Beggar's Night 2014

So, in Des Moines, kids don't trick-or-treat on Halloween. They trick-or-treat on Beggar's Night, which is usually the night before Halloween! Plus, kids don't get candy simply for saying trick-or-treat. They are expected to tell a joke to get candy. Kids go door-to-door, and when they say, "Trick or treat!" the neighbors ask, "Do you have a joke for me?"

Oliver and I went through some possible jokes online. He liked two. One is "What do witches put in their hair? SCARE spray!" The other was, "What do ghosts eat for dessert? I SCREAM!" I also read a few others to him, one of which he remembered and retold to some neighbors but a bit incorrectly. The joked asked, "What do ghosts drink at breakfast? Coffee with sugar and SCREAM." Oliver would ask some neighbors, "What do ghosts drink at breakfast? Ice cream with sugar." Hehe. It was really cute! At our house, he heard a kid tell a joke about a spider liking to use the computer because he could browse the web, and Oliver told that joke to a lot of neighbors, too. He kept rotating his four jokes, which I thought was super cute!

Joanna had the time of her life trick-or-treating. Her happiest moment came when we walked up to a house, and a lady answered the door with a bowl full of packages of crackers. One of them were Angry Birds graham crackers. Jo was so excited, but she's also very shy. She closed her eyes and buried her face in her hands. I wasn't sure what was wrong, so I bent down to her level. She whispered to me, "Angry Birds crackers." It was adorable. She held them proudly in her hand until we got home, and then she gobbled them up.

Here are some pictures of the kids on their big night out. Oliver was Lord Business, and Jo got to be a warm monster, thanks to a neighbor who gave us a really cool hand-me-down costume!

Trick or Treat 2013!

Weeks ago, Oliver told me he wanted to be a washing machine for Halloween. I love a challenge! Joanna was nominated to be the dryer.

I knew I'd make the costumes out of boxes, but I went online for more ideas. There were a few photos of people dressed as washers & dryers, but no info on how to make them. From the photos, I took away the idea of covering the kids in clothes. In the end, I needed two boxes, a roll of wrapping paper (any kind, as long as the back is plain white), tape, modelling clay, a Sharpie, some plastic pie or round cake covers, glue, blue food coloring, miscellaneous small boxes/bottles, dryer sheets, ribbon, and clothes.

Andrew brought home two boxes from work. They were Starbucks boxes from the coffee they provide in the break room. They were the perfect size for our kids. The smaller the person, the smaller the box! I pulled open one flap on top to serve as the panel for the appliances. I completely cut off the bottom of the box, and then I cut a hole out of the top of each. I took random leftover wrapping paper and wrapped the appliances inside-out. Double-sided tape helped keep things looking nice.

I couldn't find any extra knobs at hardware stores and craft stores, so I finally made my own out of modelling clay. It took about 5 minutes to make the knobs at 15 minutes to bake them, so it really wasn't that hard nor time consuming. I used a Sharpie to write in details for the dials, like "hot, warm, cold." Other than the modelling clay and ribbon, the only thing I had to go out and buy were the plastic pie covers. The kind I got had a plastic bottom and top that locked together. I stuck clothes in one and hot-glued it to the front of the "dryer." For the washer, I mixed Elmer's glue and a drop of blue food coloring. I poured it into one of the pie covers about halfway up. I poured some glue on top of that to look like foam, but it dried mostly clear.

I purchased ribbon from the discount section of Michael's. I got some for $1! I poked 4 holes in the top of each costume around the opening, kind of like the corners of a square. I took the end of a ribbon and poked it through the top of one hole and knotted it a couple of times on the bottom. I strung the ribbon across diagonally to another corner hole, cut the ribbon to size (Oliver had to stand in his so I could measure it to fit), and then I stuck it in the hole and knotted it. I repeated it again the other way, so each costume had two pieces of ribbon that formed an X. Their body went into the front of the X, and each arm went through a side of the X.

