Beggers Night-Oct. 30

Last night was Begger's Night.  Now those of you not from Central Iowa this is something that the Des Moines Area does, you go Trick or Treating the night before Halloween.  Why?  Well clear back in 1938 the Des Moines Police Department answered a record of 550 calls of vandalism.  In short, a community group suggested trick or treating the night before and kids were to go around telling a joke to get a treat.  So if in the Des Moines Area for trick or treating be ready to tell you joke on October 30! 
For me I was surprised by all of this.  You would think growing up only an hour from Des Moines we would have heard of this.  But in Creston we trick or treated on Halloween (most of the time) and didn't have to tell jokes!  When Randy told me about having to tell jokes, I thought he was crazy and he looked at me like I was insane because I had never heard of this.  At that point, several years ago I did some research on it and it is mainly the Des Moines area that does the joke for a treat thing!  Kinda cute and funny, but man do the kids have a lot of pressure coming up with that perfect joke!  (ha!)  But I do think more communities are going to the joke thing because in my current research I am finding this to be a little bit more of a common thing! 

Back to Begger's Night:  Memphis had a great time!  Noah was with his mom so still no pictures of Noah all Halloweened out!  We went around Peggy and Craig's neighborhood (as we live on a busy street and just didn't want to deal with traffic).  As we were leaving, we noticed the Johnston Fire Department was having trick or treating so we stopped and Memphis got to see the fire trucks and was so close to getting to sit in the seat but the bell sounded and they had to send the truck out!  Just our luck!

Weekend Trick or Treating

This weekend a lot of places held Trick or Treating.  We didn't have Noah this weekend so he missed out (but I know his mom loves Halloween so he will get plenty of it)!
Saturday afternoon after I got done supervising ACT Tests at the high school I got Memphis from Peggy and Craig and we went to Hy-Vee to decorate a pumpkin, cookie and go around the store trick or treating!  Memphis wanted to be Mickey Mouse and when a lady at Hy-Vee asked what his name was he looked at her like, really who do I look like?  He told her so matter of factly that he was Mickey Mouse!  LOL!  I looked at the lady and said that he also goes by Memphis! 

Quick picture before we went into Hy-Vee! 

Sunday was a busy day.  Memphis went to Sunday School with Grandma or in his words, "nina."  They had breakfast and then church.  He loves going.  When he got home he took a great nap (helped that he knew he was going to get to wear his Mickey costume again)!  Once he was up we headed to Valley Junction for the Pumpkin Parade.  We didn't do all of Valley Junction just around Nancy's store and then a few blocks down.  I was hoping to get a picture of him and Nancy but she was swamped in her store so it was a quick visit!
When we got home Memphis said he wasn't feeling the best and went to lay down, the poor little guy laid down most of the night.  His cough is terrible, his nose never stops running and he was running a fever.  I am chalking it up to allergies, but am starting to wonder if it is something more (ear infection?).  He is going to doctor for sure!

Mickey just strolling along looking for candy!

Cutest Mickey I know!

Saturday October 18

This morning we all got up and headed to the legion for breakfast.  Noah got to stay and help Grandma and Papa with cleaning up and just helping out in the kitchen.  While we were there Sara, Zach and Bailey showed up.  It was so nice to see them as it had been about 4 weeks!  Memphis so badly wanted to hold Bailey but couldn't so he just sat there and looked at her and kept touching her head (he was actually pretty gentle)!

But all smiles when we get a cinnamon roll!

After we got home and rested a bit we went out and about.  We finally got some pumpkins and were able to carve our Halloween pumpkins.  This was Memphis' first time to really get to help out.  He was not so sure about putting his hands in the pumpkin to pull everything out but once I started he was good to go.  Noah of course enjoyed it!  He designed his own pumpkin and then carved it himself!  He did a good job!  Memphis of course wanted a Mickey Mouse pumpkin and Noah wanted some scary.

First one on the left is mine and Randy's, Memphis is in the middle (Mickey Mouse) and Noah's is the one on the right.

Wednesday October 15

After dinner with Grandma Bailey and Nancy for Randy's Birthday (yeah only a month later, we like to extend birthdays in our family), we headed home to do some relaxing and just hang out.  This week has been crazy as Monday I got home from working out and had the worst migraine I have had in a while and Randy and Noah had to go to Scouts.  Tuesday I was at work from 7am to 10pm helping with the Dig Pink Spike Blue Volleyball Fundraiser that National Honor Society helped with (I am NHS Sponsor, so had to be there)!
So tonight we wanted to just relax together.  Noah had his homework done so we turned on the TV and watched a movie.  Now this movie might be one of my all time favorites and I just LOVE it!  Now most of you have seen the Sandlot, I have probably seen it over a 100 times (not kidding, when I worked at daycare in college we would have the kids watch it all the time over the 4 years I worked there)!  Now my kids get to enjoy the movie!  Noah thinks it's hilarious and I hope one day Memphis will love it too! 

Enjoying the Sandlot, and cuddling with Memphis and Noah trying to figure out why I would take a picture.  Have time this weekend you might just go out and rent this movie!

Saturday October 11

This afternoon we celebrated Jaycee's 7th Birthday.  We headed down to Creston to the Pizza Ranch for dinner, cake and fun!
Memphis had so much fun playing with Riggins, Willa, and Silas (the last two are Tori's niece and nephew).  They are all about the same age so they just ran around playing and laughing!  Jaycee hung out with the older girls (Emma and Mikayla [also Tori's niece]).

My beautiful 7 year old Jaycee Mae

Frozen themed cake...like most kids totally in love with this movie!

The yahoos! 

Memphis, Willa, Jaycee, Riggins, Silas, Mikayla and Emma

Sunday October 5

Late Saturday night Memphis got a slight fever and was coughing and his nose was running non-stop.  He was up at 4am and was not about to go to sleep.  So I decided at about 4:45 that I was done with him tossing and turning and talking to me in bed (because at 4 when he got up I was hoping if he got into our bed he would fall back to sleep) and him and I got up.  I gave him some tylenol and we watched first of many Mickey Mouses.  By about 6:30am Memphis fell asleep and I took him to our room and was thinking about laying down when Noah came down stairs.  So much for sleep! 
It took all day but by the end of the night Memphis was feeling better.  While Noah and Randy went over to Peggy and Craig's for dinner Memphis and I stayed home to rest up.  We made it a McDonalds and movie night.  So we ate supper in the living room and watched Despicable Me 2.

This is what happens when you leave your phone by a 3 year old.  All taken on Sunday.  Nice surprise for me this morning when I got to work and was looking for a picture! 

Saturday October 4

Saturday was filled with me peeling, cutting and making apple sauce and freezing apple slices.  Thankfully I had two well behaved boys (not kidding, they were excellent, minus a few times of me yelling at them).  After a day of me making apple sauce and freezing apple slices I decided that we should go shopping at the mall for some jeans for Noah.  This kid has grown out of all of his jeans from last year.  Like not even close to fitting into them.  Sometime I can use them for play jeans (nope, no way we can even do that).  Noah got a couple more nice pairs of jeans and then we let Memphis play in the play area.  It was really a nice Saturday to just hang out as a family! 

My two sweet boys! 

Saturday September 27

Saturday School=Memphis going to Grandma ("Nina" this is what Memphis calls Peggy) and Grandpa's house.  While Memphis had a load of fun I was supervising 10 kids who earned themselves Saturday School.

Memphis was not ready to go when I went to get him but he decided he could go if he could take some crackers with him (well the whole box)!  We took off to go take Randy some lunch but before we could even get to the interstate those little eyes were heavy and by the time we got to our exit he was out cold!

Hard morning of playing!