"Halloween time"

My boy Jonathan LOVES Halloween. Our neighborhood goes all out, and when the pumpkins, skeletons, spiderwebs, and graveyards starting popping up last year he became obsessed. When the spooky stuff came down and the Christmas stuff went up he just didn't understand! How could Santa be as exciting as bones and pumpkins? For months he would ask to go on a walk to see the bones, and his conversational chatter about his Ewok costume lasted well into the spring ("I a Ewok. Mama is Leia. Dada is Darth Maul. No, Dada is Jedi. Darth Maul is mean. Jedi nice. Dada is nice.") On and on.

Fast forward to this year. As soon as he saw pumpkins in the grocery store he knew that "Halloween time" was back! Long story short, our house was fully decorated by the end of September. Most mornings he comes downstairs with a big smile, "I so happy it's Halloween time Mama!" Starting so early, we have had lots of time to stretch out our Halloween festivities. Here are a few of our favorites that will surely be traditions for years to come:

1. Halloween Books! My dream is to have a collection of books for each holiday. There is just something special about books that only come out once a year. But we have many moves ahead, and we are on a pretty tight budget, so the library is the way to go for us! We hit up different libraries to gather a few new books each week.

Favorites for kids:
Shivery Shades of Halloween
Too Many Pumpkins
The Bones of Fred McFee
Where the Wild Things Are
Birdie's Happiest Halloween

Favorites for parents/teens:
Rebecca
Coraline (great read aloud for older children. It is also a graphic novel)
And Then There Were None
Murder on the Orient Express
Also, I am currently reading Turn of the Screw. I'll let you know if it ends up being "list worthy"

2. Movies. J is old enough to get "nur-bus" now, so our selection is limited. This year we have been watching:
Room on the Broom (Netflix)
The original Casper cartoons (Amazon Prime)
Super Monsters (Netflix)

Matt and I look forward to the day when Coraline, Hocus Pocus, Corpse Bride, Nightmare Before Christmas, and Simpson's Treehouse of Horrors episodes can be added to the mix.

3. Pumpkin painting. I grew up in Southern California with very warm Octobers, so we always painted our pumpkins. We would paint big faces on them and line them up on top of our front wall. Same situation here, although with the humidity we didn't even want them outside because they get moldy so fast! This year we painted mini pumpkins and lined them up on the mantle. Both boys loved it. J used so much paint that his pumpkins took 2-3 days to dry, but they were the coolest ones by far.

4. Food. It is Scott family tradition to have clam chowder in bread bowls on Halloween night, so we definitely have that to look forward to! In years past I have enjoyed baking pumpkin bread, making pumpkin cookies, pancakes, etc. But I have been off my game this year! Maybe I can bust out some pumpkin pancakes this weekend. We'll see.