Yesterday was Christmas, Today is Halloween!

Since Christmas is something I have to plan for,
I shared our tradition yesterday
of the 4 gifts of Christmas.

But today it's all about Halloween, bebeh.
Halloween rocks!
We used to have huge halloween parties
every year because Nana's bday
is next week
and she loved "dress-up"
so it just always worked.

In Colorado,
Halloween is either freezing freakin' cold--
snow, wind, blizzard conditions
freezing rain and negative wind chill
or it's a beautiful fall evening.
We plan on it being cold though.
SO costumes are made or chosen
based on whether a long-sleeved turtleneck
a fleece shirt
or long johns can be worn under said costume.
Only one time has there been a leftover Summer day
for Halloween--
and Nana was "I dream of Jeannie".
The rest of the years
we go with long dresses for the girls--
any kind will do...
Snow White, Sleeping Beauty,
Fairy Princesses, Scary Witches--
or Knights, Army Guys, etc. for the boys--
it doesn't matter really
as long as we can warm it up
under them we're good to go.

Mr W has a TIGGER costume
and I have the POOH one--
which I got the year Boofus was born--
I was 9 months pg in a POOH costume.
The round belly made me look authentic
and I was so darn cute!

We play games like
Bigger OR Better: Divide the group into teams, give each team a penny, and send them off in different directions in the neighborhood. Each house they go up to, they ask the person there if they have anything BIGGER or BETTER than a penny. They then trade the penny for whatever the person gives them and go to the next house and trade that object for something BIGGER or BETTER...and then at the end of the given time, each team returns to the house and we vote on who got the best BIGGER or BETTER--you'd be amazed at some of the things we've ended up with!
Cracker Whistling: Divide kids into teams. This is a relay. At the other side of the room, each runner has to eat a saltine and whistle, before they can run back to their team. The teams that gets thru first, wins.
Murder in the Dark: This is really for older kids. Everyone sits in a circle,holding hands, lights off, and either a big candle (with a large plate under it) OR a decent flashlight that sits upright towards the ceiling. Each player draws a small peice of paper from a pile in the middle of the circle. Only one peice of paper has an "X" on it. The player that gets that "X" is the "Murderer" and tells noone.
Now this is where it gets interesting: The Murderer has to kill off everyone else in the circle before being caught. How he does that is by squeezing the person's hand next to him the number of spaces the person he wants to kill is sitting away from him. For example, if the next victim is sitting 3 people away from him, he'd squeeze 3 times the hand of the person sitting right next to him, then that person would squeeze their hand 2 times, and then the next person would squeeze their hand 1 time, and the person who gets their hand squeezed 1 time, dies and is removed from the circle. No words are allowed at all, except if a player (not dead) has a Suscpicion. Then they say, "I suspect the Murderer is _______." If another player wants to, they can Second it. Then the Suspect has to be honest and say whether or not they were the Murderer. If they're innocent, the Accusers are out. If the Suspect is the Murderer, the game is over and can start again. The Accusers get a treat for winning or whatever.
Apple Dunking: Fill a humongous bucket with water, toss in the apples and let the kids go for it with their mouths. But with cold and flu season being so rampant these days, we won't be playing that this year.
Fortune Telling: Little kids love this game. Someone older (like a Mom or Dad) dresses up like a gypsy and tells them their fortunes.
Mad Scientist Lab: Blindfolded, the kids are led down a line of bowls filled with assorted foods and they try to guess what they are touching: Tiny pickles are "witches toes", Whole olives are eyeballs, Spaghetti is brains, and on and on. Tiny kids don't like this much, but 2nd graders do!

So those are just a few games.

As far as trick or treating,
when it's so cold, the younger the kids are,
the quicker the round of the neighborhood is over.
We also go to trunk-or-treating at Church
and the kids love that!

Once the kids have their loot of goodies
I go thru it all and toss out the unwrapped/suspicious stuff
and then they have free reign for a couple days--
they can eat as much as they want for those days
then I toss out the rest.

Amy over at Fourth Frog Blog does something unique--
so you should go over and read about it...
maybe it'll give you an idea or two.

So I've got a Halloween Party to plan.
The Caboose wants to be Dorothy from Wizard of Oz--
but she'll have to wear a long sleeve shirt under,
and white sweater tights.
oh, and I'll need to go to Goodwill maybe and
find some of those red glittered shoes.
Boofus wants to be a variety of things--
all of which include some kind of sword, so we'll see.

Me? I'll be getting out that POOH costume.
It's like a SNUGGLI...all fleecy and warm
I can bear (pun-intended) the cold in that!

What kind of Halloween traditions do you have??