Halloween Book Fairy

Picture This: Halloween is over.  Your kids have GOBS of candy from the neighborhood and other parties you visited while Trick-or-Treating.  You don't want them to EAT all of it (horrible for them - and the sugar high? UGH!).  So you give them a few pieces and then put the rest away - for "them" to have later.

Next thing you know, you have joined the throngs of closet moms/dad . . . hiding in the closet, sneaking a bite of this, a handful of that, the last Reese's peanut butter cup, the only Almond Joy.

Can you relate?  Of course YOU'VE never been there, right?  Neither have I! :-)

So when I read my good friend Amanda's family tradition for that Halloween candy that comes into THEIR house each year, I had to share!

Each year, each child is given a Ziploc bag to put their FAVORITE pieces of candy into.  And they can eat that bag of candy whenever they want - it's theirs!  But the rest of the candy is left out the evening of November 1.  And the Halloween Book Fairy comes that night, takes their candy, leaves them a book, and returns the candy in December - just in time to decorate gingerbread houses over Thanksgiving Break. (If you're wondering where she takes it - GRANDMA'S HOUSE!)

Isn't that FANTASTIC?!?!?!  We LOVE books around here - and some Halloween/Thanksgiving books would be so fun to make part of our yearly tradition of giving the kids a book for Christmas every year.

Healthy Halloween Treats

I thought it would be fun to feature a few "healthy" choices to put out for Halloween parties!

Like these scary deviled spiders:

Or check out this tutorial for making some pretty frightening Monster Teeth:



Or some Pizza Mummies (you could also use cream cheese and berries for the eyes to make a "breakfast" mummy instead):

What about this healthy sweet alternative - an orange cut into a jack-o-lantern and stuffed with diced fruit (I also saw it with a really yummy looking shredded salad that kind of looked like the pumpkin had been planted and grown through for a while.):

And last but not least, this happy, healthy skeleton (with some hummus - YUMMY!):

What are you making for your kids for Halloween to balance out the sugar-high? :-)