Host a Howling Good Halloween Party

Ideas for decorations, crafts, games, recipes and more 

 

Take a look at MITK on CTV Ottawa Morning where she demonstrates these great ideas

 Be sure to watch both segments of the video!  

Get your kids involved in the decorating for the party with a few of these easy tips and crafts 

1. Use a  big roll of caution tape  to criss- cross across doors that are off limits. 
2. Make signs that warn  Beware or Haunted
3. Cut monster footprints from cardboard and have them lead from party room to party room.  You can even make a path to the bathroom.
4. Make ghoulish centerpieces and ornaments from salt dough
5.   Salt Dough: Easy to roll out dough and cut shapes with cookie cutters. Salt dough crafts will   air dry in a day or two. If you need immediate results, bake them in the oven at 200    degrees Fahrenheit until they harden. Easy recipe : 2 cups all purpose flour/ 2 cups of salt/   1 cup of water. Mix with your hands until moist and smooth.
6. Go through your recycling bin and pull out different shaped bottles.  Fill them with water and food colouring to create apothecaries of poison mixtures.
7. Wrap recycled containers with Halloween themed paper or use felt to create some monster faces. Use them as a treat buckets for your popcorn and pretzel-type snacks. 
8. Make haunting luminaries.  Wrap clear glasses or vases in orange tissue paper.  Cut out shapes or find other décor items to make a jack-o-lantern faces.  These can be used indoors or out.  Another great idea for luminaries is to drarw or colour shapes and faces on brown  paper bags .  Older kids can cut designs into the bags. Fill the bags a third full with sand. Add a tea light and line your walkway or porch. 
9. Use leaves.  Take old clothes and stuff them with leaves. Scatter them on the lawn with heads or leave them headless.
10. Eyes are on you.  Use plastic foam balls.  Cut them in half and paint black pupils.
11. Make a craft box available to your little party goers.  You never know what spooky creativity will arise. Your box could include:  plastic spiders, stickers, stamps, googly eyes, pom poms, ribbon, pipe cleaners, cookie cutters to trace, different coloured felt and construction paper, scissors, markers, glitter glue or feathers.  Be sure to keep a glue gun near by.  

Play Goulish Games 

If you are giving prizes for the winners of the games, there are a lot of theme related treats out there.  A flashlight or reflective wear make good prizes for trick or treaters.   

Find the eyeballs in the brains

Add marbles to  cooked spaghetti to create this ghoulish game.  Whoever collects the most eyeballs in two minutes wins.  Hint: Add one tablespoon of cooking oil per box to keep noodles from sticking.  Cook at least 3 boxes. 

Broom ball 

They are easy to pick up at the grocery store, but if you have too many guests, you can add to the invite. Bring a broom for some bewitching games.

Scavenger hunt 

Have a scavenger hunt to find treats or for ingredients for a witches brew. Some creative ingredients I came across are:

• Eye of a newt – dried bean
• Bat hair – dryer lint
• Snake teeth – grains of white rice
• Mouse kidney –kidney bean
• Owl feather- colourful craft feather
• Dusty corpse – baking soda in a small plastic bag

Grab the Ghost 

Supplies 

Paper towels 

Small balls

Yarn 

Markers 

Pennies

Large paper cirlce 

Funnel 

Die 

Instructions 

• Before the party, make ghosts by draping a piece of paper towel around a small ball, such as a Superball (or in a pinch, a wadded-up paper towel). Cinch the towel around the ball and secure with one end of a 2-foot length of yarn.
• Have guests draw a face on their ghosts with markers. 
• At the start of the game, each player is given ten pennies. Choose one person to be the goblin. The other players lay their ghosts on the large paper circle and hold on to the yarn leash. The goblin holds the funnel, upside down, at least 2 feet above the circle.
• The goblin chooses two numbers on a die, announces them to the group, then rolls. If either of the chosen numbers appears, the players try to pull their ghosts out of the circle before the goblin can slam the funnel down over them. If a player is caught, he must give the goblin a penny. If the chosen numbers do not appear, but the players panic and yank their ghosts out of the circle anyway, it's another penny to the goblin. The goblin, for his part, is allowed to fake a funnel slam, but if he touches any ghost, he must shell out a penny to each player. After three rolls of the die, the next player takes over as goblin. Play is over when one player runs out of pennies. The player with the most coins wins.

Witches Brew 

To make a witches brew add 2 cups of vinegar to a large pot.  Add all of the children’s ingredients from the scavenger hunt, especially the dusty corpse. Have extra dusty corpse to add to the cauldron. It will bubble and froth before their eyes.

Build a Skeleton 

Be sure to wash your hands before this game, because all of the skeletons will be thrown into the pot to make a gruesome gruel. 

With an illustration as a guide use assorted dried pasta to create a scary skeleton. Make sure to have alphabet letters to label and name the skeleton.

