The Mom's Cheat Sheet » Halloween

What to Do With Leftover Halloween Candy – Great Ideas

admin — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:06:29 +0000

Now that Halloween is over, we are left with more than enough leftover candy. Between trick-or-treating, the Halloween preschool party, and candy from grandparents, we have quite a bit in our pantry right now. I don’t feel too bad about munching on it for a couple of days, but after a while I really need to get rid of some of that stuff. But what am I going to do with it all?

Here are some great ideas from Alpha Mom. My favorite idea is a countdown calendar with cups of candy – something that is simple to make and requires very few supplies. This way the kids are able to space out their candy and enjoy it over the next few weeks.

Check out her simple instructions and more ideas for what to do with that leftover candy – I’m pretty excited about the calendar, and I can’t wait to get started on it!

Repurposing Your Leftover Halloween Candy [alpha mom]

Print Out Halloween Projects

admin — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 09:37:07 +0000

Thanks to Parents for these great Halloween craft ideas! From Jack o’Lantern Templates to Halloween Coloring Pages, check out the link below for fun projects. Print them out for your kids, and enjoy!

Halloween Printables [Parents]

Halloween with Preschoolers

admin — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 12:40:12 +0000

My four year old is pretty excited about Halloween, and I’m not even hyping it up. We went to Costco to purchase costumes a couple of weeks ago, but other than that it’s a pretty quiet subject. Still, she sees jack-o-lanterns and other decorations when we go for walks around the neighborhood, and she notices all of the orange and black bags of candy at the grocery store. It’s hard to ignore, even if you try and keep the buzz minimal.

As much as I’m looking forward to taking my girls trick-or-treating, I’m also a bit apprehensive. With a two year old and a four year old, I’m sure we’ll encounter something at some point that may be too spooky. Maybe it’ll be another child’s costume or an enthusiastic neighbor’s decorations, so I’m doing what I can to make Halloween lighthearted. We don’t want to miss out on trick-or-treating of course, but how can we make Halloween less spooky for the little ones?

I wanted to share this post with you – I found it helpful, and I hope you do as well.

How to make Halloween fun – and not too scary – for little ones [AnnArbor.com]

Halloween Food Ideas – Spooky and Fun

admin — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 21:01:48 +0000

I’m helping out with my daughter’s preschool class’s Halloween party, so I’m brainstorming ideas right now. I was inspired by the “creepy cupcakes” in one of her books, and so I thought I’d look around for some other ideas.

While some of these are a bit on the creepy side for my four year old daughter (who would not eat anything that looks like an eyeball or a worm…), I thought these might be a good find for some of you. I know my husband’s adolescent brothers would certainly get a kick out of these!

Halloween Party Snacks and Treats for Children [Parenting]

Halloween Costumes – Could I Have Done This Differently?

admin — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:57:09 +0000

Oddly enough, the only Halloween costume I’ve ever bought for my kids was a giraffe outfit last year for my older daughter. My girls are two and four, and somehow we’ve managed to receive Halloween costumes as gifts in past years, so there hasn’t been much need to go out looking for costumes. I save and organize everything, so my plan this year was to buy one costume for my four year old, and have my two year old wear a hand-me-down.

While I was at Costco today for groceries and diapers, and I thought I’d go ahead and buy my daughter her costume before all the good ones were snatched up. I figured it would be simple enough, since she had already told me she wanted to go dressed as Tinkerbell. And since her little sister is only two, I assumed I could get away with dressing her up in the giraffe one that my older daughter wore last year. Ah, I was mistaken.

As soon as we turned our cart into the costume aisle, they were like sharks in a feeding frenzy. The first thing I realized was that my older daughter was changing her mind over and over again, no longer satisfied with Tinkerbell. (Thankfully we narrowed it down easily, and I explained that once she chose a costume, that was the final decision.) The second thing I realized is that my two year old wasn’t going to sit by idly and watch her older sister have all the fun. Before I knew it, I was spreading out several costumes for my kids to survey, as they discussed which ones were their favorites. In the end, my older daughter fell in love with Thumbelina, while my younger daughter was bouncing up and down with the Little Mermaid costume in her hands.

I drove home, wondering if I could have gone about that differently. Thankfully, Costco doesn’t charge much for costumes – but I still hadn’t planned on buying two of them. I’m may want to come up with some more creative ways to obtain Halloween costumes, or else resign myself to shelling out for the cool costumes in the stores (which I love doing, but I’m curious see if there may be other ways).

Here are 5 ideas I’ve come up with, things I may try in the future.

I could hit the clearances after Halloween, and buy two or three costumes in various sizes. In the following years, I could just pull out a bin of Halloween costumes I’ve compiled, and let my kids choose from them.
I may try to make their costumes. Even if I can’t sew, I know I could pull something together if I were creative enough. There are plenty of great ideas out there.
I could leave the kids at home with my husband next time I go shopping.. Next year, I could buy only one costume for my older daughter in a size we don’t have, but not when the kids are with me. Before Halloween I could pull out her new costume, as well as a hand-me-down for my younger daughter. If they are both surprised with a costume at the same time, my younger daughter won’t care (or notice) if her sister wore it a year or two earlier.
I could swap Halloween costumes with friends. If your friends have kids, suggest swapping costumes from previous years with them. Make it a fun fall play date, and have everyone bring their old Halloween costumes. I know we have a collection of costumes in different sizes. If several moms came together with a bunch of costumes each, there would be plenty to trade around.
If all else fails, I could raid the dress up bin. We have plenty of princess paraphernalia in our toy room, and I’m sure if I picked up some fairy wings at Target we could put together some pretty cool costumes.

What about you? How do you go about shopping for Halloween costumes? Feel free to share your ideas in the comments section below. I’m eager to hear how you other moms prepare for Halloween!

- Grace

Parent Hacks for Halloween

admin — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 20:26:18 +0000

It’s still a month away, but Halloween will be here before we know it. Need some ideas for costumes, candy, or crafts? Check out this compilation of ideas that Parent Hacks put together. My favorite idea of theirs is something that would be a great craft for my two year old daughter –

“For my daughter who is almost two, we’re not carving pumpkins this year. I’m going to cut pieces of black construction paper out in various eye, nose and mouth shapes and let her glue them onto the little pumpkins we bought. They may not look just like normal jack-o-lanterns, but they should give the idea (besides, a nose floating above your eyes is a little scary looking, isn’t it?). Of course, we also bought one of those cheapie light-up jack-o-lanterns to put out for night time, too.”

For the rest of their great ideas, check out Best of Parent Hacks: Halloween [Parent Hacks]