Longest Post Ever

Beggar's Night


I don't get it, but in Des Moines and the surrounding areas we trick-or-treat on Beggar's Night, the night before Halloween. We invited our friends Amy and Matt and their two older boys, Elliott and Henry, to come T-o-T with us around the neighborhood. A good time was had by most (Will wanted to give up completely when I told him he couldn't eat any candy until we got home...he wanted to eat it NOW and was ready to be done 3 houses in. He wasn't able to conclude that more T-o-Ting = more candy. We were able to keep him out a bit longer.) Beggar's Night is a bit more strict about having a joke or trick when asking for candy. We kind of forgot to teach Will a new joke this year, so he used his fallback:
Knock Knock!
(Who's there?)
Boo!
(Boo who?)
Don't cry, it's only a joke!

Although that morning he told me he was going to say:
Knock knock!
(Who's there?)
Banana!
(Banana who?)
Banana William!
(ahhhhhahahahaha!)


Will LOVES these 11-year-old twin girls who live right around the corner. He met them a couple months ago when we were at our block party and he hasn't stopped talking about them since. He and Dave go for a walk around the block almost every evening, and every evening Will asks if he can go visit "The Girls". Dave took both Will and Catie over there on Wednesday evening and they spent about a half hour at their house. They're obviously a very nice family. Anyway, the girls told Will that they had a special treat for him for Beggar's Night. They baked some (delicious!) pumpkin-decorated sugar cookies for both Will and Catie. How cute are they?



Catie was her darling self in her Catie Cat costume. Since she still lacks the vocabulary for telling jokes, we had her meow for her candy. It was way cute. People loved her. Oh, and she did have another trick...she just walked right into people's homes. Luckily it was only into a choice few and we know the people who live there.


So after T-o-Ting around the 'hood, I took Will to visit Grandpa Bud. GB called yesterday afternoon to tell me they were having a big Beggar's Night celebration at the retirement community, complete with T-o-Ting and games in the rec room. When we arrived, there were paper pumpkins taped to the floor to lead us to where we were to go. We started in the dining room where they had a bunch of ladies sitting around handing out candy. It then took us downstairs where they had a really cool setup! There were probably 7 games with prizes, one of them being bowling, which Will LOVED. Grandpa Bud was all dressed up (see above) and was doing a little fishing game.

Other Stuff


Last weekend Catie and I participated in the Race for the Cure here in Des Moines. We did it with my YUM (Young Urban Moms) group and had a lot of fun! We only did the 1-mile walk, but I think a couple of us are planning to run the 5K next year. (I now realize that perhaps it wasn't tasteful for me to be wearing a pink skull cap with a scarf around my head- I hope no one thought I was "dressing up" for the race! It was just really cold.)


We also went to a Halloween costume birthday party for Will's friend Gia last weekend. It's the only time I will dress up this year, and as you can see, I used my old standby cat costume. But I thought it was cute that Catie and I were both cats. Catie's friend Drew was there, but they have a bit of a love/hate relationship. Catie seems to tease him by calling his name, then when he gets near her she cries and whimpers. Drew doesn't know his own strength and occasionally knocks her over when trying to hug her. I captured a love moment on the stairs, though:


And finally, just a couple other cute photos from the week:



So there you have it. The longest post ever. I haven't even gotten to Catie's new favorite saying ("oh my!") or Will making ponies out of Play-Doh. Another day.