Mom in the Know's Ultimate List of Halloween Events

Barnyard Halloween

 
Canada Agriculture Museum
October 27 & 28, 2012
Trick or treat scavenger hunt, costume parade etc.
website

Bayshore Halloween Bash

 
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
9am-11am and 1pm-4pm
1st Level - Bayshore Shopping Centre

Morning activities include costume contest, arts and crafts, pumpkin decorating
Afternoon activities include movies and popcorn

Billings Estate - Halloween Party 

2100 Cabot Street 
613-247-4830
Sunday, October 28, 2012 - 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Prizes, crafts and scary Halloween games!
Website

Billings Estate - Ghost Hunt

 
2100 Cabot Street
Saturday, October 27 and Sunday, October 28, 2012 at 7pm
Website

Creepy Creek Camp

 
11100 Van Camp Road, Winchester
613-989-1813
www.creepycreekcamp.com
2012 Dates: October 12, 13, 14, 19, 20, 21, 24, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 2012
A spooky 20-30 minute walk with live actors, moveable props and other creepy stuff!

Funhaven Presents: Chills for CHEO

1050 Baxter Road
Crypt of Torment (a haunted house) and Magic Manor (for 10 and under)
For opening times, check out the website for Chills for CHEO

Halloween at the Currency Museum

October 27,2012

245 Sparks Street, Ottawa

(613) 782-8914

Get an early start to your trick or treating with a kid-friendly Halloween celebration at the Currency Museum of the Bank of Canada. Create creepy crafts, join in spooky activities, tiptoe through a hair-raising haunted house! When the clock tolls 14:00.

Halloween at the GRC (Goulbourn Recreation Complex)

 
Shea Road, Stittsville
Friday, October 26, 2012
5 - 7pm
Haunted house, pumpkin and cookie decorating, gym activities, haunted public skate and public swim

Halloween at Hugli's Blueberry Ranch

 
2139 Greenwood Road - Pembroke
613-638-1288 
Halloween Season is October 12 - 28, 2012 (Friday, Saturday and Sunday)
Fridays: 6:30pm – 9:30pm; Saturdays: 1pm – 4:30pm and 6pm – 9pm; Sundays: 1pm – 4:30pm
Haunted House of Terror, scary wagon ride, 6 acre Creepy Corn Maze, Halloween magic shows at night
website

Incident at the Bunker: A Zombie Adventure

Diefenbunker, Carp
October 20, 27 and November 3
More details can be found on their website

Monster Mash 2 - "Ottawa's Most Thrilling Halloween Party"

Ukrainian Banquet Hall (1000 Byron Avenue)
613-238-7711
Ottawa Dragon Boat Foundation
Friday, October 26, 2012
Live music, zombie walk, Thriller dance, haunted house, costume prizes, refreshments, cash bar

Mayor's Halloween Party

 
Saturday, October 27, 2012
5 - 7:30pm
Ottawa City Hall - Heritage Building, Jean Pigott Place and Marion Dewar Plaza
Admission is a donation to the Ottawa Food Bank's Baby Supply Cupboard.
An evening filled with treats, hay rides, costumed characters, pumpkin decorating and more! 
Website

Place d'Orleans Shopping Mall

 
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Kids' Crafts and Face Painting - 10am-2pm - Laura Court
Trick or Treating Trek - Starts at 10am - Guest Services

PumpkInferno

 
Upper Canada Village
Friday to Monday, October 5, 6, 7, 8, 2012
Friday to Sunday, October 12, 13, 14, 2012
Thursday to Sunday, October 18, 19, 20, 21, 2012
Thursday to Sunday, October 25, 26, 27, 28, 2012
Hallowe'en – Wednesday, October 31, 2012
6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
PumpkInferno website

Saunders Farm

7893 Bleek Road in Munster
613-838-5440
Award winning mazes, wagon rides, tree forts and much more!

Sesame Street Halloween Party!

The Canadian Museum of Civilization

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Dress up in your best costume for Halloween surprises, games and treats with your favourite Sesame Street friends! Decorate your own mini-pumpkin, and join our DJ for a dance party. Make sure to keep your camera handy for appearances by Walkarounds Elmo,Cookie Monster and Abby Cadabby!  

Skreamers 

Proulx Farm
1865 O'Toole Road, Cumberland
613-833-2417
Attractions include the Scary Wagon Ride, Barn of Terror and Creep Canteen 
Website

Spooky Wagon Ride

 
Held at Cannamore Orchards
1480 County Road 32, Crysler
613-448-3633
The Spooky Wagon Ride™, The Spooky Village, Kid’s Spooky House, The Fog Maze, The House of Terror
Website

Wickedly Westboro

Octobe 27, 2012

Come get your zombie on in Westboro

Join the merchants of the Westboro Village BIAbetween 10:30 a.m and 2:30 p.m. for a fun-filled day of chills and thrills, and spooktacular Halloween treats for the whole family.

http://www.westborovillage.com/wicked

Halloween fun for Everyone

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 

International Day of the Girl

 

Yesterday, the Taliban attacked 14-year-old Pakistani activist Malala Yousufzai in an attempt to silence her for exposing the Taliban’s atrocities and advocating for girls’ education in the face of religious extremists.  She survived that shooting. 

