Trick or Treat!

Beggar's Night is what they call it here in central Iowa, and it's always the night before Halloween. The girls were very excited to get their costumes on and go out after dinner. The weather was amazing! I got a great work out as I speed-walked between houses, barley keeping up with the kids as they ran from one house to the next. Ashlyn often yelled a breathless, "Hey, wait for me!" as Emma got to the door first. After about 45 minutes, we had hit all the houses within a couple blocks of us, and headed home. Then the real fun began.

The girls glued themselves to the front door, waiting for trick-or-treaters to come. The way they pressed their faces up against the glass in anticipation, you'd have thought they were waiting for Santa to come with a big bag of presents for them. I think they were almost more excited about this part than running around getting candy for themselves!


When traffic slowed down, they took turns hiding behind the door and "surprising" each other. And they made plans for how they would pop out and surprise the trick-or-treaters when they came to the door.


One of the funniest things was when Ashlyn excitedly yelled, "Happy Valentine's Day!" to one little girl who came to the house.

Emma really got into trying to "advertise" our house to kids. At the end of the evening when no more kids were coming, she still wanted to try to get any last trick-or-treater that might be out there to come to our house. She got a piece of paper and made a sign that said, "Come to our house and trick or treat. We have four suckers and two other treats. " and stuck it on the door. Unfortunately, it was a little too late and Beggar's Night was over. I told her we'd put her in charge of advertising next year.


The girls have had a great time getting dressed up in their costumes for two different church parties, a special event at Hy-Vee, trick-or-treating at the library, and Beggar's Night tonight. Tomorrow they'll get to wear their costumes one more time when we go to the nursing home to pass out some treats. Happy Halloween!