BOO

We could not have asked for better weather this year for "Beggar's Night," that peculiar central Iowa habit of trick-or-treating the day before Halloween. At least we in Ames don't have to tell a silly joke before obtaining the candy as they do in Des Moines. I really don't get that...enlighten me if anyone out there knows how that one got started.
Last year it was thirty degrees out and Michael's nose was so cold, even with a winter coat and mittens on, that our neighbor's thought he was a clown with an artificially red nose. And I promise we only took him around our little circle street. This year it was a balmy sixty degrees...btw, my poor laptop is so broken that the numbers don't usually work...Santa, help help help...anyway, Christopher didn't even have to wear a coat over his thin Batman outfit. Thanks to Pauline for finding him a great costume. Oh yeah, no exclamation point either. I cannot LIVE without an exclamation point on my computer, ARG.
I love how the picture of the ghoul--possibly our neighbor, possibly someone/thing more sinister--turned out. Christopher went up to "it" the first time thinking it was a statue, so he lifted its hand up and let it plop down. The second time he did it the ghoul made scary noises, and I wished I had a videocamera to have recorded C's poor, surprised, happily scared face. By the time I ran home and got the camera and the boys came back to the house, C wouldn't come close enough to touch the ghoul for a picture. But his reflection is in their shiny door, way cool. I wouldn't sing my praises if I'd actually planned it that way, lol.
Michael totally "got" trick-or-treating and was basically trotting around the neighborhood waiting for us to catch up. He did need help ringing doorbells, but covered the trick-or-treat and thank you parts all by himself.