How to Handle the Candy: The Great Pumpkin

Happy Halloween Everybody!  It's one of my favorite holidays, I love the excitement in the air today.   Cute little kids running around in their costumes set against a backdrop of trees in firey orange, red, and yellow, with the random leaves  fluttering about.  It's the stuff of life, those sweet fleeting moments you never want to forget. 

Know what's not fleeting?  And what you would like to forget? The sugar meltdowns that go along with consuming all that candy.  Unfortunately, most Halloween candy is loaded with gmos and chemicals (Food Babe did a nice post about this here and Huffpo has one here).  There are some great alternatives, but even the good stuff is still sugary, so I find it best to curb consumption.  What we do at our house is choose some candy to consume after trick or treating, then put the rest in a bag on the porch for the Great Pumpkin, who leaves a small gift in exchange for the candy.  It works great for us; my son gets more excited about the GP than the candy. 

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Get Ready for Dia De Los Muertos

Don't you love Autumn?  Beautiful trees, hot apple cider, and two fabulous holidays.   Halloween, and Dia De Los Muertos, aka, Day of the Dead.  Since most of you are already super familiar with Halloween, I'll tell you how we celebrate Dia de los Muertos at our house.  It's a holiday to honor our friends and relatives who have died.  Sometimes we have guests, sometimes we don't, but every year we set up an ofrenda (an altar with favorite foods of the deceased, photos, flowers, etc), make some yummy organic Mexican food, and tell stories about loved ones that have passed on.

It's such a beautiful holiday and really makes me feel more comfortable with something we rarely talk about in American culture--death.  It's a way to celebrate those we love that have passed and doesn't it just make you feel better to think there will be a party for you every year with a few of your favorite things?  I think it's brilliant.

You can read about how to make an ofrenda HERE.  And you can find some fabulous decorations and supplies at MexicanSugarSkull.com, which is a wonderful source for all things Day of the Dead including information, inspiration, and beautiful photos (like the one above and to your left). Check out those awesome sugar skull cookies pictured above, wouldn't it be fun to make those?

One note about food--please be sure to get organic corn products as most non-organic corn products are genetically modified.  We generally use all organic foods beans, limes, tortilla chips, tomatoes, cilantro, chocolate, etc. and are lucky to live somewhere where these things are readily available.  I know not everyone has access, so just making sure the corn products are organic is a great place to start.

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It's The Great Pumkin Charlie Brown

It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown airs tonight and again tomorrow night.  We will DVR it and watch it about 11 times between now and Halloween, it's one of the highlights of the season for me.  I love the music and the atmosphere, and the low key sweet vibe of it all.  We have ambitions to bake up some organic vegan pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and make an event of it.  Happy Halloween everybody!

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STACK THE BONES from Kikkerland

Perfect to leave out the rest of the month, this wooden Skull and Bones Stack The Bones game functions as a game and cool Halloween and Day of The Dead decor.

This is not a Jenga game, but made by Kikkerland and I have never played Jenga, so I do not know how it compares, the bones do seem somewhat lightweight. Players each remove one bone using only one hand, and place it on top without toppling the stack.  The last player to do this successfully wins.  It's appropriate for both little kids and big kids.  I think this would be great in the boardroom  or on a desk as well--studies show that having toys like this around the workplace increases productivity.

Comes in a gift-worthy box--would make a great hostess gift for any Halloween parties you might be attending.

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Plants Vs. Zombies

What do you do with your five year old boy on a chilly Autumn morning?  Lay in bed under tons of covers and play Plants Vs. Zombies, that's what!  I am sooo not a video game person, eschewing them for years.  But we got an iPod Touch and I'm okay with some of those games which are apps (in moderation).  And they also have tons of educational apps for kids--math, flash cards, etc., very cool.

In the spirit of Halloween, I downloaded Plants Vs. Zombies and neither one of us can get enough.  We snuggled under the covers giggling and whacking zombies with peashooters and cherry bombs until the iPod needed a recharge.  It's visually great with tons of vibrant colors and graphics, and the zombies are cute, there's no blood and guts or anything.

For anyone who loves botanicals and has a sense of humor, I recommend this highly!  Is it green?  I think so, the ipod is a tiny self contained party box filled with endless options and I don't know how we got by without it.  Seriously, I can now make phone calls, I can go to appointments with my son, I can shop with ease and I can sleep in a little bit.  Amazing.  And it's also a fun interactive thing for us to do together.

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ZEN GHOSTS by John Muth

My son and I eagerly await John Muth's Stillwater books and I'm so thrilled to have this latest effort, ZEN GHOSTS, which takes place during my favorite time of year, Autumn and Halloween.  Stillwater, the giant panda is my most adored contemporary children's book character.  But these books are obviously not just for children.

Addy, Michael and Karl, featured in the prior books, are getting ready for Halloween.  Stillwater  joins them for festivities and reads the children a story by candlelight.  The vibe of the book is both cozy and mysterious.

As you can tell from the cover, the illustrations are magical.  There is a two page spread depicting trick or treating that is magnificent, so visually the book is incredible, and perhaps the most striking one of the series to date.

The Buddhist theme is appropriate for young children as they can be even more receptive to subtle teachings than adults.  In some ways, a koan is more accessible to a child.  As with the other two Stillwater books, Zen Ties and Zen Shorts, this is a story within a story and this one goes pretty deep.  What genius to contemplate illusion in a Halloween setting!  What is real and what is not real?  "Which Senjo is the true one?  Are they one or are they two?"  This book works on many different levels and I can't get enough of it.  Find it HERE.

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