What are you guys doing with your DCKs to celebrate, if anything? I was to disallow costumes but still want to make it special (an on a budget). Ideas? We have been doing a Halloween theme this week but want to vamp it up for thursday.

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We are having Halloween treats and I will open a pumpkin and let them scoop the insides out. They are decorating a paper bag and then everyone gets to put some treats in their bag to take home.

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We are having a party for about an hour, I'm thinking from the time they wake up from nap until pick up. I am letting them wear their costumes, and we will have cupcakes, Halloween music, etc.

We are doing this tomorrow, not Thursday.

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We are having a party ALL day!

Pizza, games, arts & crafts, LOTS of junk food and a piņata`!!

The kids it!!

Everyone comes in costume and we walk over to the nursing home a couple blocks away and are doing a costume parade and handing out cards and treats for the residents that live there.

It is basically going to be a free-for-all as the kids can eat what they want, when they want and as much as they want.

I am then off for the next 3 days.

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I am taking my crew trick-or-treating-I KNOW I will regret it, but I wanted to have one last outing with them before the winter weather starts.

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We are also doing an all day costume party!

We have games, decorating cookies, a craft and we watch a Halloween movie (probably Hotel Transylvania this year)

Oh, we do our party on Wednesday so they won't be too tired for trick or treating. On Thursday, we will do another Halloween craft and pass out goody bags.

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No....I don't really have it together enough to do holidays. Haven't for a long time. And this year the only dck that would care is in preschool and will be having a party at school that day. The rest are 2, 1, and .5. And 6...but she's mine.

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That sounds like fun I want to come! LOL! I really wish I had put the first as a day off!!

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We did a Fall Festival last Friday. I have done one every year since I opened 6 years ago. Parents are required to come! I always have it on a Friday at 3:30 and then they stay for a hour or so and then take off with their kids. Check out my facebook page if u want to see pictures.
https://www.facebook.com/GreenGateEarlyLearning

But for this Thursday I am just going to buy a special cookie or something and maybe make a Halloween craft.

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Not sure what we're doing here. I have 1 infant, 1 young toddler and 1 preschooler-whom is currently running a 99.7* fever so I'm watching him like a hawk. The toddler painted a paper plate pumpkin today that will turn into a tamborine tomorrow, but older one refused. Usually we parade around the block in our costume, play a few games, and make their own mummy pizzas, but usually I have at least 3 preschoolers. One year for snack we had mixed fruit inside an orange that I had carved to look like a pumpkin-glad I only had 3 eaters that time, it wasn't as easy as you would think.

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We have pumpkin plates for lunch and some napkins for lunch ... regular food. well maybe grilled cheese because it is orange.

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I don't do costumes either. I am always nervous about stains and tears before pictures are taken and they get to wear them out.

We will have a party all day. Halloween music, painting our mini pumpkins from the front porch, scooping out the inside of a pumpkin and playing with it, and making a Halloween cake (the kids get to decorate it with candy bugs/ eyeballs). And watching "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown".

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We are doing...nothing, or nothing much. I have a young group and it's like I'm torturing them to do anything artsy. We have been ready Halloween books. I will do a Halloween themed lunch (Chicken/Cheese Quesadilla cut in a pumpkin shape with a cookie cutter, applesauce with Halloween sprinkles, ...)

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The kids come in their costumes (we take them off for lunch and nap) and in the morning we trick-or-treat at each room in our center- one age group at a time. If it is nice out we go for a walk around the neighborhood.

And we eat treats all day long, but mainly at snack.

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I am making "Mummy Hot Dogs" for lunch - all beef hot dogs wrapped up in thinly sliced crescent roll dough. (We don't do hot dogs very often, so it is a treat for them!)
And, Jack-o-lantern tortillas for snack. (Small tortillas with shredded cheddar cheese. Faces made from turkey pepperoni cut into triangles and crescent shapes. Bake for about 5 minutes to melt the cheese.)

I don't have the kids come in costume, but my dress up box will be prominent in the dramatic play.
Probably treat the kids by allowing a Halloween themed cartoon. Dora or Backyardigans or some such. (TV is also very limited here.)

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We are dressing up with out 2nd shift kiddos, having a party & passing out spooky treats (& business cards to the parents!).

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We are doing a pumpkin party. I asked parents not to send kids in costumes, but that orange clothes would be festive if they wanted to. Parents are sending treats (more than we need, probably, but sweet families). We are playing pumpkin games indoors and out. And we'll cut into our pumpkin and get squishy and messy. I'm sending home little treat bags with mini pumpkins and stickers to decorate them with along with a cute little poem about decorating pumpkins (saw on pinterest) and some homemade cookies instead of candy.

It's our first special day since I opened, so I'm looking forward to it. And my own kids are as well!

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I wasn't going to do costumes, but decided they could come in them and I could easily take them off or they could.

I have three fun games and for snack....pumpkin pie, all natural ice cream and they will sprinkle on fall sprinkles and one mom is bringing those teeny, tiny cupcakes-I requested white frosting because I hate those bright neon frostings!

I have a goodie bag with those Mandarin oranges in the cups...I am going to draw a pumkin face on them, Annie's bunny crackers-they are orange, with a few choc. chips & m$m's, a mini kit-kat and a few things from the dollar store.

It has been warm here in WI., so we might go out for a little parade. Almost across the street from me is an independent living facility for the elderly. If I wasn't in close down mode I would have called them and arranged to walk through there with the kids. But since next Wed is my last day I am just not that ambitious! My mind is beginning to check out!

It's kind of cool closing my day care this time if year! It's festive with all the Halloween lights around town and our party kind of works as a going away party too. It makes for a nice good bye.

