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In past years we have gone to the parade and tricked/ treated around the condo but Kid was younger and dinner bath and bedtime got in the way of any serious wandering.
This year however we've taken it up a notch. He had a pumpkin patch visit in school last week and a class Halloween Party at School today. He took his Batman costume (grey tshirt, black tracks, Cape and mask - the latter two borrowed) to school and apparently had a great time doing crafting activities and eating marshmallows.
Home and a quick snack and costume change (now a train engineer) later we walked to another halloween party in our condo. Then to the poolside for the parade - two circles of the pool. Then off to trick and treat at the various people that signed up to open their apartments up. V got home in time to join forces with Kids and parents while I headed home to open doors and greet the enthusiastic trick and treaters.
Kid and I talked about decorating a few weeks ago but I left everything to the last two days. I googled and trolled Pinterest for ideas of what both of us could do together. And this is the result:
* The 3 pumpkin tea light holders cost me $6.
* I had black crepe paper and cut out the bats using a neat trick I found on Pinterest. Took me 10 minutes total.
* The spiders web you see just inside the door - from a $2 packet. We decorated it with spiders made out of pipe cleaners (made a few weeks ago as part of a rainy afternoon activity)
* The pumpkins which look like lanterns are a failed experiment to make pumpkins. I used plain coloured paper instead of card so they didn't retain their shape. Took 30 minutes to cut the strips of paper and another 30 to assemble all 8 pumpkins.
These were our treats:
* I own the basket. I lined it with a scrap of orange cloth from the linen cupboard. I bought it for a reason but it escapes me now. The sweets were Oreo cookies, smarties, M&Ms and raisins.
* Bought 90 colouring pens for $6 and asked each kid to choose 2.
* The eyeballs which have single handedly made me the Coolest Mom are styrofoam balls ($10 for 30), felt tip markers and 20 minutes while watching the news and voila! These were the most popular treat and everyone wanted one. We ran out pretty quick.
Kid had a great time even though exhaustion and hunger got the better of him a few times. Once fed he stayed home and greeted everyone with the most cheerful 'Happy Halloween to you' and sang 'trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat' on behalf of all visiting kids. Loved being the guy handing out the treats and made up rules like 'you must choose two sweets and two pens each'.
Now he has gone to sleep and we are out to dinner. Happy Halloween people!
lovely way to get the lithe guy into the Halloween spirit and yes, you are the coolest mum for putting up such exciting and spooky decor. Me? Am lazy. First few years I didn't take kiddo out at all citing work fatigue as grand excuse(hubby used to be invariably overseas at Halloween time those years) but instead actively handed out treats to visiting kids(that is coaxed kiddo to hand them out because he wanted to hoard them for himself instead!), next few years took full advantage of generous friends who took him out instead and finally this year heaved a sigh of relief that he was old enough to organize himself a group outing with his classmates with Dad as designated chauffeur(because they will cover several neighborhoods in our county) followed by boys pizza night out. me? Couldn't be happier at home with a glass of vino and book in hand:-)
ReplyDeleteHappy Halloween to you and yours.
Deepa
Deepa, your vino in hand halloween sounds fab! This wasn't much work even though it looked it. Google and Pinterest Zindabad! Mine collected plenty of candy but has no sweet tooth so lost interest in going around pretty quick - in addition to being hungry - but really got into handing treats out. I was totally shocked by his enthusiasm and 5 year young confidence with the big kids coming round. Anyway, I guess these are fleeting years and in no time he will be trick or treating with classmates and very little supervision so I'm trying desperately to hang on to these lovely, exhausting moments. Never knew I was this sentimental!
ReplyDeleteRadha
ReplyDeleteWOW 20in2005 you have outdone yourself. That looks stunning.
We went trick or treating for the first time this year and the little one enjoyed herself immensely, surprising me completely. All these years I have been lazy to take her out but seeing her enthusiasm, will have to do it again !!