I know Halloween is all about the treats, but it doesn’t have to be! There are fun Halloween activities that don’t involve sugar! Not only that, there are some educational ones too. So instead of having to explain to your kids for the millionth time that they can’t open the candy bag because it’s for the trick or treaters, sit them down at the computer and have them go to FreeHalloween.com.

This site is full of great online Halloween jigsaw puzzles! Here are some our favorites:

The Scary Pumpkin

The Trick or Treater

The City Witch

These puzzles will not only stretch your kids’ minds, but the length of time until they ask to open the candy bag again!

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Halloween season is upon us! It’s time to get those costumes ready and stock up on candy! But don’t stop there. Stop here instead for lots of Halloween crafts, treats and games to make this holiday festive and memorable.

I like to decorate for each holiday, but I hate to spend a lot of money on decorations. So I love these ghosts because they’re fun, easy and made from stuff I already had in the house!

All you need to make these adorable ghost decorations are five minutes and:

• White tissue paper
• Rubber bands
• Black Marker

Then follow these easy steps:

1. Make a ball out of one piece of white tissue paper for the ghost’s head.
2. Cover the ball (”head”) with a flat piece of tissue paper to create the ghost’s body.
3. Wrap the rubber band around the “neck” of the ghost to secure the tissue paper.
4. Decorate the ghost’s face with black marker.

We made a family of ghosts and put them all around the house to make it look festive!

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My family loves puzzle books! We buy the ones with word searches, word scrambles, and mazes. Then we cuddle on the couch and work on them together. It’s definitely one of my favorite family pastimes. But these puzzle books are also great when we’re waiting at the doctor’s office, dentist or for their music lessons to start. That’s why I like to bring them with me wherever I go! The only thing is we go through these puzzle books very quickly.

That’s why I’m so glad I discovered Printables For Kids! This cool website is full of free word searches, word jumbles, mazes, coloring pages and a whole lot more! Now instead of grabbing another puzzle book at the grocery store, I can just print out some activities from home . . . for free!

Today I just printed out some great Halloween activities for my girls to do when they get home from school. They’re going to love the Halloween Costume Parade word scramble, Trick or Treat word search, and the Help the Trick or Treaters Find the Bag of Lost Candy maze!  

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It’s been several days since we went apple picking and we STILL have a bunch of apples! An apple a day just isn’t cutting it! Although this yummy recipe used up some of the apples, we need help. Serious help. So we went to WeightWatchers.com to look for something healthy we could make with all these apples. Well, at least healthier than all those cider doughnuts we ate on this day!

We picked out five apple recipes and voted. Apple Cider Crisp won hands down. That apple slaw with walnuts didn’t have a chance. Not only was this a delicious dessert, it was Weight Watchers! That means guilt-free eating in our house! For those of you following along at home, each serving is 4 points.

The kids loved making this recipe and it was very easy! I like easy.

Ingredient List:

1. 1/2 cup flour
2. 1/4 sugar
3. 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
4. 1/4 cup butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
5. 7 apples peeled and sliced
6. 1/3 cup apple cider
7. 2 Tbsp. sugar
8. 1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
9. 1 Tbsp. flour
10. 1 tsp. ground cinnamon

It’s a easy as One, Two, Three . . .Well, and Four, Five and Six!

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Spray 8 inch square baking dish with cooking spray.
3. Put first four ingredients in a blender and pulse until crumbly. Set aside.
4. Mix together the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl.
5. Put apple mixture into pan and sprinkle on crumbly mixture.
6. Bake for 40 minutes or until lightly browned.

This dessert was so good it didn’t last a day.

How do you like them apples?

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This weekend we did the “Fall Thing.” For us, that means we went to our local farm and picked apples and pumpkins, bought mums, drank cider and ate doughnuts (a lot of doughnuts!)

We always buy one pumpkin, proportionately sized, to represent each member of our family. As the girls considered a very large pumpkin for “me,” I called out “Hey! Make sure Daddy’s pumpkin is bigger than mine!” Other than that, they get to choose whichever pumpkins they like.

After we choose the five family pumpkins, we always buy smaller ones to paint. This gives my girls something to do with the pumpkins when we get home because once we pick the family pumpkins, they pretty much just sit on the porch and look festive until they rot from the sun.

For the pumpkin painting, I just put a vinyl tablecloth down and give the girls washable paint and paint brushes. They do the rest! It always amuses me how they each decorate their pumpkin differently. After they’re done, we put them outside to dry. But remember to take them in because rain will wash all of the paint off! Trust me, you don’t want to have to learn that lesson the way we did.

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Okay, I promise this is the last post about my daughter’s birthday party! I even debated writing the third part, but how could I not share the best event of all! That and it would just bug me. I hate leaving things unfinished. So, here they are, the last events of the Olympic Games backyard birthday party!

Event #7: Freeze Dance

All you need for this event is a CD player and a fun dance CD. Since I had 14 girls ranging in age from 7 to 11, we of course played this one! This game is a combination of musical chairs and frozen statues. When the music is playing, each kid does their craziest dance moves. But they must stop immediately when the music stops! If anyone is caught moving, they are out of the game. Since we were playing with teams, the last person standing won for their respective team. To keep them on their toes (literally sometimes!) I kept turning the music off at different parts of the song. Usually during the chorus when they really liked to strut their stuff!

Event #8: Balloon Tag

For this event, you need to blow up a balloon for each child and tie a piece of yarn to it. The point of the game is for each child to try and pop their opponents’ balloons while protecting their own. To make it competitive, everyone has to hold onto their balloon’s string low enough so the balloon drags on the ground. This way it’s easier to step on and pop! This is a crazy, free for all, but very entertaining!

Event #9: Pony Express Relay

I did need to get some things for this event, but it was definitely worth the effort! You need two cowboy hats, two stick horses, two beach balls, and two tote bags. (I used the kids’ school bags.) Each kid takes a turn in the relay race pretending they have to deliver the mail. But, instead of the challenges of snow, sleet or rain, they need to carry their mail bag, ride their horse, and wear their hat, all while holding a beach ball between their knees! If they drop the ball, they have to stop and get it into position again before they can continue on their “route.” This event was truly hilarious and a lot of fun!

But the most hilarious and fun event of the whole day was (insert drumroll here):

Event #10: The Clothes Relay

For this event, you need two sets of clothes, with one piece of clothing for all but one child on each team. Since we had two teams of seven kids, we needed six items of clothing for each team. We used hats, scarves, gloves, t-shirts, sweatshirts and shorts. The fact that the shirts, shorts and sweatshirts were my hubby’s definitely made this event more funny! We put each set of clothing at the opposite end of the yard by the orange cone. The relay started with one person from each team running to the pile of clothes and picking ONE item to put on. Once they put the item on, they ran back to their team and the next child did the same thing. Once the sixth child on each team ran back with their item of clothing on, the whole team then had to take their item off and dress the last person on the team with all the clothing items. Then once the last team member was fully dressed, she had to run back to the orange cone. So so funny!!! The sight of my daughters running with all those clothes on was worth the hours and hours I spent planning this party!

In true Olympic fashion, we had a medal ceremony after the events. In true mommy fashion, every child received a gold-ish medal!

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