As a woman and a mother I am outraged and angered by the actions of the Taliban and moreover for a world where young women must fight for basic human rights.   On the other hand, I am in awe of Malala’s bravery and courage. I hope she lives to continue her fight. Pakistan needs her. The Muslim world needs her. In fact, the rest of the world can benefit and learn from this young heroine.Malala Yousafzai

Coincidentally, the news of Malala’s  shooting and the awareness of her plight come on the same week as the First International Day of the Girl. 

This is a great week to spread the word and encourage girls everywhere to shatter stereotypes, end injustices, demand equality and, in some cases, change the world. 

As mothers it is our role to empower our daughters to become young women who feel secure about themselves, who express their feelings, make positive choices and care about others.

Our daughters will face huge challenges to create their own identities and to feel powerful as they are exposed to images of perceived beauty and other mixed messages.  

Here are some ideas to help us  raise powerful daughters.

Encourage assertiveness.

Teach your daughter to express her needs to adults and stand her ground with her peers. If another child is being mean to her, encourage her to say "I don't like the way you're talking to me."

Be specific in your compliments.

When you tell your daughter how smart she is, it means much more if you use concrete examples. Tell her "You have a really good memory" or "Boy, you sure know your dinosaurs."

Help her understand why she sometimes gets left out.

Explain to your daughter that if she isn't invited to every birthday party or to join every jump-rope game (and she won't be), it's not meant to be an insult. Explain that when another child says "You can't be my friend," it probably has more to do with that child's bad mood than it does with your daughter.

Encourage competence.

Don't be too quick to help your daughter with homework or chores. If she asks for help, ask her to try working through it for a couple more minutes on her own first.

Encourage her to play sports if she wants to.

Girls have more sporty options than ever before. If she wants to do gymnastics or play football, give her a chance to get in the game and find out what she's capable of. Don't decide which sports are right for her – she can figure it out herself.

Don't make assumptions about her strengths and weaknesses.

Just because your child is a girl doesn't mean she'll struggle with fractions – or that she'll ace reading tests. It also doesn't mean she won't want to go fishing or try out for Little League. Follow her cues to best nurture her strengths and work on improving her weaknesses.

Encourage a healthy body image.

When she asks the inevitable "Am I pretty?" try to highlight the actions that make her pretty.  For expamle, kindness, thoughtfulness, cooperation.  Highlight that these are the things that make her pretty, not only her physical appearance. 

It can also be helpful for older girls to hear that models in magazines don't look like real girls or women and that their photographs are altered to make them look thinner and more flawless than they actually are.

Prepare her for sexism.

Even today, some people think that girls can't do some things that boys can. If you notice your daughter watching TV shows or movies where girls stay in the background while boys save the day, point it out and talk to her about how different things are in the real world.

Point out positive female role models.

Take every opportunity, when you're watching the news or reading the paper, to show your daughter that women – politician, sportscasters, doctors, athletes – can do anything.

Reading books with strong female characters is one of the best ways to get the idea across without lecturing. If you can't think of enough books like that, ask a librarian – they often have lists of books to choose from and can make recommendations.

Out to the Orchard

 

It’s October and fall is in full swing.  That means it's peak season for apple harvesting. Orchards all around the Ottawa area are open and some of best-tasting apples of the year are ripe for the picking.

Our local Apple orchards offer a ton of fall fun for all ages.  Itching for an autumn outing?  Take a drive to the orchard where you can pick your own fruit, take a hayride, pet farm animals and enjoy apple baking and cider.   

Finding an Apple Orchard Near You

Lara Bender, an Ottawa Argitourism blogger has visited a great number of local orchards in her most recent blog.  You can find it here. 

What to Bring

Waterproof boots or shoes—It’s getting chilly and damp out there. If you and your children are going to be running around an apple orchard all afternoon, you'll want to make sure that you are all wearing comfortable shoes that are waterproof (or at least water-resistant). Turning an ankle or suffering with wet feet is a surefire way to ruin your apple-picking trip.

Your own container/carrying bag  - Most orchards will provide you with a paper bag for collecting your apples, but a sturdier (and more eco-friendly) option is to bring a canvas tote from home. You may also want to bring some tea towels or crumpled paper to place throughout your bag as you pick your apples, to prevent bruising.

Water-Even though the temperatures have cooled, it's still important for you and your kids to stay hydrated while walking around the orchard.

