Tag: Halloween activities

about me

Celebrating Halloween, Pandemic Style

/

Hey Loves!

In case you are new here or if you need to be reminded. I love a well-executed Holiday. I just can’t get enough of it. One of my most favorite holidays to celebrate growing up was Halloween. My parents were divorced and lived far away from their families so basically every other holiday was a wash-up of which parent I would be with and what they wanted to do for said holiday. Oh, but Halloween was EPIC.

As far back as I could remember, my dad went hard. Even when I was too old to trick or treat, he went hard passing out candy. For those wondering, he still goes hard to this day and has added costumes to the lineup. Anyway, because of that, guess who then always went hard for Halloween? This girl!

With our usual spots and traditions closed for fall fun, I’ve had to adapt ad we’ve been celebrating all month with the goodies in our BOO Baskets all month long. I am one of those family costumes, coordinating shirts, skipping through the pumpkin patch moms to the point where I get my kids’ costumes as early as possible, like 364 days early.

Well, that all worked out in my favor until COVID-19, which, I kinda feel like is a recurring theme in most households. So, you know me, my brain went to town on planning something out for the kids.

After counting all the doors in my house and realizing I was too tired to hide behind each one, I remembered the scavenger hunt we did on Easter and then searched, “halloween scavenger hunt” and google did not fail me. I few clicks later, I stumbled upon, downloaded and immediately printed this scavenger hunt.

Next, I asked myself, “wait-what is going to be the loot?” I asked this because my kids trick-or-treat for sport. There is so much they can’t eat so we buy it from them and they make out like bandits. This year, they can get some treats they can actually eat and I will probably break even. To start, I found some festive things they could eat like these halloween themed veggie chips and gummy treats. Then, I went went with some of their favorites like Kettle COrn and Lara Bars. To make it cute and have happy kids when they find it, I put the loot in their treat buckets (dollar spot find years ago that I slapped a vinyl monogram on) and viola! A safe, socially-distant family-fun Halloween. Follow along via Instagram or Facebook for more deets.

Family Activities

Halloween Diverse Books Round-Up

/

Hey Loves!

I’m back with another collab with Lakeisha from Maya’s Book Nook and this one is all about Halloween. True story- I love Halloween. Growing up with my dad, we went hard every 31st of October and it’s honestly the holiday I have the most memories of. If you’ve been following along vis socials, you’ve seen my kids Boo Baskets and our attempts to have lots of Halloween fun safely! This year, as COVID-19 continues to impact how we do things, what won’t change is the learning and fun we will have with books. Let’s get into it!

Los Gatos Black on Halloween by Marisa Montes is a beautifully illustrated book that takes us through Halloween night. Black cats, carved pumpkins and witches, oh my! They join some other ghouls and at the haunted mansion they converge for a monstrous ball! This bilingual book provides great Spanish vocabulary and includes a Spanish/English glossary.

Monster Trouble by Lane Fredrickson is a cute rhyming tale that follows little Winifred on a quest for a good night’s sleep. She loves ghouls and thinks monsters are cute but when it comes to bedtime, she still can’t sleep. Fed up and tired, Winifred finds a gentle way to keep the monsters at bay.

Samurai ScareCrow A Very Ninja Halloween by Rubin Pingh follows two siblings on Halloween night. It can be rough always being followed around or copied by a younger sibling and it can be tougher being told you aren’t welcome. That doesn’t stop these two from showing each other love on Halloween night.

Shake Dem Halloween Bones by W. Nikola-Lisa is a jazzy tale of Halloween Night. As the city gets dark and quiet, it’s not time for the ghouls to come out and prank. It’s time for the music to crank! Join your favorite classic fairytale characters at the Halloween Ball. Written to a lively beat and poured with diverse illustrations, your kiddos will be grooving all the way to Halloween.

Día De Los Muertos by Roseanne Greenefield Thong breaks down this special Mexican Holiday for you and your littles. Removing lots of the culturally appropriated propoganda, this books allows the whole family to learn and celebrate by learning why this celebration is special and important.