If the costumes had been for adults, I could have gotten away with using a regular dryer-sheet box. Our costumes were small, so one wouldn't fit. I dug around for a random box that I could use (I ended up using a Tobasco box cut down to size). I printed out a Bounce logo on printer paper and wrapped it around the box. I stuck a dryer sheet coming out of it. Oliver had a random bottle for some toy, and I put a Tide logo on it. I hot-glued the items to the washer & dryer and called it good!

The weather forecast was cold, so the kids needed hats. I decided to loosely sew on some undies and socks to their hats. I also sewed a dryer sheet onto Jo's hat. It looked so funny and cute! I decided that Oliver needed something extra on his hat, too, so I sewed on some cotton balls to look like soap bubbles. My mom tinted some blue (using just a little blue food dye in a ziploc bag).

Here are the kids in their finished costumes, ready to trick-or-treat!

I thought Jo would hate wearing her costume, but she loved it! She toddled off from house to house, gathering candy. She probably walked a full quarter mile by herself!

They are so funny.

Oliver had the time of his life. He loved his costume, and he also loved everything about trick-or-treating. He enjoyed ringing the doorbells and saying trick-or-treat and, of course, getting candy. He couldn't stop smiling!

The best part is that Oliver could use them as toys when we got home! I cut the ribbon off and let him go to town.

Nursing Home Trick-or-Treat

Colleen came with the kids and me to go trick-or-treating at a nearby nursing home with MOMS Club. The residents were happy to see all the kids in their costumes, and the kids were excited to trick-or-treat! Oliver went around the room with Colleen and trick-or-treated with everyone. He was a little ham and just had the best time. Joanna liked the candy and trick-or-treating, but she wasn't sure what to make of the residents at the nursing home. She started to cry a couple of times, so we ended up hanging back quite a bit.

After trick-or-treating, Colleen treated us to lunch and then took us to Gigi's Cupcakes as a special birthday surprise for Oliver. We each got a Halloween cupcake! Joanna got a red velvet mummy. See her hand in this next photo? That's her pulling the cupcake down. The moment after this photo was taken, it landed with a big splat on the floor.

I got a wedding cake skeleton. It was the perfect cupcake.

Grandma Colleen got a chocolate chip monster cupcake, and Oliver ended up with some sort of chocolate werewolf. The cupcakes look fantastic, and they tasted just as good as they look!

It was a day of sweets for the birthday boy. Earlier in the day, he got monkey pancakes for breakfast. Pancakes, trick-or-treating, cupcakes... and now tomorrow is Halloween! Well, I suppose it's OK to go overboard once a year, right?!

Trick or Treat 2012

It's official! Oliver is pumped for holidays. I've never been happier. Oliver wanted to run house to house. He was too short to ring most of the bells in the neighborhood, but he didn't need our help for anything else. He ran up to homes, yelled, "Trick or Treat!" got some candy, and then said thanks as he ran away. He'd then tell us, "OK! More houses!" He loved it.

Our neighbor was nice enough to take a picture of our whole family. It was one of the first stops, so Oliver still had his hat on. Oliver's the firefighter, Jo's the fire dog, and I'm Hermione. Andrew was the official hat and bag holder.

Oliver in action:

Some of the homes let Joanna pick a piece of candy from their bowls. She held onto a chocolate bar all night.

When we got home, I sat on the stoop with Oliver, and we handed out candy. I told him that everyone else was dressed in costume, too. First, it was our turn to go trick-or-treating, and now it's their turn. He totally understood. Whenever a kid came up to our stoop, he wouldn't give them candy if they didn't first say, "Trick or Treat." He'd actually tell them, "You have to say, 'Trick or Treat.'" So cute.

I hope your family had a fun and safe Halloween, too. Trick or Treat!

Kids Say the Darnedest Things: Halloween Edition

The kids and I went to a nursing home with MOMS Club today to do some trick-or-treating from the memory patients (those with dementia and Alzheimer's and such). I dressed Oliver up as a fireman, and we practiced saying, "Trick or treat!" before we left.

It went pretty well. Most of the elderly people were sweet and overjoyed to see the kids. One insisted on eating her candy herself, and another just pretended to put candy into the kids' baskets. The kids were all great! None of them got upset when one of the candy givers was a little slow or confused. Oliver, who is normally painfully shy around others, got very confident in the presence of candy. He walked up to each person there and said, "Trick or treat!" It was a fun morning out.

