School Halloween Party Ideas?

I'm one of the parents helping plan Kendall's school Halloween Party. We're supposed to come up with 4 games or activities and I can't think of any.

Any ideas or suggestions? I know you ladies are creative!!

THANKS!!

This is a great kids learning site!

Sevrie and Coral LOVE playing on this web site. I like it too because they can work through it with out my help, leaving me time to clean;-).

Enjoy!

www.starfall.com/

Halloween deals

Every day buycostumes.com has a 5 under 5 deal where they offer 5 different things for less than 5 dollars each. Some of them are really good deals. I doubt I'll get any to use as halloween costumes but I'm always looking for cheap dress up clothes for the kids. Here's the link.

http://www.buycostumes.com/pages/productgridview/5Under5.aspx?REF=AFC-5under5&AID=10548936&PID=1495814

Oreo Truffles

Easy and yummy and fun for kids to help with. I got the recipe from Bakerella and mine are on my blog here.

ENJOY!

Give oh give, give oh give

With the times the way they are and the holidays here we've been reflecting a lot on how blessed we are. We've been trying to teach Kendall about blessings and how fortunate we are and that with so much, we should try to help people who aren't as fortunate. I'm trying to give her little chances to give like having her put all our change into the 'bell piggybank' at the grocery store while explaining that the money goes to help people, and having her come to our tithing settlement which gave us a great opportunity to explain about tithing and offerings.

So, this morning we were watching Postcards from Buster and he was in China visiting kids who did things to help others. One girl raised money to give to sick kids. Kendall was all over it. (I think she liked that girl because she was a figure skater.) Anyway, she wants to earn money to give to sick kids and who am I to say no. I think it's great but I need ideas- what types of things can a 4 year old (with our help of course) do to earn money? You are all so creative so I thought I'd ask you.

Any ideas?

Bubble Boys

For those of you who are out of the loop the state of California is on fire. I know your saying to yourself , "it's always on fire". Well, the smoke is trapped here in Sacramento valley and for the last three weeks have looked like some "Day after Tomorrow" type movie.

The sky at 8 am.

Besides the smoke it has been around 100* degrees. My boys are losing it! I have tried to find things inside for them to do. We go to the library and inside fast-food play places. We have been advised not to go outside and not to use our cars, "spare the air ". We usually go to the pool, but my son's swim lesson are cancelled because so many people are getting sick when they go outside. We are running out of friends to have over and coloring and play-doh are done. We have made forts and filmed music videos. We've watched enough T.V. for the rest of the year. I have intense morning/evening sickness, so doing cartwheels and somersaults with the kids ain't happening. I need help, I need like "thinking outside of the box" ideas. I have a 3 year old, so they can't be too involved. They are boys, so they need to get as much energy out as possible. Thanks

Summer(school) Fun

Three Sisters Garden

The first picture is a Three Sisters Garden. Native American have many stories, customs, celebrations and ceremonies related to these three crops as sustainers of life. The three different plants: corn, beans and squash benefit each other. Corn provides support for the beans. Beans have bacteria living on their roots that help them absorb nitrogen from the air and convert it to a form that plants can use. The large prickly squash leaves shade the soil preventing weed growth. This is a fun way to introduce gardening and also Native American agricultural techniques to your kids. We are going to plant these three in the soil behind our house and I am going to let the kids mostly care for these plants.

Caterpillars

We have been seeing these strange web-like things all over Lewisburg and thought they belonged to some kind of spider. It turns out that they are caterpillar nests. After the eggs hatch they spin silk and live in there for awhile. As they mature they venture out for food (my garden) and eventually turn into moths. This type is called the Eastern Tent Caterpillar. Emma collected four of them today and named them Annie, Teeny, Joe and April (after her birth month and her grandmother). Aidan found one and named it Harriet. They seemed very interested in these caterpillars and so I went online and found out how to take care of them until they turn into moths. On this same site are crafts you can make related to butterflies. I am going to have a clipboard where the kids can make observations on what they eat (apparently caterpillars are picky and will starve to death before they eat something they don't like, I think this will be a good lesson for my extremely picky kids) and draw pictures of their progress. I might invest in an aquarium so they have plenty of room and can be observed better. 

I want to do summer school, but I don't want it to seem too schoolish with lots of desk work, etc., I think I will mostly be doing creative projects and activities as much as possible. I'm sure these activities are doable for most of you if you are interested.

Go Skating!

Emma's Girl Scout Troop went skating and Aidan and I came along. I think it was a pretty good inner thigh workout and it was nice to skate around the smooth rink under the disco ball and strobe lights with the warm air rushing over my face and through my hair. It brought me right back to 5th and 6th grade when I used to go skating with my friends at the Golden Skate in San Ramon, CA (do you know what I mean, Julie?). They even played some of the same music (Double Dutch Bus by Frankie Smith) and some of the same games (limbo and freeze skate), but not shoot the duck:(

Aidan and Emma hadn't been roller skating since we lived in England a couple years ago when they had few weeks' worth of lessons. But they picked it up again pretty fast and popped right back up every time they fell down and even tried to do some tricks. The last time I skated was 10 years ago at Classic Skating in Orem, UT on disco night with Collin, April, Kirsten and Robyn. I remember Collin tripping and taking me down with him during a couples' skate. Instead of letting go as he fell, he tried to pull himself up hand over hand on my arm.

I had so much fun this time and didn't fall once even when my children were grabbing on to me. Roller skating was a really fun and nostalgic experience. I highly recommend it as a date or something to do with your kids. 

Are there any fun things you used to do as a kid that you want your own children to experience?