Halloween by the numbers

the last 2 weeks on my wall calender

There are some holidays, that just never seem to end. It feels like it is celebrated over and over and over.

Halloween is one of those holidays. I can't believe all that has gone on in such a short time! So here it is, by the numbers...

5 costumes to buy/put together
4 bins full of Halloween items
12 pumpkins
1 trip to the pumpkin patch
3 dozen sugar cookies baked
2 dozen cupcakes baked and decorated

21 goody bags filled
6 coupon books purchased for free Frosty's
3 costume parades

3 class parties
8 bags of candy purchased
1 trunk or treat
1 fall festival
4 days of spooky Halloween themed lunches

countless readings of "Five Little Pumpkins" and "10 Ghosts in a Haunted House"
2 times getting boo'ed by neighbors
tons of pictures, laughs and of course...candy!

Halloween has now come and gone...and we are all suffering from a bit of sugar shock!

Halloween wrap up

Halloween has come and gone. The top of my fridge has about 20 lbs of sugar sitting on top of it.

Not even 24 hours after my kids were home from trick or treating, my husband was packing up all of the Halloween items. He doesn't let any grass grow under his feet!

As you are putting items away, don't forget to weed out!

** Look through your costumes, will they fit anyone next year? We got rid of a couple of two small costumes, a pirate hat that wouldn't fit onto anyones head...etc

**Is anything broken? Ruined? Get rid of it now.

** I also put all Halloween books & movies away for the year. The kids love opening the bins and being able to watch movies they haven't seen for a year!

** Halloween clearance is a great time to pick up costumes for next year, cake decorations, candy, party supplies...think ahead to next year to save money!

**Many items are marked as "Halloween" foods/snacks/supplies. So check out the clearance section for pretzels, Goldfish, fruit snacks, napkins, food storage bags etc.

**Pack some candy away! Put in the freezer to save for Christmas stockings, or even later for Valentines Day...and beyond!

** Send a pkg to troops overseas sharing the candy! They can always use a treat from home!

**Chop up candy and use it in cookies or brownies. Yummo!

Any other ideas for getting Halloween picked up and put away for next year?

traditions

Why yes, yes it has been a long time. But we will just skip over all that and go straight to... our family trip to the pumpkin patch!

My sweet kids at the top of the hill!

Every year, we head to a local pumpkin patch called Petes.

It has a huge hill that is insanely steep. The first time I went all the way up I thought I was going to die. Literally. I was so out of breath, shakey...the whole works. It was awful.



Yeah seriously! Totally not easy!

However, every year, my husband and kids have been to the very top. Our first year, Mason was too little and there was no way I was hauling him in a wagon. Everyone who went to the top was treated to an ice cream cone. It was hot, and the hill was steep.

hanging out at Applebees

This year we took everyone out to Applebees. Not our most frugal decision but...it is what it is, right?

My love bugs

We had a great time and I love spending time with my family. I know it sounds corny, but I do.

This Saturday we will be attending a trunk or treat through our church, another family tradition.

What are your favorite traditions? Any fun Halloween traditions? I would love to hear about it!

Halloween lunch

At the start of the school year, I am sorely lacking in creativity when it comes to do something fun in my kiddos lunches.

The only "theme" I can really think of is back to school, abc's & 123's, apples...I know kind of lame right. But holidays give me so much more to work with.

Although, there are a lot of ready made Halloween treats,such as fruit snacks or pretzels but  there are also some easy and inexpenisve alternatives.

For me, one of the easiest things to do, to make lunches a little more fun, are to use foods that are that holidays' colors. Halloween screams orange and black right? But I can also see a bit of dark purples and lime green. So here are a few things you can add to any lunch that will help make them a little more themed.

You can add these items..

Black: olives, oreos, chocolate teddy grahams (or similar), chocolate pudding

Orange: cheese cubes/slices, carrots, peaches, oranges, mandarin oranges, cantaloupe, mango, cheese crackers, orange juice, jello

Purple: grapes, egg plant, grape juice, cabbage ( I would be hard pressed to get my kids to eat egg plant or cabbage but you get the idea!)jello

Green: grapes, apples, pistachios, pistachio pudding, jello

Don't forget to add a fun napkin (either a plain color or a themed one), fun picks or other "scary" elements. You can also add orange/black plastic utensils!

At the end of the season, I go through all the holiday clearance and look for anything that I can use for the next year. Like cupcake picks, cocktail straws, napkins, plates, cups, cookie cutters...Then I store them away with my Halloween stuff and I have them for the next year!

Do you do anything fun for lunch?

spooky reads

At 7:30 every night, my two youngest boys get in my bed, with a stack of bedtime stories. We snuggle up and read & laugh.

While there are many stories that I can recite by heart, they still love story time. And as long as I can get those snuggles, I am all for it.

Over holidays, or special times of the year, I like to have special stories set aside. These actually get put away with the decorations so that they are like new every year. I also do that with movies.

So while some are favorites are MIA (missing in action) I am sure a search of my kids rooms would help me find them!

However here are some of our favorites...

