Friday, December 11, 2009
Thursday, October 16, 2008
The Ultimate Halloween Party
by Bethany Sanders Oct 15th 2008 8:00AM
As my daughter reminded me this morning, there are only 15 days left until Halloween. Halloween falls on a Friday this year, perfect for trick-or-treating that runs past bedtime, but also a great opportunity to throw a Halloween party.Before you start thinking, A Halloween party? Now I have to entertain in addition to making costumes, baking cupcakes, and buying candy?, consider this. A Halloween party is a great way to enjoy time as a family, spend time with busy friends, or avoid going door-to-door, if trick-or-treating just isn't your thing.A Family PartyA party need not include guests. Instead, send invitations to your kids inviting them to a family Halloween bash, right in your kitchen. Here are some ideas for making this night of family fun more memorable:
Come in costume ... the young and the young at heart. Your kids will appreciate your enthusiasm.
Start with dinner, appropriately gruesome for the holiday -- try spaghetti and eyeballs, bat wings, and a cauldron full of witches brew.
Now it's time to have fun! Carve a pumpkin and have a seed spitting contest; load the wagon with hay and go on a "hayride"; or have a candy scavenger hunt in your backyard.
End the night with an easy craft (try one of these), then curl up in bed with some popcorn to watch a Halloween movie together, like The Nightmare Before Christmas, Beetlejuice, or It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown!. Or finish of the night with a not-too-scary book for little ones like Go Away Big Green Monster!.A Bigger BashFeeling up to a bigger party that includes family, friends and/or neighbors?
Try some of these ideas:
Consider a theme: Think pumpkin carving, monster mash, haunted house, or even fall/harvest.
Hold a Best Costume contest, with plenty of categories so that everyone can receive a prize.
Keep everyone busy with a game or two. Try Zombie Tag or Spider Relays, get them giggling with Mummy Wrap, or set up a pumpkin bowling alley.
Don't forget the creepy cuisine! Kaboose has an excellent list of simple spooky recipes, while those with a little more experience in the kitchen (and time on their hands) might want to try some of Family Fun's more involved recipes. Remember -- the little touches mean a lot. Freeze water inside plastic gloves, then peel and float these "hands" in your punch bowl. You can also freeze gummy worms in ice cubes for a slimy surprise!
Time to wrap it up? Settle everyone down with a craft. Buy mini-pumpkin gourds and supply paints, glitter, and craft supplies for decorating. Older kids might like making a candle-"eye"-bra. Or send everyone home with their own yummy-mummy treat cups. The most important part of your Halloween party should be your child's participation in the process. They can make invitations, plan and put up decorations, gather materials for crafts and games, and help out in the kitchen, all the while building excitement for this spooky night of memory making.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Where's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown?
Hold onto your blanket, Linus. There may not be a Great Pumpkin this year.
A bumper crop of hot summer weather has left much of the region with a pumpkin harvest that's decidedly on the small side.
The stretch of hot weather in August created drought conditions that stunted the growth of pumpkins, growers say.
"We don't have the numbers and they are definitely smaller," says Camie Goetsch, owner of Green Acres Farm Market at the corner of U.S. 31 and Lake Michigan Drive in Grand Haven.
"We are known for big, quality pumpkins. Everyone comes from miles away for our pumpkins. Our pumpkins this year are big, but not what we normally have," said Goetsch, who expects to sell 20,000 to 30,000 pumpkins supplied by two local farms.
Goetsch plans to absorb the loss herself.
"I have a hard time charging more to the public because I depend on repeat business," she said.
The market usually sells out a week before Halloween, but this year she expects her pumpkins to disappear even earlier.
The hot weather means many pumpkin crops are ripening earlier than normal this year. And the presence of so many pumpkins so early at area farmer's markets leave some wondering whether the jack-o-lanterns will hold out for Halloween.
The good news is that West Michigan's pumpkin crop is fairing better than those harvests in Southwest Michigan or the Chicago area, says Bill Steenwyk, district extension educator for commercial vegetables at Michigan State University's Clarksville Horticultural Experiment Station in Ionia County. Flooded fields in those areas caused some pumpkin crops to rot.
"Many other areas were quite a bit wetter than we are," Steenwyk said.
Operations like Post Family Farm in Hudsonville kept their pumpkin plants well-watered. And the farm's sandy soil mitigated the arrival of heavy rains last month, keeping the pumpkins from getting too soggy.
"We had excellent pumpkin crop conditions," said Bill Post, who sells most of his pumpkins to U-pick customers. The 80-acre spread includes a farm market, hay rides, a greenhouse, pumpkin train, corn maze, sleigh rides, ice skating and Christmas trees.
Jerry Paulson's 7-acre pumpkin patch tucked into his 100-acre farm in Belding has seen better years. He sells most of his pumpkins at his farm's roadside market. They range from half-pound decorations to 200-pound show stoppers.
"They got ripe early because of the hot and dry weather," said Paulson, who began to see his pumpkins blush orange the first week of August.
Paulson, who also provides pumpkins to the Lowell Fall Festival and Meijer Gardens, says he plans to keep his at the same price.
At the stores, pumpkins are likely to be a little smaller and a little pricier.
"I don't think customers will notice much," says Stacie Behler, spokeswoman for the Walker-based Meijer stores.