Beggar's Night

Our family doesn't celebrate Halloween, so we've deleted, added and modified to find just the right way for our family to celebrate the fall time season/holiday. :) We have Farm Day, Dress Up Day, Fall Party and now, because Hannah really wanted to "Trick or Treat,"...Beggar's Night. :)

This is a tradition that Jared's brother and sister-in-law, Josh and Courtney, enjoy in Iowa. On the night before Halloween all of the little children go house to house in their costumes. They collect candies (sometimes in exchange for a joke or a song) and there is none of the scary stuff that is usually out there on Halloween night. I read about it on Courtney's blog and Jared's Mom told us about the time she got to join their family for the occasion. It sounded perfect for our little band of non trickers and non Halloweeners. :) And so, we adopted it. :)

We got little "beggars buckets," made the costumes Hannah and Ben each requested for Dress Up Day and headed out on the town....to Daddy and Grandpa's office, Aunt Emily and Uncle Aaron's house, Grandma & Grandpa's house and Great-Grandma and Grandpa's place. Hannah told her joke "What is black and white and read all over?" "A newspaper!" and they collected lots of love and lots of loot! :) Here are they photos of Beggar's Night...

At Dad & Grandpa's Office:

Hannah wanted to be a robot. And Ben wanted to be an Elephant. The lady at Jo Ann's accidently sold us embroidery backing instead of the iron on fabric stiffening stuff that we needed for the ears...so no ears in this pic and his tusks fell off. :( But he was a very cute earless, tusk-less elephant for a while.

Hannah-Bot-4 :) Her serial number, on the back, was 10302009.

That's a thermometer, hot glued on, in the middle and a stick on light on the top.

Robin giving out the candies, in exchange for Hannah's joke. :)

mmm...M&Ms

Grandpa!

At Aunt Emily and Uncle Aaron's House:

Telling Aunt Emily her joke.

(A peek at the boys' super cute, Super Mario costumes. :)

There's that Elephant! Floppy ears (no big stick out ones this year) and his "tusks." Can you see his trunk?

At Grandma & Grandpa's House:

Grandma and Hannah exchanging jokes. Grandma had quite a fun collection of Laffy Taffy jokes to share...we'll have to write some down for next year! :)

At Great-Grandma & Grandpa's:

It was fun visiting with Grandma and Grandpa. Grandma told us how her Grandma was the midwife in her home-town in Scotland and so her Grandma delivered her when she was born. And Grandma showed Hannah the little ballet slippers she used to wear when she was a girl and danced the "Highland Fling." At one point, Ben, said, "Great-Grandpa," but Grandpa didn't hear him and so Ben just kept calling his name until Grandpa answered. I don't even remember what Ben had to tell him, but it was pretty cute, him calling Grandpa's name and then having something to say when Grandpa answered. It was a sweet and cozy ending to a happy Beggar's Night.