Our Halloween Preparations

My son and my niece, ready to face the villains!

My kids are in what I like to call the "Golden Age" of celebrating Halloween. Old enough to participate in crafts and baking, able to walk to trick or treat, and excited about dressing up, but young enough to still believe in the magic of ghosts and witches and to want to celebrate everything with their parents. I know it's only a matter of time before the older one will want to go trick or treating with his friends instead of his parents, or he'll be embarrassed that his mother likes to dress up to hand out candy at the door.

So I'm making the most of it while I can, and enjoying every minute. Kids of all ages can participate in Halloween decorating and treat making, provided the activities are scaled to their ability and interest level.





My five year old helped me prepare our teal pumpkin for allergy awareness and picked out some of the non-food treats that will be part of what we hand out at the door this week.

He also helped me bake and decorate gluten free witch cupcakes, along with my 6 year old niece.

And even my two year old got to paint his own pumpkin. Painting pumpkins is a kind of annual tradition for us. I started it when my oldest was two. Too young to help carve a pumpkin and not interested enough to sit through the whole carving process, I set him up outside on his little picnic table and let him paint his own. Now he paints or glitters one every year, and this year his little brother got in on the action.

Halloween can be stressful for gluten free or food allergic kids. I want my son to have fun, while understanding that he also needs to be careful and that we will have to be extra vigilant Halloween night while sorting through his candy. Still, I want his memories of Halloween to be good ones, full of fun, excitement, and lots of laughter, the way a kid's Halloween memories should be.

Batman & Robin, ready for a Halloween Party