Dandelion seeds. Not what you probably want to plant but real fun watching goldfinches attact the seed heads from the air. When one piece of fluff gets away they do all kinds of acrobatics to catch the seed. Plant some zinna's and other of the plant foods recomended for your area. In my area the finches are on their nests and are less likely to visit feeders. When fledged they will sometimes come to the feeders. Watch for sparrow like birds on the ground near the feeders. The baby birds will put their wings out and shake them to get parents attention. Baby finches do not have the same coloration that mature birds do.

I had about 25; I didn't keep a strict count. It was more than last year though. Minimal decorations. I had one big carved pumpkin (he turned out kinda cute) and eight metal luminaries with happy pumpkin faces lit up on the front porch steps. I had to be extra careful and help the little ones up and down the steps between the lumanaries so they wouldn't burst into flame. LOL (Note to self...think before using open flame candles next year.) I also had a lighted full moon with cat silhouette hung in the window. After 8 p.m. the kids really slowed down and I still had two bags of unopened Hershey's miniatures. About 8:15 two 10-12 year old boys rang the doorbell. I told them it was their lucky day. Each of them got a complete, unopened, all-for-himself bag of candy. Their expressions were priceless. I got a dozen or more "Thank you; thank you; thank you!"s. I let each child take "big handfulls" of the candy. Some had such tiny hands I "helped" them with my handfulls. One little girl said "Why are you giving me all your candy?" I explained I couldn't have it in the house. I got nice "thank you"s from everyone except for one girl.

Last night I got about 150 trick or treaters. I wore Lauren's donkey costume and got called "Donkey" from Shrek, a horse...and got my picture taken by parents 6 or 7 times. LOL. My favorite trick or treater was a little girl about 3 who just kept taking handful after handful of candy from my bowl. I had to raise the bowl to the other kids because I didn't think she was going to stop. lol. Most kids only took one piece even when I said "take a couple". My least favorite kid, about 9 or 10 who asked if I could see in that (meaning my donkey head) and when I nodded he told me if I couldn't he was going to take more candy. I had older teens too. I also found one corner of my post outside knocked out onto the sidewalk this morning. It's been loose for a while but I wedged it back in there. The last half hour I still had lots of candy leftover and gave out handfuls, still had some leftover.

I really like the coco mix idea! Our lights are out on Halloween, but I put together a bag for my sprites every year. I always include non candy items like temporary tattoos, glitter gel pens, spider rings, hand painted Halo tangerines and baby pumpkins. They both love "hot" things, so I make a mix of spicy pretzels, hot nuts, hot and spicy cheez-it crackers in which I add an extra dusting of wasabi powder. Candy corn and Halloween M&Ms added to my mix make it hot and sweet! Those girls love it! (And so do the adults.) As for the sweet stuff, anything goes. They will love the hot coco mixes.