What costumes do your kids want? How are you going to decorate (or not) for the season?  Are you in charge of games at the school party? What about some fun food ideas?  We cover these topics and more with some excellent ideas to help you get your Spook On!

Some Decorating Tips

• 
  
• If you can’t decorate a lot, choose one area to decorate and put it all in that one place.
  
  • 
    
  • Your front door is a great place to decorate because many people come there (see the photo of Nancy’s front door above)
    
  • Choose one Room to decorate (Nancy’s living room gets transformed with a Harry Potter Theme–check out the book titles and the magazines–great printables from online)
    
  
  
  
• Choose a theme and a style
  
  • 
    
  • The key is to have some cohesive look (cutesy or scary, Harry Potter look or Fall Décor, witches or scarecrows)
    
  • Find a color palate and stick with it. Spray paint can be a life-saver
    
  • Black and Orange are not the only colors. Try using lime green or turquoise to spice it up. Silver and white work too to give a ghostly feel.
    
  
  
  
• Use what you have—don’t buy new things
  
  • 
    
  • Outside lanterns for summer become spooky lanterns
    
  • Planters/Urns can be used to stage pumpkins or Witches Legs
    
  • Trimmed trees or bushes can become backdrops for both Fall and Halloween scenes
    
  • Vases and jars can become apothecary jars
    
  • Family silver and old photos of relatives add that old feeling
    
  
  
  
• Candles add ambiance
  
• Check out a past podcast and photos
  
• Paper can be your cheap friend for a great impact (Shelly’s silhouette)
  
• More is More—one bat won’t cut it. You need a swarm for impact.
  
• Check out the perfect way to cut out a pumpkin for cleaning and lighting  http://makezine.com/2009/10/23/a-better-way-to-slice-a-pumpkin/
  

Ideas for School Games

• 
  
• Eyeballs—have you played Kerplunk? Do this at school with eyeballs (ping pong balls painted)
  
• Eyeball relay with eyeballs and spoons where they have to carry the eyeball through a course and drop it in the cup.
  
• RENAME a game Shrinking Island (like Musical Chairs)
  
• Witches Stew (kids have to make a stew by picking up pieces of paper with a straw and suction to get them in to their stew—the first one wins) Print pictures of Halloween ingredients for the stew from the Internet and
  

Costume Ideas

• 
  
• Start early
  
• Think of something easily recognizable but not often repeated
  
• If on a budget, think of something that uses what you already have (Clothing, etc)
  

Food Ideas

• 
  
• Use a toothpick to drag out legs from melted chocolate chips in chocolate chip cookies   http://jensfavoritecookies.com/2013/10/19/spider-cookies-2/  or go to http://iambaker.net/spider-chocolate-chip-cookies/
  
• Inside out Caramel Apples–slice the apple in half, core out the seeds and a bit more flesh, pour the caramel in the center and let set up before slicing.
  
• Turn Cuties (small oranges) into pumpkins (with or without the peel).  With the peel–draw faces on the peel.  Without the peel–stick a green candy coming out the top like a pumpkin stem.
  

How to Get the Witch Leg Look

Use what you have around the house. I used one pool noodle cut in half, halloween tights, old boots, and some stuffing and bubble wrap to get the shape of thighs.

Once you get the legs, you can attach them to your pot.  I used two dowels (actually two checkered flags on wooden sticks) to give the legs some stability. Then, I attached the shoes to the legs using rubber bands that I covered with cute ribbon (see the photo at the top).