Guess the Ghost

Supplies:

Large sheet

Works best with a large group 10 and up. Have one child leave the room. Then take a large sheet and have a different child stand and hide under the sheet. 

Mix up the remaining children in the room and then allow the child who left the room the “GhostBuster” to come back inside. That child then, by process of elimination, guesses who the ghost is under the sheet. 

Then that "Ghost" goes out of the room and a different child becomes the new ghost, mix up the remaining children and repeat until all of the children have had a turn being the ghost.

Harder Version    

Poor Joe 

Supplies:

Cold stuffed rubber glove, (latex glove filled with Jello) 

10 small pieces of carrot

Wig, (dolls wig works well)

cold cooked spaghetti 

Dried apricot

2 peeled green grapes

Piece of liver

Flashlight

Preparation: 

Guests sit in a circle on floor; lights out except for flashlight narrator reads by. Have each item to be passed in separate bowl. Guests will pick up the item, put it back in bowl, pass it to the next person. While guests pass an item, narrator holds the flashlight underneath his chin to give his face a scary look. 

Action Narrator reads from script. 

Here are some other hauntingly fun games

• Monster freeze dance
• Guess how many worms or candies are in the jar. 
• Pumpkin pass along (use little gourds)
• Pin the witch on the broom  (pin up broom,  cut out witch, tape or thumb tacks)
• Cotton ball relay- (cotton balls - use orange or black, large spoons and two plastic pumpkins)
• Doughnuts on a string or bobbing for apples  (apples or doughnuts with sprinkles tied to the end of a string and hung from the ceiling)  
• The Dead Man’s Brains  (instructions and supplies here) 
• ‘Boo am I’  (spooky characters for charades writing on small slips of paper,  blown up balloons to put the pieces of paper in)
• How many words can you get out of   F R A N K E N S T E I N  or H A L L O W E E N  
• Musical Pumpkins

Make some Treat Bags

Use a recyclable grocery bag or pillow cases

Let kids come up with their  own Halloween pattern or picture of a pumpkin, bats, globlins, monsters or ghosts.  You could also use cookies cutters to trace the shapes.  Use paint to colour in the shapes.  Older kids may want to paint free hand.

 

Serve up Some Spooky Stuff

Serve up some fun using  different sized clear containers.  Fill them freaky fun candies such as gummy worms and chocolate eyeballs. You can also add googly eyes to some of the containers so they keep on ‘eye’ on the kids.  Pumpkins make great serving bowls too (especially with a wiggin’ worm salad). 

No-bones-about-it vegetable skeleton

Veggies come in so many shapes and sizes, they make perfect building blocks.  

Jack-'o-lantern dip

Carve out a small pumpkin (or a few) to use as dip containers (healthier dip choices include salsa, hummus, and yogurt-based recipes). Paint a face on the pumpkin instead of cutting holes, or cut only partway through. Or if you're feeling extra-spooky, carve a large mouth and make the dip spill out through it for a "puking pumpkin" effect. 

Black-and-orange dip

Buy or prepare black-bean dip, and serve with sweet potato chips and orange bell pepper strips.

Get seedy

Don't forget to save your seeds when you carve pumpkins. Roast them in a hot oven with a little salt and olive oil.

Braaaaiiiins! 

Score major cool points with party guests by serving a watermelon carved to look like a brain.

Choose a small, seedless melon and peel off the green skin. Score the white pith with a knife

to resemble the brain's squiggly folds. Then carve to expose the watermelon's red flesh.

Boo-nanas

Dip peeled bananas in orange juice, then roll in shredded coconut to make white ghosts. Add

small raisins or chocolate chips for eyes, then insert wooden craft stick for a handle (so the

ghosts can flit about hauntingly). Serve as-is or frozen.

Witches' teeth

Core and quarter an apple. Remove wedge from skin side of each quarter to form a mouth.

Insert variously shaped and sized slivered almonds for teeth.

Orange-'o-lantern

Use a toothpick to carve features into the skin of a whole orange. Insert a piece of pretzel for

a stem. Or remove the fruit's pulp and use to serve yogurt, low-fat pudding, apricot

applesauce, etc.

Black Bean Cat Crudite 

Looking for a Halloween snack that’s both healthy and festive?  This skeletal array fit’s the bill.  No bones about it.  Just assorted fresh vegetables and a bowl of dip arranged in the shape of a spooky cat. 

Black bean dip 

Assorted veggies of your choice  (celery, cherry tomatoes, broccoli)  

 

Mummies 

Disguises  aren’t just of Halloween. Surprise your family with these dressed-up, spooky-looking snacks any time of year.  Kids can help my spooning the pizza sauce on the English muffin and making the mummy face with the cheese and vegetables.  

