Monthly Musings-- All About Halloween

 I didn't want to skip out on Monthly Musing with Holly and Patty two months in a row even though this month's topic of Halloween doesn't really apply to us anymore. Now that the boys are grown, Halloween is kind of like a non-holiday around here. We live out in the country at the end of a dead end road so trick or treaters never venture out here. But I thought I'd answer most of the questions with what we USED to do.

1. When the boys were little we used to get them dressed in their costumes and drive to each of the grandparents and great-grandparents houses (well, the ones that were local anyway; which was nearly all of them). Then as they got older we would go to either of my sisters' houses and trick or treat around their neighborhoods as a group. For the first couple of years after the boys decided they were too old for trick or treating we watched spooky/Halloween movies at home and enjoyed some candy and ice cream. Now it's just like any other night for us. 

Ian as a rock star

Ian as a penguin

Evan as a monkey

Alec as a lion

2. We don't really have any fall traditions left but we LOVE to hike in the fall.

3. I only like the Milky Way Midnight bars otherwise I stay away from anything with nougat. But I do like Skittles (Starburst are a hard no from me!). 

4. We have NEVER hosted a Halloween party so I'll go with trick or treating here. 

5. I have never lived at a house that had trick or treaters to hand out candy so again I'll go with go with trick or treaters. 

6. I'm pretty sure we typically trick or treated on Halloween night. 

7. No. I don't like Halloween much so I've never decorated for it. However, we used to plan activities (some of which were crafts!) around Halloween in our homeschool so those decorations would be up if the boys wanted to participate. Both of these projects are from our 5 day of Halloween Homeschooling Fun series

A lot of time our homeschooling group threw a Halloween party and my boys would make art projects there we'd display too; like these fun skulls.

8. As a homeschooling mom we always used our leftover candy for learning! We ran science experiments like these (the link has 14 different ideas) & math ideas and games like these (the link has 12 different ideas). Then whatever we hadn't eaten or used for science and art I'd send to work with my husband. 

you can get the "s" to float right off the skittles!

9. I don't think we ever had set times to trick or treat; if we were going by ourselves we planned to leave the house as soon as my husband got home from work but if we were meeting my family at my mom or my sister's houses we'd pick a time to all meet up. I'd guess it was usually around 6 or 6:30 and we always tried to be home by 8 or 9 depending on the boys' ages. 

10. We don't have any traditional Halloween dinners but as part of our homeschooling fun we also made fun snacks/lunches like mummy pizzas out of English muffins (English muffins, sauce, string cheese and my boys opted to use pumpkin seeds for the eyes) & Pumpkin/tootsie roll rice krispie treats. We attended homeschooling Halloween parties a few years and  made wizard hat pie crusts, puking watermelon fruit salad, and other "healthy" and fun treats to share

Linking up with: Thinking Out Loud, Spread the Kindness,