I was suppose to be done Nov 1, but a few families needed a few extra days!

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I take Halloween as a paid day off. As odd as it sounds, I have it in my contract. The way I see it, I miss going to my DD's class trips and have to schedule doctors appointments around everyone's else's schedule. This is one stress free day I like to spend with my kids.
That being said, it looks like we are getting rain here for Halloween. I can't imagine how upset my own children and others are going to be if they can't go trick or treating. So on my day off I am throwing a big Halloween party for all the neighborhood kids ans I invited my daycare families too. I never invite the daycare families to anything bc I like to keep our personal worlds separate, although I do go if invited to something of theirs. But I thik it will mean a lot to all the kids.

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We are having an all day costume party here with lots of junk food, Halloween music and games.

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I am doing mine on Friday and it's a costume party. I'm doing it on Friday so that the kids won't mess up their costumes for trick or treating, plus, all of my kids will be here that day.

My kids are 2 and under, except for one so we are just going to decorate cookies, have pumpkin shaped marshmallows, have a mini parade around the house, and I'm not sure what else.

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w ewill have a party after nap. all kids are wearing costumes. most of my parents have a second warmer one for that night and know that the one they wear to daycare might get dirty it happens. i also have costumes in dressup just in case. im still working on games though. we did our pumpkin today so we can eat the seeds tomorrow

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We'll put on our costumes and go down to the school for their Halloween parade. Then we'll make some ghost feet, have yummy cupcake treats and watch a fun Halloween movie!

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I made special "ghost" cookies a couple of weeks ago, frosted them, and froze them. I'll get those out. We can do our normal day during the morning, and in the afternoon I am going to have a party after nap, I invited the parents, so they will come, and then when the party is over around 3:15, the parents can take their bundles of joy home with them! Whew, joys! Then I can get an early evening, and so can they. Next year, I am closing for Halloween, as I want to be with my kids at their party at school, then take them to my husbands job for trick or treating there.

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I'm seriously not doing anything special. The only dck old enough to care or know the difference is going to be at preschool half the day.

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Heck yes! The local papa johns is doing jack-o-lantern shaped pizza and we ordered one for lunch! The dcks loved it!

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Uh yes, I think we are. Inspiration hasn't hit me yet but it better pretty soon. I'm making the witch cupcakes for snack and creating a veggie platter with dip to look like a skeleton for lunch to go with ghoulish meatballs and noodles. They're coming in costume and I need to dig out our Halloween videos to see what we have. We've been doing so darn many Halloween crafts I'm sorta all Halloweened out.
I'd like to think of a craft we haven't done, maybe spider headbands. And a couple games to play...any help there? I might do 'hide the gourd' and make a spider web using painter's tape, they can throw wadded up paper at it. I've got mostly little kids.

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Kids are wearing costumes until we go for outside play
We will be making a Witches Brew Snack Mix (everyone brought in one ingredient) and we will be sending some home too.

We will be dancing to Halloween music, playing Halloween bingo, and reading some Halloween stories. Maybe a craft if it's raining out - it's in the forecast.

We are also having an *Mostly* orange lunch - Halloween shaped Mac and Cheese (they will be excited since I never make boxed mac and cheese), orange slices, steamed carrots, and pumpkin shaped ham sandwich

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Halloween is one of my largest celebrations and one of the kids favorite "holidays." I give out goody bags (a Halloween pumpkin bucket with some toy trinkets), we will play a couple of games, do a sensory activity, carve a pumpkin and parade around the neighborhood in our costumes. All of my meals and snacks are themed. It's always fun and takes a lot of preparation. By the evening, I'm usually happy and very relieved!

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I am having the kids bring their costumes, and our "party" will be in the morning (I have two leaving after lunch and one leaving right after nap time). We are going to have a dance party in the costumes, play some games (toss the ball into the plastic pumpkin, and I have some white plastic cups that I'm going to draw ghost faces on and they can stack those and play around with those for a bit), then we will take the costumes off to decorate cookies (with orange frosting and Halloween sprinkles) and paint pumpkins. For lunch we are having Halloween shaped macaroni & cheese.

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Pumpkin muffins and some parents are sending baked goods as well. I have Halloween music for kids and Halloween books. Also sending home trick or treat bags. Keeping it simple.

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It's looking like tomorrow afternoon during nap/dcb at preshool, we will be carving/painting pumpkins (my kids and I). And for snack it looks like I'm going to do more of a dinner for everyone kinda late-ish (4:30) of grilled cheese (that I may as well do as pumpkins), celery and carrots, other stuff. Maybe get ambitious and bake these nummy pumpkin scones for "dessert".

And I'll probably let everyone explore the pumpkin goop and innards. And sort out the seeds if they feel so inclined. We'll see.

I decided to serve everyone dinner in the interest of getting my family out the door to my sister's house for Trick or Treat on time. my families pick up anywhere between 5 and 6, and ToT starts at 6.

Next year I'm just going to close early....

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Closed early. (notified parents in January, so I don't feel bad at all. Last year I had a late pickup and missed 1/2 of ToT with my own kids.)

Costume party after nap, Halloween crafts, parents are sending treats, the whole works but it will be from 2:30 (end of nap) to 4:00 (closing early time) so that's manageable for a group of 6 preschoolers in chaos.

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Kids come in costumes, we "party" in the morning and then I take them off for lunch/nap time. I also close early, but only an hour.
My kids are young (2.5 and under) so we won't really do much of a party, just some extra treats and games. We used to trick or treat to a few neighbors houses, but no one is really home in here anymore. I like the idea of cutting open a pumpkin!

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