Halloween Checklist

Top 12 things to do on Halloween:

1. Gut pumpkins.

2. Play with the gooey stuff and save the seeds for roasting.

3. Carve scary/silly faces.

4. Decorate!! These are the same dollar-store decorations I have put up since our first Halloween as a married couple.

5. Cat Bowling. (Sorry, Mom.)

6. Make a frightful dinner of ghosts, skeleton bones, eyeballs, and frogs' eggs (not pictured.) {Copied from Family Fun.}

7. Concoct a witches brew. Also serve "gutter water" a.k.a. apple cider.

8. Dessert: Dirt-covered cupcakes with worms on top. {Another Family Fun idea - do you see a theme here?}

9. The main event. Visit all the neighbors while disguised as animals, repeat the magic phrase, and voila, collect more candy than you can eat in a year.

Our neighborhood is an awesome place to be on Halloween. People drive their kids here from all around the area. Cars stream in and out all evening long. Our next-door neighbor had 270 trick-0r-treaters. It is quite a sight. The boys had a marvelous time as always. Jacob was a monkey and Isaac was a puppy. This being Grace's first Halloween that she could understand the premise, she was ecstatic. She literally ran from house to house, her little lamb bell dinging the whole way, while chanting excitedly to herself. She took front steps as quickly as her legs could manage, and held her hand out to any adult she came across. Never mind her candy bag - she wanted to hold every piece in her hands. (I've learned you can tell the age of a trick-or-treater by how many melted Hershey bars are in his/her sack by the end of the night.) Grace can't quite say "thank you" yet, but she did say "see ya" after every house.

10. Thank Grandma sincerely for joining us, increasing the fun factor, and evening out the adult-to-child ratio.

11. Half-heartedly pose for photos so Mom will let you get back to the candy pile.


12. The Great Sort and Trade.

We started a new tradition this year. I sewed a Halloween-themed pillowcase for each child, which they got to wear on their pillows for the entire month of October. On Halloween night, their pillowcases became their sacks for trick-or-treating. After the children examined/traded/reveled in their candy stashes, they each got a sandwich-sized Ziploc bag which they could stuff as full as they wanted with their favorites. The remainder of their candy went back into the pillowcases, which the children put on the front porch before going to bed. During the night, the Halloween Witch came, took the candy, and left them each a book in its place. {Idea taken from Institute parenting class.} The candy then went to the troops overseas, but don't tell the kids; they think the witch ate it.