** Of cours at the top of the list... It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
** 10 Timid Ghosts
** I'm not scared
** although not necessarily a Halloween book, any Scooby Doo book can work
** I Spy Halloween images
** for older kids, "gross" books also work (:

Chapter books that are spooky for older kids...
1. Harry Potter & the Sorcers Stone (witches, wizards, trolls on Halloween...)
2. R. L. Stine books
3. Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde
4. Dracula
5. Frankenstein
I am sure there are plenty more I just can't think of them right now!

So what about you? Are you reading any spooky books to your kids?

A spooky treat

a spooky layered treat

A skull and cross bones on top of a "graveyard"

Why do all projects have to include a messy kitchen?

My 2 year old is sooo not sure about Halloween.

He gets freaked out by the displays in stores, or the people who live down the street with "blood" all over their window. For the most part, he walks around saying, "onaween scahhy" with his little hands clasped together in front of him.

a very happy boy

However, my older kids are much more "brave" and are getting ready for ghosts, goblins and of course...candy.

I saw this idea in a magazine and decided to make them for the kids. Next time, I will not put them in as big of cups (: It was kind of a lot!

So this was simple & easy. The layers start with crushed oreos. Top that with vanilla pudding colored orange. Next you can add more oreos or just do a layer of cocolate pudding.

Now from here, there are a couple of options...

1.Top with a layer of crushed oreos and bones, for a graveyard look.

2.Top with crushed oreos and add gummy worms to make the look of that dirt & worms treat that we all love!

3.Top with cool whip colored orange. Add sprinkles.

4. Top with cool whip "piped on" to make a ghost shape. Add 2 mini choc. chips for eyes.

5. Top with crushed oreos, take a tall ghost shaped peep and poke a toothpick in it. Then put it into the dirt.

The ideas could go on and on... Any other ideas out there?!

Halloween snack

With only 3 ingredients (if they can really be called that!) you can make a fun, healthy Halloween snack! My kids loved it and gobbled it down. Here is what you need:

1 banana

2 choc. chips

I had mini choc. chips so I used those but you could do either!

Cut the banana in half. Place the choc. chips close together at the pointy end of the banana. Push them gently in to make "eyes" for a ghost!

See wasn't that easy? It just goes to show that you don't have to put a lot of effort into things to make them fun!

Halloween front porch

My front door with it's Velcome mat (:

Each side has 2 pumpkins and a pot of fake flowers.

(I have two of those metal signs, one on each side. My son Ethan loves the Witche's To Do List!)

Uhm yeah, thanks to the wind you can't really see my banner.I tried I swear!)

(My Happy Halloween banner was blowing around all over!)

Hmmm, so I am not sure about my Halloween front door decorations this year.

Our house is situated in kind of a funny area and so most people don't even see it.

I never keep anything the same from year to year, so I am sure it will be completely different next year!

holiday movies

(Images found through a Google search)

We are big movie watchers in this house!!

Every Friday night, our family picks a movie, makes popcorn, gets blankets, pillows and snuggles.

It is so nice at the end of a long week to have some down time.

During the different holidays, we like to buy a few more to add to our collection. However...

We put them away with the decorations!

So every year, not only are my kids excited to see decorations, but they love being able to watch some old/new favorite movies.

Last Friday, I bought a favorite from when I was little...BLACKBEARDS GHOST. The kiddos loved it!

Some of our other favorite Halloween (or "scary")movies:

**Wallace and Grommitt Curse of the WereRabbit

**It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown

**Hocus Pocus

**The Haunted Mansion

**Casper

**my daughter loves the Halloweentown series

** any Scooby Doo (:

**Alvin & The Chipmunks Halloween movies

**Garfields Halloween special

** Blackbeards Ghost

Do you have any favorite movies that you watch to get in the MOOD for Halloween?

Pumpkin Patch

I love to celebrate the different seasons with my kids. I love seeing their sweet smiles and enjoy their excited laughs!

Although CA is not the best place to experience fall, it is better than Guam was! (:

On Saturday, we headed down the freeway ( a whole 2 exits) and stopped at the Pumpkin Patch.

This was the first time my two youngest had been to a pumpkin patch (they are 5 & 15 months).

We had a great time picking out pumpkins, playing on the haystack pyramid, and enjoying time together.

What do you like to do to celebrate the season? (With or without kids!)

Halloween craft

After pulling out Halloween decorations, I realized something.

Trick or Treat buckets take up a lot of room!

I have 4 buckets plus my big candy bowl. So I decided to do something different this year.

I went to Michaels and grabbed their black $1 tote/reusable bags and some glow in the dark fabric paint.

I also got t-shirts for the kids to decorate.

They had a blast decorating their bags. I let them decorate the fronts, but I have a plan for the back. (: Before they get put back in the buckets, I am going to write the year and what costume they wore.

How fun would that be for their children to see? I don't remember anything I dressed up as...hmmm.

This was a fun, relatively inexpensive (glow in the dark paint costs more than regular fabric paint), easy craft.

Halloween

In our housing, pumpkins, spiderwebs, witches brooms, and twinkling lights are starting to appear.

We are getting all of our HALLOWEEN buckets out and the kids are having a blast looking through everything.

2/5 kids know what they would like to be this year. So I still have a lot of work to do.

Ivan spent the whole weekend in his costume!

Are you getting ready yet, or do you wait until the very end of the month?