What to do with all that Halloween candy!!!!

What are you going to do with all that candy?

Well, I have a few ideas. Last year I researched it a bit and between some great ideas I found online(sorry I don't remember the websites) and some creativity I came up with several ideas. These are ideas we used last year and will be using again this year beginning Thursday after Halloween.

1. Take all the full size candy bars and set them aside for movie candy. We have a family movie nite most Friday evenings so this can supply treats for us for weeks!
2. Take all the funsize Snickers bars and bag them up and pop them in the freezer for that yummy delicious caramel apple salad for Thanksgiving dinner.
3. Take the colorful ones that don't taste so great, you know the ones, gumdrops, weird hard candies, Chiclets, Necco etc... and put them in a bag and label it for Christmas gingerbread house decorations.
4. Now go thru what is left and have the kids pick out 15 or 20 pieces they love and put their name on it and pick a date after all the holidays. We do late January- early February sometime before Valentine's Day but far enough in to the "no junkfood in the house in January " period that they are desperate for a sugar buzz. Put that date on the bag and drop it in the freezer or hide it in the back of a cabinet. Somewhere no one will see it for a few months.
5. Set aside some pieces for a friend or neighbor who probably doesn't have any candy in the house. For us it is my grandpa. He loves sweets but rarely buys them for himself. So we send him a little bag full after Halloween. Nothing sticky though in case of dental work:)
6. Now my kids have to pay the dad tax. My husband travels and so when he comes home he has missed the candy influx so we save him some.
7. Now whatever is left I have the kids trade for favorites if possible with their siblings and any candy no one likes we donate. There is usually a small ziplock. I send it to the teachers at school to add to the reward bin or to the special ed department. They use it as incentives for the kids in their programs.
8. Lastly, we separate whatever is left into a few sandwich bags and put dates of when they can have it on them and pop them in the freezer.

My kids don't mind spreading it out because I don't keep candy in the house regularly. Just peppermints by the front door. So they are happy knowing I won't toss it out and they will have candy again:)

P.S. if the bag of candy they get to keep right after Halloween isn't gone in a few weeks I chop up all the chocolate and make cookies out of it. The kids never mind when there are cookies in the cookie jar!
P.S.S Don't forget to hit the clearance sales after the holiday to score some candy corn for snowman cookie noses during Christmas and winter! I also look for any bags of family favorites that have non Halloween wrappings for upcoming stocking filling!!

I'm back!!!

Hello, my pretties!!! I have been very busy with the babies and the house and all but I have decided to try harder to post at least twice a week. I have been crafting up a storm, repainting furniture, cooking, all sorts of busyness!
 So here are a few little things I have been busy with:)

I promise to work on my picture taking skills but it is a giant ruler and I moved the markings we have made of the kids height changes  the last four years on the pantry door over to it. Now if and when we move we can easily take it with us:)I admit to cryin' just a little during the process when I saw just how much my babies have grown!!  But I think this little piece is adorable in my family room.

     Next is a picture of a inexpensive little end table we have had for quite a while in the family room that was looking pretty shabby. And not in a good way, lol. So I went to the store to pick up some awesome bright green paint. Not a kelly green and not a lime but somewhere in between. I just couldn't find the shade I wanted in the spray paint aisle but I stumbled across this shade and fell in love. So I decided to play a little game I like to play. I call it "that's always been there!" This is how I play: I do some home improvement project or I purchase some item for our house with out mentioning it to my husband. He travels quite a bit so this is easier then average. Then when he comes home and notices the change I say, "that's always been there!" Now just to soothe those men readers I hope I have I will mention that I never spend more then 40 dollars on any one thing without talking to my husband. So these are not huge expenditures but sometimes big changes come in 5 dollar gallons of misfit paint:) So back to my little sad table. I gave it 3 coats of this beautiful shade of paint while everyone was out of the house and put everything back before anyone came home. Then I waited to see if anyone would notice. lol.
   
     I once changed the curtains in the family room for a lucky find at a yard sale and my husband didn't notice till 2 months later when a girlfriend asked where I found the pretty new curtains in front of him. Just to give you an idea of how long this game can drag on... but the middle child noticed within minutes of coming home from school. The baby noticed later that evening. The oldest noticed several days later when he asked if we had gotten a new table and the husband mentioned how nice the table looked while he was watching football the very NEXT TIME he was home!!! Shocking? Surprising? Absolutely! But it made me feel happy that he said he liked it.
     So tell me what you think. Do you think I should have kept searching for the ideal green or do you approve of my fly by the seat of my pants inspired color choice?

Before pic of little wood end table

 I think it came out great!!!
So tell me what y'all think!