Why It's Good to Let Your Kids Have Halloween Candy

If your kids are anything like mine, they cannot wait for Trick-or-Treating tonight. Getting dressed up in their costumes and getting tons of candy!

But then comes the debate on how much candy we can let our kids eat and still be considered a "good mom" in the eyes of other moms.

Letting your child dive in and eat as much as they want is not a good idea. One year, our oldest managed to sneak his candy bag out of its hiding place and chow down. Later, his room was strewn with candy wrappers and puke. Even if you don't have a pukefest, your child's teacher will likely wish that the day after Halloween was a National Holiday if your child comes to school fully sugared up.

But, not letting your child have any or only letting them have one piece before you give it away might be extreme, too.

When I was growing up, we were not allowed any sugar at all. Unless you count the natural sugars found in fruit/fruit juice. My mother made everything from scratch because she wanted to make sure we were getting totally healthy, all-natural, sugar-free foods. No sugar and nothing artificial.

Yet, we were still allowed to go trick-or-treating. Because she couldn't deny us dressing up and getting to go out like the other kids.

But, unless we were given something like raisins, we couldn't have any of our candy.

None. Not even one piece.

Unless....

My father was around. And then he'd let us have all we wanted. Because it was such a rare treat, we dove in and ate until we felt sick... and then ate some more.

Making candy be so off-limits made it all the more desirable.

Now, I'm not going to let my own kids have a crazy sugar-fest where they can eat all they want. But, they can have a few pieces each day for a few days- after which, they will have either forgotten the candy is there or will assume that they ate it all.

A few pieces for a few days is not going to hurt them. And because they know they can have some, it won't seem like such a forbidden temptation.

Well, except that they can't have any Reeses peanut butter cups: those are for me and Hubs to fight over.

What do you do with your child/children's Halloween candy? 

My Magical Zoo: Halloween Parade

Did your kids have fun trick-or-treating?


Mine are candy-obsessed and love to dress up, so they adore Halloween!


My oldest was very insistent that he be Harry Potter for Halloween. No one believes me, because of my Harry Potter obsession, but this was all his idea. I never suggested HP to him. But, he was on a mission in the costume store, breezing by everything else, trying to find a Harry Potter costume. I tried to distract him with a zookeeper costume since his little brothers were going to be animals. And I thought it would be adorable to have him been their keeper.


But, no go. So, Harry Potter it was! I think he makes an adorable Harry.

He's not really a fan of me taking that many pics of him and gives me the stink eye very quickly.

He totally gets that look from me, I admit it.

If you look closely, you can see his lightning bolt scar. Yes, I drew it on his head with marker.

My middle son was a lion. I adore these fleece two-piece costumes and am very sad that he will be too big for these types next year. They grow too quickly.

Then, there's the baby. Well, okay, he's nearing the 2.5 mark, so maybe I shouldn't call him a baby any more, but he's MY baby!


When you are the youngest of three, you have your choice of handmedowns costumes and my little man went with each of them. One on the day of his brother's Halloween party at school- he wanted to be dressed up, too. Another for mall trick-or-treating, and a third for trick-or-treating around our neighborhood.

Everyone thought he was a girl in his giraffe costume because he wouldn't keep the hood up and his long curls were bouncing.

Join in with the SITS Girls, who have some of the best blogging tips, for a Halloween parade and a chance to win a fabulous camera. That I so desperately need. Luckily, my mil let me borrow her camera or I would have had no pics from Halloween!


What did your children dress up as? I want to see pics!


Btw, I'm working on my most emotional Pour Your Heart Out ever...if I can only get it into words. I hope that you will stop by on Wednesday- and link up, too!

Making Something Special(?) for Halloween

I'm really not all that crafty.


I would love to be, but I'm really such a mess when it comes to things like that.


Plus, I'm scared to ever let my children anywhere near glue again.


So, when the challenge from the SITS Girls was to share something that we created for Halloween, I was a little stumped.


