Pets are part of the family and it’s fun to include them in holiday festivities. Here are some things you can do to make sure your pet stays safe this Halloween.
The Big Night
Bring your pets inside the house before it gets
dark.
Keep pets in a closed, quiet room so they don’t dash
out when you open the door for trick-or-treaters.
Talk to your veterinarian about using a calming aid to
help keep your pet calm. Dogs instinctively protect their homes and family from
strangers. It can be stressful for them to have a lot of strangers knocking on
the door or ringing the doorbell throughout the evening.
Put an ID tag on her reflective collar (and make
sure her microchip registration is current) just in case she does get out when
you open the door.
Candy and Treats
Keep candy and chocolate out of reach. Candy and chocolate
are extremely toxic to pets.
Keep anything containing xylitol out of reach. The
sweetener xylitol is toxic and can quickly become deadly to pets.
Decorating
Use flameless candles in your pumpkins so whiskers
and paws don’t get burned.
Keep Halloween decorations out of reach. Chewing on
electrical cords and wires, knocking over candles, or eating fake spider webs
can seriously hurt a pet.
If you dress your pet up, make sure his costume is
safe. It should fit well and it shouldn’t have anything that is tied around his
neck. Make sure his costume isn’t too constraining, too long causing him to
trip, or blocks his vision. Also, make sure the costume doesn’t prevent him
from eating, drinking, and going to the bathroom. Be sure to take the costume
off as soon as he shows any signs of discomfort or struggles in it.
Trick or Treating
Don’t take your dog trick-or-treating with you. Even
the most laid back pet can become stressed or overly excited by so much
unfamiliar activity and bite someone or run away.
In a nutshell, keep your pet closed in a bedroom for the evening and don’t let him eat candy!
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Halloween is just around the corner! Here’s a list of fun Halloween activities you can enjoy with your family.
Inside Activities
Carve pumpkins Using an ice-cream scoop makes it easier to remove the gooey insides from a pumpkin. Flameless tea lights are safe alternatives to using real candles.
Let your kids decorate their bedrooms with all things Halloween Kids love decorating their own space. Let them decide which decorations they want and, if they’re old enough, let them do all of the decorating themselves.
Make spooky sugar cookies Sugar cookies aren’t just for Christmas! Discount stores and some grocery stores have lots of fun Halloween-shaped cookie cutters.
Make a gingerbread haunted house Use lots of purple, orange, and black decorations to bring your haunted house to life!
Watch a scary movie together Here’s a fun list of movies that are great for all age groups.
Play pin-the-nose on a jack-o-lantern Either make or print, a large picture of a jack-o-lantern (make extra copies of his nose) and hang him on the wall or on a door. Grab a blindfold and take turns trying to tape a nose on him!
Make spooky slime Here are twenty different slime recipes that were collected from all over the internet by I Heart Arts n Crafts.
Play ping-pong-pumpkin Grab a plastic trick-or-treating pumpkin bucket and some ping pong balls. See who can bounce the balls into the pumpkins.
Make cinnamon salt dough ornaments Here’s a recipe for cinnamon salt dough ornaments. To make these for Halloween, you can use any shape of cookie cutters. Pumpkins, ghosts, and cats would be perfect!
Make a dancing ghost This tutorial from Science Bob shows you how to make a ghost dance in front of your eyes!
Make a pumpkin volcano Combining science and Halloween is always a treat! Here are instructions on how to make “lava” ooze out of a pumpkin.
Make Play-Doh monsters Not all monsters are scary! Grab some wiggly eyes, pipe cleaners, and some Play-Doh to create fun monsters. This would be a great activity to do after watching Monsters, Inc.
Build a spooky town or haunted house out of blocks Pull out the bins of Legos and start creating!
Play hide and seek pumpkins Instead of looking for Easter eggs, find pumpkins! Get some mini pumpkins from the grocery store and take turns hiding them around the house or yard. Who can find the most?
Read a Halloween story together Check out Halloween books from your local library to read together. The library near me offers family story-time where families can go to the library (usually in the evening) in pajamas, listen to a story, and share snacks afterward.
Outside Activities
Visit a pumpkin patch If your family has never walked around a field, looking for the perfect pumpkin, you have to experience it! Check online to see if any pumpkin patches are nearby.
Decorate your porch with spooky decorations Skeletons, jack-o-lanterns, and gravestones will give your porch just the right touch of Halloween for trick-or-treaters.
Have a costume parade around the neighborhood You can make it even more fun by inviting families from around the neighborhood to join in.
Visit a corn maze Can you find your way out of a maze? Some farms offer different options like easy mazes for families with young children and more difficult ones for people looking for a challenge. Some even have haunted corn mazes!
Visit a haunted house Every year a group of homeschooling families in my area get together to make a haunted house for the community. Instead of charging an admission fee, they accept donations of either money or canned food for the local food pantry. All money donated goes towards making the next year’s haunted house even better! Check online to see if there are any haunted houses in your area.
Go on a hayride Hayrides and autumn go hand-in-hand. Look online to see if any nearby farms offer hayrides. Some farms even offer haunted hayrides!
Attend a “pumpkin chunkin” event Have you ever seen pumpkins flying through the air? Each year our town hosts an event to see whose pumpkins can be launched the farthest. Catapults and slingshots are just some of the homemade devices used to launch the pumpkins. Check online to see if there are any pumpkin chunkin events happening near you!
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When fall comes around, all I can think about are apples and pumpkins! Nothing says fall like applesauce, pumpkin pie, and caramel apples. The smell of homemade cinnamon applesauce cooking in the crockpot makes me think about the times we went apple picking at The Happy Apple Farm when Tabitha was younger. Isn’t it interesting how a scent can bring back such vivid memories?
I love filling the house with the scents of fall. The combination of cinnamon and cloves is so comforting and warm. Here are some of the ways I like to put a little fall in the air…
Open the windows
An easy way to bring fall air into the house is by opening all of the windows! There’s nothing like bringing in fresh, crisp fall air after a hot stuffy summer…even if the air has a hint of horses or cows in it from neighboring homesteads!
Make simmering potpourri
Another thing you can do to make your house feel like fall is to gently simmer a pot of water with spices in it. You can use any combination of spices, but my favorites are cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg (and orange peels when I have some). To making simmering potpourri, all you have to do is let a pot of water and spices gently simmer on the stovetop for about twenty minutes and then turn the heat off. You can even put the water and spices in an uncovered crockpot turned on low for several hours. When I’m done with the water/spice mixture, I usually just pour it out into the garden.
I’ve been making this simmering potpourri for years. It’s so much safer for humans and pets to breath than commercial air “fresheners” and it smells better too! If you try this, remember to keep a close eye on the pot to make sure the water doesn’t completely evaporate and to protect curious cats…who aren’t allowed near the stove, but who are always near the stove…from getting hurt by the hot water.
Bake something
If you really want to fill your home with the smell and feel of fall, start baking! Here are some recipes that’ll remind you of raking leaves, picking apples, and carving pumpkins! Oh, how I love fall!
