LIFE

Paint pumpkins

Bring along a few small sugar pumpkins and paint, spread out a pile of newspaper and get to work! Let the kids paint jack-o-lantern faces onto their pumpkins. For more fun, hit up the dollar store for some inexpensive fake tattoos. Follow the directions to transfer the faux-ink onto the pumpkins.

Creepy cookies

At home, bake off a bunch of sugar cookies. Use a pumpkin-shaped cookie cutter to create the classic shape, then bring over different icing colors so the kids can decorate. Bonus points for more creatures—think bats, ghosts and monsters!

Touchy-feely

Pack some haunted house-worthy “body parts” in Tupperware containers. Go for cold spaghetti, peeled grapes and a peeled orange. Blindfold the kids and have them guess at what’s inside by touching it. Ewww!

Dance party!

Get your charges on their feet with a special boo-tastic boogie playlist. Include classic Halloween songs like “Monster Mash” with some new faves. Take a peek at our top picks here.

Screen time

If the ‘rents let their little ones take a breather in front of the tube, consider popping in a movie. We love It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown as well as special Halloween episodes of their favorite ‘toons.

Monster masks

Cut eye and mouth holes out of basic white paper plates and let the kids go wild with markers, stickers, glitter and more. Bring your entire arts ‘n’ crafts kit along for this one—you never know what might be called for!

by Brittany Taylor | 2/1/2016