Do you know what we created this Halloween? Probably the worst memories for our kids. We created yet another thing they can blame us for later, when they are complaining to their therapists.


Because on Friday night, we took them to a pumpkin patch.


On a hayride.


A haunted hayride.


Yes. In the dark. Through the scary woods. With crazy monsters that jump out of the woods and JUMP UP ONTO THE WAGON AND SCREAM AT YOU.


Or, slam their chainsaw down on the hay bale next to you.


And yes, my boys are 5, 4, and 2.


Whose idea was this anyway?


Oh, that's right. Hubs, of course.


Though, my 2 year old thought it was hilarious and laughed the whole time. And my 4 year old took it all in stride, even when the Grim Reaper tapped him with his death sickle. Or whatever that thing is called. Until the chainsaw guy popped up right in his face. Then he freaked out.


My 5 year-old hated the whole thing. From the very beginning when the creepy voice warned as as we were going into the woods that we shouldn't enter. "Mommy, he said not to enter. Why don't we turn back?" And then he tried to boss all the monsters around, telling them to get off our wagon and leave us alone.


My kids were far from the only ones on the hayride and not even the youngest. The three year old beside us ended up on the floor of the wagon, with his blanket over his head.


I don't think that the haunted hayride will be something that we do anytime again until our boys are teenagers at least! Because I really don't need to create any more traumatic memories for my kids.


And after we frightened our kids- here's a treat for them, too:


This is a treat that I've made for several Halloween parties. Because kids get enough candy. Make peanut butter sandwiches with Ritz crackers, then insert pretzel sticks for legs. Attach raisins with pb for eyes. There you go- a cute Halloween spider treat.

When Costumes Were Plastic...or Pajamas

Kids today don't know how lucky that have it.

That could be applied to MANY things these days.

But, right now, I'm talking about Halloween costumes!

It used to be that you either bought a plastic costume with the flimsy plastic mask or you wore some of your regular clothes in a creative way to make a costume. Unless you were lucky enough to have a mom who could sew.

My kids have been dinosaurs, bunnies, knights, firefighters, cute monsters(as opposed to scary), giraffes, and monkeys. All adorable costumes. Purchased, of course. My excuse for not sewing is that there are so many cute costumes out there, that it's okay to buy. Plus, you know, I can't sew.

I'm linking up with the SITS Girls today for a Halloween blast from the past and showing you one of my old costumes. In case you didn't know, they have the best blogging tips! Honestly, a lot of the credit for my blog growing the way it has in the past year goes to them. (I had about 50 readers in early October last year- and then I discovered SITS!)  Oh, and Tiffany is pretty.

Back to Halloween: One year, I was Minnie Mouse. With a cute dress straight from my closet that had Minnie printed all over it and a plastic Minnie mask. Another year I was Smurfette, with a blue turtleneck, blue tights, white slip with Smurfette printed on it, and a Smurfette mask. Another year, I was Cheer Bear: the plastic costume and mask, of course.

But, the picture I have to share with you is from 1980. Yup, THIRTY YEARS AGO.  I was three. Yes, I'll totally flaunt my age. Being in your thirties is FABULOUS, you know!

I was Strawberry Shortcake.

I wore my Strawberry Shortcake nightgown and my mom found me a red wig and some sort of hat that was supposed to look something like Miss Shortcake's. Except that I'm pretty sure that it was a plastic shower cap.

Lord only knows what my brother was supposed to be.

Do you have a favorite or at least memorable Halloween costume from when you were growing up? Share with me in the comments or write your own post about it and link it up with SITS.


There is a contest to win a fabulous camera going on over there. That I'm not too proud to beg for. Since my camera is completely dead. After just 15 months. This is where I point out that *I* was not the one who wanted to get anything other than a Canon. That was Hubs. GRRRRRR! See, me winning the Canon camera from SITS- would not only give me a fabulous camera to take pics of my kids(stuck with disposables for now!), but it would let me be all obnoxious and prove to Hubs that I'm right and that Canons are always better.