Did you see more costumed kids traipsing through Maple Leaf last night or was it just in my neck of the woods? For the first time, we ran out of candy after years of only getting visits from adjacent neighbors, which makes me wonder what all of our new visitors are going to do with their bounty of sweets.

MSN Money’s SmartSpending blog has a smart idea that will keep your kids from needing extra visits to the dentist and that will give America’s overseas troops a taste of home.

Dentists across the nation, including the nearby Greenlake Kids Dentistry at 6900 E. Green Lake Drive, Suite H, are taking part in the  Halloween Candy Buyback that will trade your kids $1 per pound of candy, which then will be shipped to troops through Operation Gratitude.

Think you can convince your child to donate some of their candy to our troops?