Halloween with the Girls

66 pieces of candy! Way to go H-Man.

Skeleton Man

Unfortunately Halloween was a bit rained out this year, so we did valet trick-or-treating. I drove the get-away van and Joe schlepped with H in his $14 walmart costume down the driveways to ring the bells. His trick-or-treating skills are still being developed. He thinks that he is supposed to run past the candy givers and roam freely in each house This lasted about 6-7 houses before we gave up and hopped over to Barbara and John's new place to help receive the trick-or-treaters. It was after 8 pm and all of the cute little toddlers in fairy princess and spiderman costumes were long gone. The doorbell would ring about about every 10-15 minutes with gangs of older kids dressed in street clothes - hardly what one considers "costume worthy". "So, what are you fellas dressed as tonight", she asked the kids wearing all black clothes. "Dark Boys"

A few minutes later we headed over to the Kunda's annual party to enjoy cocktails, chili and the Phillies. They always have a fully stocked library of tombstones on the lawn complete with scary music pumping out into the neighborhood.

Pumpkin Spice Play Dough

This is one of the best activities we've ever done. Harvey LOVED every step of the way - from dumping large amounts of powder and spice and watching colors blend on the stove to experimenting with miscellaneous craft supplies. Beads worked really well. Shells and buttons might be good too. Harvey kept wanting to decorate his creations with glue.

Recipe:
5 1/2 cups flour
2 cups salt
8 teaspoons cream of tartar
3/4 cup oil
1 container (1 1/12 oz) pumpkin pie spice
Orange food coloring (2 parts yellow, 1 part red)
4 cups water

Directions:
Mix all of the ingredients together in a large pot. Cook and stir over medium heat until all lumps disappear. Knead the dough on a floured surface until smooth (add flour generously throughout the kneading process). Store in an airtight container.

My favorite part about this is that there is PLENTY of play dough and it doesn't crumble all over the place and leave that nasty smell on your hands. I love our collection of cookie cutters - airplane, space shuttle, fire truck, cars, ambulance and anything else with wheels. Now I am on the hunt for more cutters....

Thanks to H's teacher at the Pennington School for sharing this recipe with us!!

Hot tip of the day - remove crayon from the chalkboard with Goo-Gone. Spray and wipe right off. Sponge off with warm soapy water.