Pumpkin Day by Candice Ransom is the perfect read before going to the pumpkin patch. The simple, rhyming text describes a family’s trip to the patch to find the perfect pumpkins. I love all of the adjectives used throughout the book, as they can be reinforced in daily conversations and activities.

Runaway Pumpkins by Teresa Bateman is a new release that just came out in August 2020. A bumpy ride back to school after a class trip to the pumpkin patch causes a latch to open on the bus causing all of the pumpkins to fall out. The only one left is a huge pumpkin strapped to the top of the bus. While disappointed, the students make the best of it by coming together to decorate the lone pumpkin. Just like the saying, make lemonade out of lemons, neighbors came together to make pumpkin pie (and other goodies) out of the smashed pumpkins that fell from the bus.

Pumpkin Countdown by Joan Holub is a good book to get your little ones counting. It features another field trip to the pumpkin patch, but this time, the class counts everything in sight! Lots of number practice on each page as you try to identify all of the things counted by the class.

How Big Could Your Pumpkin Grow by Wendell Minor will take readers on a fantasy ride! Little readers will learn lots of synonyms for big, while reimagining what some of the country’s landmarks would look like if enormous pumpkins were involved.

Super Spooked by Gina Bellisario is a part of the Ellie Ultra chapter book series. Ellie is invited over to a friend’s house for a Halloween sleepover. Everyone is having fun until the lights go out and Fairy Frightmare sprinkles nightmare dust all over them. You’ll have to read this one to find out if Ellie can conquer her fears to help save her friends.

Uncategorized

Ready? Set… BOO Baskets!

/

Hey Loves!

Fall is here and I am welcoming it like its royalty. I mean, it is practically the reigning queen of the four seasons so why not? Today I am sharing with you something I have never done before-BOO Baskets. If you are new to this concept, allow me to try to explain. A boo basket, as I have to come to understand it, is a collection of Halloween festive items from decor to crafts to apparel presented to those you care about to celebrate the season and show your love for them.

I hadn’t done one before because I outsourced that stuff. I would load my kids up and go to multiple fall festivals, a few pumpkin patches, and a couple of trunk-or-treats all to prepare us for the main event: Trick-or-Treating on Halloween night

Enter COVID-19 and all of the above not happening… feel free to hear the violins playing and lament with me.

So, in my lamenting, I began to problem-solve and since I already had baskets, I just added what we needed to BOO them. My goal? To have one craft and one sweet treat a week. I wanted the crafts to be sustainable and be used to decorate their room this year and a couple of years after. I didn’t want a sugar overload but I also know this is the time when sugar just abounds so, at least this way, we can make sure all the ingredients are good to us. I threw in some other things because I AM EXTRA. I also wanted those memories that I get every year from the festivals and patches, not thethethrlocation but the joy of our hearts.

Ok, now to what you came here for. Links. I’ll be sure to share this in my Instagram Stories and do my best to save them in a highlight!

The pennant flags and monster coupons were free printables.

These lovely and completely cute BOO lava bead bracelets are from the insanely talented Amber from Chameleon Ave. She has gorgeous pieces for everyone and it’s great quality.

I purchased the craft tote bag, foam pumpkin, stickers, spin top, pencil and bracelets from the Dollar Tree. I’ve linked some other options as those must be purchased in-store.

From target, I grabbed the paper mâché pumpkin, fall leaf family jammies, stuffy, and gel window clings.

I made the vinyl decals on the two shirts with my silhouette portrait. I also sewed the mask and the scrunchie. I gathered the wand items from things I already had but I linked some cute options for everything.

The Usborne sticker book and magic painting book, I got from a UBAM consultant. You can shop the goods-books about everything, activity books, learning pallets- here. The books, Room On The Broom and Llama Llama Trick or Treat, as well as the Room On The Broom Activity Book can all be purchased on amazon.

Happy clicking and happy Fall, y’all!

Love you. Mean it.