Kids Halloween Candy: To Binge or Not to Binge?

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:

1. Box of sandwich baggies
2. permanent markers
3. 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!

Our Trunk - Your Treat... Flintstone's Style

For years, when the eldest girls were younger, our family was known for it's wacky creativity. We had so much fun with dressing up in a theme for the whole family. It wasn't until a couple weeks ago our youngest, Nate, brought to our attention our desperately low rating on the dress up fun factor. Instantly I was humbled by a few factors: 1) I am getting old  2) I am getting tired, and  3) I am not as fun as I used to be.

Well we simply could NOT have our Nate Boy
missing out on the richly dressed Ryan Family Heritage.  Our Natester deserved to have some fun fanatical family memories. So we signed up to be a trunk at our churches annual community TRUNK or TREAT. A Halloween event in a BIG Ole parking lot FULL of decked out cars, where adults in costumes dole out candy to the thousands lined up for the event.

Okay now that we had signed up for the festivities it was time to get to work.... Let the creativity begin. After a family meeting we all voted in the FLINTSTONES theme. So being limited on time we ordered the costumes on Ebay and another discount costume site. We found some fabulous deals on our outfits that could not have possibly been created for the same low cost. Now for the trunk....

We gathered some BIG boxes of cardboard. Next was time to surf the net for Flintstone Images. We took the images and enlarged them in a design program - then printed them out in panels. Super simple, super cheap.

A lot of cardboard, some printed computer images, tape...we were on our way to a GREAT beginning. After getting our cave walls created we needed another boost of creative juice. Next we needed signage (I grew up in a family sign business so you know we HAD to have a sign) and so I found a piece of old styrofoam and some spray paint - painted it up like a rock.  I printed out the "Flintstone" logo surrounded it with some battery operated Christmas lights - VOILA. Check that off...hmmm....what next....We had a white fur rug in our girls room. Took a battery camping lantern and made a mock shade for it with animal print fabric. A large artificial tree... we were getting close to completion. Pulling this together was ending up pretty simple, inexpensive and fun for our whole CLAN!

Look past our goofy selves and see if you can spot barney in the back - he is watching a tv which is attached to the back of a box and placed about 2 or 3 ft in front of him in the cave. We put a standing flashlight on the back side of the tv so it would appear to be lit up as if he was really watching it. See the glow? It also provided light for people to see inside the cave.

For a very low budget project I am SUPER proud of how our cozy litttle CAVE turned out. The response from the crowd was heartwarming. The parents who are usually in a moping state of mind as they walk their kids around in the windy, rainy weather would arrive at out Trunk and hear the Flinstones Theme song playing... they would start bouncing to the beat and smiling. Next thing we knew many wanted their pictures taken in BEDROCK with their Flinstone friends. So precious.

You know what was the VERY BEST about it? Our family had so much fun TOGETHER! AND... we have the photos to prove it! So Nate won't be looking back anytime soon and saying... "Why don't we ever...."

• We have
• We did and... 
• We will continue to make FUN a family priority

YABA DABA DOOOOOOOO

-Simply SUBLIME