Well, we're back home now, and the kids are playing together. Jo sometimes shrieks at Oliver if he doesn't let her play with the toy she wants. Oliver keeps scolding her by saying, "Hey! Be nice to the fireman!"

Here are some pictures from our day out.
Joanna was pretty miffed about wearing the hat part of her dog costume (she was the fire dog).

Oliver wasn't very happy about dressing up until I showed him old photos of himself on the fire truck at the children's museum. I think the promise of candy helped, too. Yes, he learned what candy is today.

Here's my trick-or-treat-er in action!

Another little girl, Claire, who is about Jo's age was very interested in handing out her candy to everyone else. Jo was very interested in taking it. Here she is checking out her lollipop.

All the kids!

Sewing Project: Candy Corn Trick-or-Treat Bags

I am not the best seamstress. I need my mom's help with almost everything I make with the sewing machine, since I just don't sew that often. There was an easy sewing project on Pinterest, and so I decided to give it a go. It was simple, and I was able to do the entire thing myself (minus a question to my mom about threading the sewing machine). If you're just learning to sew, this project is a good one to work at!

You can get the free pattern and tutorial here on The Purl Bee's website.  The pattern is for three bags, so make some for your kid and your neighbor's! They aren't all that large, so they're perfect for little children.

Trick-or-Treat!

After dinner, we put Oliver in his costume. Aunt Julie had asked if she could send another costume this year, and we said yes. We reserved it until today. Oliver went trick-or-treating as a dragon! At first, he was really ticked about getting dressed up.

Outside, our crabby dragon refused to walk anywhere. Andrew carried him to the end of the block, and then he had a discussion with our little man. The promise of ringing doorbells finally convinced Oliver to give the whole trick-or-treat thing a chance.

It was a smashing success! The woman at the first house put some prizes in Oliver's pumpkin, and he was sold. From that moment on, nothing could get between him and all of the doors on the block. He just wanted to ring doorbells and hold out his bucket. He wasn't able to say, "Trick or treat," but he was very willing to say, "Please!" Twice, the homeowner took too long to give Oliver his treats, so he just reached in and helped himself. Slightly embarrassing, yes?

Here are a whole mess of photos of Oliver in all of his trick-or-treat glory:

We got to the end of the block, where we'd planned on stopping. Oliver was eager to push forward. Andrew and I decided to enjoy going to a few more houses with our little dragon.

We told Oliver when we were going up to the last house. A middle-aged woman burst out of her home and ran up to us. She explained that she heard us tell him it was the last house, but she just had to see the adorable "dinosaur." She then dropped a whole handful of candy into Oliver's pumpkin.

Oliver knew we were done for the night. He didn't throw a tantrum or even fuss, but he refused to walk home himself. Andrew carried him the block and a half home.

I took a picture of Oliver's loot. This was actually taken after I picked through it and removed all of the unappealing candy (like Smarties and Sour Patch Kids), which, I admit, I put in our bowl to give out to other trick-or-treaters. Can you believe Oliver got all of this candy in a block and a half?! These people were just dumping their candy into his pumpkin. Insane.

Oliver never actually knew what he got from each house. He just loved the receiving of the mystery items. Once we were home and had Oliver changed into more comfortable clothes, I gave him a single Kit Kat to enjoy. As if the kid needed any more thrills. He thought it was the greatest thing ever, and, unlike last year, there were no vomiting episodes after the candy indulgence. Here I am with my favorite toddler as he enjoys his special Halloween treat:

We ended up with so many trick-or-treaters this year that we actually ended up giving out all of the candy Oliver had acquired on top of all the candy we'd purchased for tonight (Reese's, Butterfingers, Crunch bars, and Hershey's). Andrew had to make an emergency run to Walgreen's, and I had to turn off the porch light for about fifteen minutes because I just didn't have anything to give the kids. He came back with a boatload of goodies. It's the end of the night, trick-or-treating hours are over, and we're now sitting on two bags of Reese's. Can you guess what I'm eating right now?