Ok, so my littlies have no idea about Halloween. None, whatsoever.
But I do. And I think it’s a pretty fun day. A fun day of crafts and dress up and pumpkins and candy.
I have always thought that the idea of Halloween was fun, and when adding kids into the equation, one’s fun grows exponentially. Before we had children of our own, we would have Halloween sleep overs with all our nephews and nieces of my brothers and cousins.And, without a doubt it was always fun for all invovled!
Now with our own kiddies in the mix, and with them being so small, Halloween for us has to be revised. But we still gotta keep the fun factor going. And since one day of dress up and candy wont really be much more than a blip on their constant-kiddy-party-going toddler and baby radar, I thought that a few small fun Halloween activities throughout the month could help whet their appetite as such.
So I’ve scoured the internet (read: “googled a bit”) to work out and share with you what we will be doing over the next three weeks, as our countdown to Halloween begins!
Now these might not be ground breaking, but given their age, our limited Halloween commercialism in South Africa, and me being a working mom, this is as pinteresty as it gets, folks! (For now, at least!)
Halloween activities with a toddler, to countdown to the day:
- 1. Make Hulk masks– My eldest simply lurrrvs Hulk and has a pretty good “Hulk Smasshhh” impersonation down pat too, so I thought this would be perfect for her. I found an awesome site with great ideas and fantastic templates. Go check it out. By the way, if you’re in search of super hero crafts or activities, you’ve totally hit the jackpot there!
- 2: Halloween painting– Basically using hand and foot prints with a halloween twist.Did this with my eldest two years ago, as a 1.5year old, and she loved it. What kiddy doesn’t love to get all messy? Watch this space for details on this activity.
- 4: Make Maleficent Hair Pin-I have girls.’Nuf said.[UPDATE: See how our hairclips turned out for Halloween season in 2014 here]
- 5: Go pumpkin hunting–and by this I don’t mean we’re gonna hit up a Mr Bones somewhere. If we DID have one, we’d totally be there, but Im talking about actually hunting down Halloween type pumpkins in the stores. Sad. I know. But there will be pumpkins! By gosh, there will be pumpkins!So I’ll keep you posted as to where to find the best Halloween pumpkins in Cape Town this year. That is,if you were looking, of course.
- 6: Costume hunting– Hubby and I are actually going to an official Halloween party! And not a kiddy one, for a change. So I gotta do some serious shopping around. No DYI this time. Firstly, because this time there are TWO kids on my hips, so if whatever Im busy doing does not revolve around them, or is not being done at night while they are asleep, I can just forget about even attempting it. And secondly, our youngest beasty will be celebrating her very FIRST birthday – OMG! So Im going to be hella busy making and baking…at night while they sleep. So costume hiring it is! All round. If you’d like to see our round up of all the costume hire places available, have a look-see here.
- 7: Pumpkin decorating– once more, watch this space for deets on this activity.
- 8: And finally,D-day, when we dress up, hand out candy to the neighbourhood trick-or-treaters, and go trick or treating (real early, before lights out and lockdown, because that’s how a toddler rolls)
Now,like I said, I know this list aint exactly wow and dripping with originality, but its what we plan to do this year. Its simple and fun, and pretty realistic given our constraints as parents. Im pretty sure we can add a whole lot more complex activities as they get older – like say a halloween countdown calendar.
So in the end, I hope this list helps you, and gets you and the kids excited for Halloween. Or at the very least, inspires you to do a better job at entertaining your toddlers than I do. 🙂
What are your plans for Halloween with your kids? Or maybe you have some awesome crafts ideas and activities to share…please don’t be afraid to share them below in the comments area. I’d LOVE to hear it!
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