Scott was in Utah for work this past week for a few days, he got home Thursday night and took Friday, Halloween off! We loved having him home for a long weekend! Friday morning we had singing class at our house; the kids dressed up in their costumes and we had a Halloween themed lunch afterwards. Scott helped me make witches broomsticks for our lunch, and for the kids Halloween classroom parties. They're super easy. You just cut a string cheese into thirds, and then take each one of those, using a paring knife, and dice the 'bristles' about 3/4 way up from the top. You cut 4-ish slices on one side then rotate and cut the same amount on the other side, giving you something that resembles matchsticks.
Then stick a pretzel stick through the top. On pinterest they had you tie a chive around the top of the cheese where the pretzel is, but I didn't have time for that :), and these still look awesome!
All the parties start around 220, beginning with a costume parade around the school. Here's Elisabeth, I mean, Hermione.
I was the room mom for Charles' class. Elisabeth's class didn't have a room mom so I made a 'sign-up genius' for her class as well so they'd at least still be covered volunteer and food-wise.
This is our music/drama leader and her son, who is in Charles' class. Mrs. G is amazing! She does so much every year with choir, Glee club, the musical, talent show and handbells. Seriously, I don't know how she does it all!
I wanted us to have four rotations during about a 30 minute period(entire party about an hour with parade and eating; did both of those things first and had parents help hand out all the food; each parent walked around with a food that they put on each child's plate to speed things up), so I assigned a parent to be in charge of doing a craft and then two others to do games and then I did a game as well.
Our parents were so creative with their food items they brought in! I was impressed!
Here are our four rotations: 1.)Witches ring toss
2.) Bean Bag Toss
3.) Mummy toilet paper wrap. This is the game I did. I just bought super cheap toilet paper, which is better because there is less on the roll which is helpful in this game. Each child had their own roll of toilet paper and a partner...we had 6 in each group, though one group had five so I got to play once :). The partners raced against the other two teams to see who could wrap their mummy and unload their toilet paper roll the fastest. When the first team was done, we switched jobs and the mummy now did the rolling. I brought a big trash bag to put all the used TP inside. We had about 6 minutes for each rotation.
The kids loved this game!
4.) Craft. They drew their hands on parchment paper, cut and colored them and then they put them on these frames and put two glow sticks behind them. I don't think anyone had enough time to finish this craft during their six minute rotation, but they got it started and took the supplies home.
They had party bags to bring home that were filled with 3 types of popcorn and Bugle crackers.
Scott took this when he was visiting Elisabeth's class. He stopped in all three classes with the little girls which they loved :).
Once we got home we went out back and raked leaves for a bit. It was gorgeous outside so we loved being out there all together, doing something active. The little girls mostly played back there in their costumes.
We had "jack-o-lantern" and "candy corn"- looking homemade pizza for dinner with some salad. Afterward, I took the four youngest out trick-or-treating and Elisabeth and Dad stayed home to hand out candy (Elisabeth stayed home to hand out candy last year too...she likes to).
Afterward, I took the four youngest out trick-or-treating and Elisabeth and Dad stayed home to hand out candy (Elisabeth stayed home to hand out candy last year too...she likes to).
When we got home, the kids sorted all the candy, and ate while they sorted. We put the ones we didn't want back into the candy bowl to give away. They picked a couple out to eat the following day. Elisabeth had her last soccer game the next day with an ice cream party after and I signed up to bring toppings so with our Halloween candy I made 5 topping bowls: M&M's, peanut M&M's, and then I cut up into cubes our Snickers, Twix and Peanut Butter Cups. Everything else Scott took to work this morning and will have out on his desk to share with coworkers.
Nora was on a bit of a sugar high after trick-or-treating and even though she normally goes to sleep around 7pm, she was up til almost 9pm singing while playing the piano. She sang, "La, la, la!" while pressing down random keys with her fingers. It was very entertaining :). And now, our family is going on a sugar fast until Thanksgiving! It started out as just Scott and I, but the three oldest decided they wanted to join in the fun :), and by default, Nora and Jane probably won't have any either if we're not having any.