 

Spooky Punch 

For the punch, you need a glass punch bowl with a hollowed-out raised base. Take the base of the punch bowl and put underneath either a small flashing electric light or just a regular one. They are small, about tea-light size, and you get them at dollar stores. Putting the punch bowl on top with liquid is a great effect, especially when you lower the lights. Kids and adults will love it! Get the recipe. 

Some other great recipes: 

Trick or treat nachos  

Gummy worm punch  

Oozy green eyeballs  

Jack o lantern sloppy Joe Pie 

Monster cheese ball

With thanks to Taste of Home for these wonderful recipies and ideas.  

Happy Haunting 

Back to school, back to our routines and back to the neighbourhoods we call home.

There is no time like the fall to remind us of home – the streets we live on, the shops we frequent and the places we meet.  Fall is brimming with tradition and this urban Mom is eager to get her family in full swing.  

A recent trip around my neighbourhood brought me to the Field House at Parkdale Market.  This is an amazing food boutique where everything is grown and produced locally.  Fall comfort cooking with my kids is a wonderful tradition, especially with fresh local products.  Have a look at my tip sheet for cooking with kids for ideas. 

The red and orange hues of the season warm the windows of shops and eateries.  As we pass The Collected Works, I notice friends gathering over coffee and families looking over the collection of new fall books.   My current Raise a Reader campaign is supported by The Collected Works.  My kids and I love to read together and I look forward to those cold fall days curled up with them around a book. 

Here are some books we love:

How do Apples Grow ~ Betsy Maestro

Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf ~ Lois Ehlert

Too Many Pumpkins ~ Linda White

Johnny Appleseed ~ Reeve Lindbergh

The window at Thyme and Again is eye-catching.  Stepping inside, we are greeted by a wide array of fall decorations for the home and table.  I am tempted by a poster of their fall Thanksgiving catering menu – mouthwatering.  The kids picked out festive candles and napkins for our Thanksgiving table.  We will work on some crafts over the next few weeks to complete the look.  Here are some fall craft ideas.

Summer is gone for another year.  Camps and cottages, holidays and travels are over for another year.  Fall is upon us and it is good to be home! 

Raise A Reader

As a Mom and an educator, early literacy is very important to me.  Every year, I put myself behind Canada.com's Raise A Reader campaign.  This very important campaign aims to raise much needed funds for early literacy initatives and to create awareness of the importance of literacy in young people.  

I am so excited about literacy that I am kicking my campaign off early on Rogers Daytime.  During the September 19 show, I share tips and resources to help parents and caregivers raise their own readers.  

This year, Raise A Reader day falls on Wednesday, September 28

The premise behind Raise-a-Reader is simple: if children know how to read, it helps ensure their success as adults. The higher someone's literacy level, the more likely that person is to be employed and have a higher income. Plus as parents, aunts and uncles the world over know, a child discovering the joy of reading is one of life's great pleasures.

Throughout the week, I will be tweeting and posting literacy tips on my facebook page.  And, I will be celebrating literacy by giving away a book a day sponsored by Thyme and Again  on my facebok page (see sidebar for details).  

Visit the Raise a Reader site and make a donation today.  

Setting Up for Success

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Feeding minds

Packing lunches is an art in itself. I remember opening my lunch and wondering what I was going to trade. Now the kids are not allowed to share food. The skill of packing lunches has become a challenge.

Some fun tips:

• Korey Kealey of Foodthought, suggests packing in chopsticks for a fun way to eat. 
• I like to use cookie cutters to make shapes out sandwiches. 
• Use skewers; anything on a stick is fun!
• To save room in your lunch bag, freeze your water bottle or juice box and use it as a feezer pack.
• Add a note your child’s lunch letting them know you are thinking of them.

What to Pack

SnaX, an Ottawa based company, has created fun and healthy snack and lunch options.  Some great fresh ideas include egg salad on a stick, slider sandwiches and antijitos.
SnaX has launched a School Nutrition Awareness program that provides the participating school with an innovative week-long fundraiser that  exposes children to healthy international food in a fun inclusive manner. 

Their site is worth looking at www.mysnax.ca

How to Pack

Sistema's range of children's lunch boxes make lunch time fun, with lots of fun colours and compartments to keep food separated.  All products are built on Sistema's unique ability to capture the small design twists and turns, creating products that are both functional and that kids relate to. They are BPA free and made from lead free virgin materials!


A few lunch bags that stand out:

The ELLE lunch bag line are reusable insulated in the inside and come in a great choice of designs.

The coolmovers line of lunch bags is a great size for the little ones.

MITK Tip:  If your kids like carbonated drinks, there is a healthy way to offer that treat. Thanks to C.A. Paradis, the Chefs Paradise. The sodastream allows you to make carbonated drinks at home using more natural ingredients.  The bonus is that your kids can carry it in a reusable bottle.