Oh my dear fellow parents. We have arrived at that time of year again. We dress our little sweeties up in their adorably creative costumes. We spend some time coaching the kiddos on how to be polite... "Trick or Treat", "Thank you". Yes - they are ready to hit the street. We walk with them door to door. We snap tons of photos...because they are so stinkin' cute. So precious and isn't this great exercise for them... walking around the neighborhood? In fact they are even choosing to run at times. Oh bless their little hearts for wanting to get in some aerobic activity prior to going to bed for the night. Precious!
Once the little kiddos can no longer hold their bags of loot up without it dragging on the ground the parents finally decide it is time to head home for the night. The goal has been reached...all can be proud of a successful evening of Trick or Treating.
Then comes the candy sorting and trading. (Atleast in our family) The children dump their load on the floor in an area claimed as their space. They begin to pull out the items they don't care for. Now it is time to see what they can get for it from their siblings. SCORE... a red vine for a snickers...YES!!!
So now what? Shall we voluntarily let our little peeps chow down on 5, 064 grams of sugar every hour on the hour for the next 48-72 hours until the stash is completely depleted? I do believe with this type of candy inhalation the children go from a sweet, kind, calm state to a raging lunatic state of mind. Is this the mandatory aftermath all parents and children must experience so we can claim VICTORY???
Last year I came up with a new system that changed it all for my kiddos...and MOST importantly ME.
Are you ready for it? Well here it comes....
duh-duh-da-da....
Once my sweetikins finished up the trading process and felt good about their final score it was time to bag it up. Each of them separated their candy into groups of 10-14 pieces, depending on size. I passed out a pile of sandwich baggies to each child. They carefully deposit their 10-14 pc allotment into each bag. The child then labeled or decorated the bags as they saw fit for easy identity later. The collections of baggies then went into the freezer. The CANDY DISPENSER would now dole out 1 baggie a week until the BIG thaw in spring sometime. Typically they would have 20-30 baggies to spread out through winter into spring.
Can you say SUH-WEET!!!!
Things you will need on hand:
- Box of sandwich baggies
- permanent markers
- stickers (optional)
The kids LOVED this SO MUCH they asked to do it this year again before I could bring it up. I look at it as teaching my kids to budget. I mean really - we actually brought some appreciation of the quantity they worked for along with the value of making it last longer. They REALLY look forward each week to pick their baggie of treats. They also aren't becoming sugar-coated monsters. It is just the right amount of sugar for the sweet little treasures to stay sweet. NICE!
-Simply SUBLIME!
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