Cash- Depending on how large the operation is, the orchard may not accept personal checks or credit/debit cards. Having plenty of cash on hand ensures that paying for your delicious bounty of apples will be a smooth, painless process.

From the Apple Orchard to Your Kitchen

Apples like cool, humid places. To make them last longer, put them in the crisper drawer of your refrigerator with a wet paper towel.   A cool cellar also works, but don’t store apples with potatoes.  They cause the apples to ripen too quickly.  To keep apples longer, don’t wash them until you are ready to use them. 

Apple Facts

An apple contains about 80 calories.  They are a good source of digestible fiber, vitamins A and C and niacin.  They have antioxidant properties thought to be beneficial in fighting cancer and other diseases.  “An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away.”

There are thousands of varieties of apples grown around the world, about 100 are grown commercially in Canada and the U.S.  Apples were first brought to North America by English settlers along the Eastern Seaboard. 

 

Easy Apple Recipes

One-Bite Apple Muffins

These apple muffins are great for a quick snack attack. Pair them up with a cold glass of milk or a chunk of cheese to fight your hunger pangs.

The apples in this recipe (Crispin, Idared, Spy, Spartan) are great for baking. Other apples, like Gala, Honeycrisp and McIntosh, are perfect for munching fresh.

Full Recipe

Nippy Apple Cheddar Soup

Ontario Apples and cheddar cheese have always been a perfect match. Here's a new twist, a steaming bowl of Apple Cheddar Soup, with just a hint of curry, it will surely hit the spot on a cool fall day.

Full Recipe

Apple Cranberry Bread Pudding

Update a classic comfort-food dessert by using Ontario Cranberries instead of raisins. Serve warm with Lemon or Butterscotch Sauce, Ontario Maple Syrup, vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt.

Full Recipe2012/Apple%20Cranberry%20Bread%20Pudding.pdf 

If you do happen to venture out to an orchard this weekend, leave a comment here to let me know how you enjoyed your day.  I’d love it if you would share any recipes or tips you have either here or on my facebook page. 

~Julie

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 kicked my campaign off early on Rogers Daytime today.   I sharing tips and resources to help parents and caregivers raise their own readers.  

This year, Raise A Reader day falls on Wednesday, September 19

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.

Ottawa has a wonderful library system with over 20 locations as well as book mobiles.  There is a program for everyone at the Ottawa Public Library from babies to teens and older adults.  

Throughout the week, I will be tweeting and posting literacy tips on my facebook page.  

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

1. Read to and with your children for 30 minutes every day.

   It is very important to read out loud to your children before they start school. Help your children read with you. Ask them to find letters and words on the page and talk with your children about the story.

2. Talk with infants and young children before they learn to read.

   Talk with your children all day long, using short, simple sentences. Talking with them even before they can speak will help them later when they learn to read and write.

3. Help your children read on their own.

   Reading at home helps children do better in school. Have lots of children's books in your home and visit the library every week. Help your children get their own library cards and let them pick out their own books.

4. If your child has a developmental delay, your child may find reading frustrating.

   Have books on tape in your home. Borrow or buy a tape player that is easy for children to use. If you can't find tapes of your child's favorite books, you or a family member could make recordings of the books for your child to listen to while looking at the books.

5. Help your child see that reading is important.

   Suggest reading as a free-time activity. Make sure your children have time in their day to read. Set a good example for your children by reading newspapers, magazines, and books.

6. Set up a reading area in your home.

   Keep books that interest your children in places where they can easily reach them. As your children become better readers, make sure that you add harder books to your collection.

7. Give your children writing materials.

   Children want to learn how to write and to practice writing. Help them learn by having paper, pencils, pens, or crayons for them in your home. Help your children write if they ask you. If your child has a special learning or physical need, regular pens and pencils may not be the best choice. Ask your pediatrician or people who work with your child at school or at the child care center to suggest other writing materials your child can use.

8. Read and write with your children in their native language.

   Practicing their first language will help your children learn to read and write English.

9. Talk with your children as you do daily activities together.

   When you take your children places, talk with them about what you are doing and ask them questions. If your child cannot hear, use whatever form of communication your child usually uses.

10. Ask your children to describe events in their lives.

    Talking about their experiences makes children think about them. Giving detailed descriptions and telling complete stories also helps children learn about how stories are written and what the stories they read mean.

11. Restrict the amount and kind of TV your children watch.

    Watch educational TV programs with your children that teach letter sounds and words or give information about nature and science.

12. Keep track of your children's progress in school.

    Visit your children's classrooms to learn how your children are doing in school and how you can help your children become better students. Ask about the school's reading program and where your children need help.

13. Become a reading tutor to a child in your neighborhood or from your local elementary school.

    Volunteer to read with or to a child for 30 minutes a week for at least eight weeks. Take the child to the library to get him or her a library card