathers house next door. That house has, to my knowledge, never participated in Halloween festivities. So the pumpkins they set out on the front steps were far above any other decorations placed over the lifetime of the house. They had a handful of (very polite) kids hike down the very long driveway and it just made their day. Meanwhile my wife's physical presence in her light-up witch hat made it obvious that there was candy to be had on the street, so any kids that would otherwise pass by actually made their way up the road this year.
It's like everything changed all at once.
