Halloween means pumpkins and pumpkins mean roasted pumpkin seeds! Yummy!

I found an even better recipe for all your pumpkin seeds after you have carved your pumpkins. How about chocolate coated pumpkin seeds? We will definitely be trying this recipe as a new Halloween roasted pumpkin seeds tradition.

Here is the recipe below:

Chocolate Coated Pumpkin Seeds Recipe

What you need:

pumpkin seeds from fresh pumpkin
oil
salt
chunk of chocolate (melt it in microwave) or use cinnamon or sugar if you dont have chocolate. You could also mix cocoa with sugar for another taste.

Mix oil, salt, & pumpkin seeds
bake in oven for 30 minutes or until crispy

pour melted chocolate after seeds cool for a few minutes. Enjoy!

If you want to use the cinnamon/sugar/cocoa mixture then you need to add that in before you bake them so you will have a sweet &salty pumpkin seed mix.

Happy Halloween!

If you need something fun to keep your little ones busy this week then look no further. ContestForMoms.com has put together a huge list of free halloween coloring pages, printables, and activities for your kids ages 2 and up. There are tons of printables from scary to cute. Check this resource out today!

Here is another Halloween Costume Photo Contest for your kids. You must be a member to enter but you can easily register for free in a few seconds. The deadline to enter is October 25th with voting starting on the 26th so get your entry in today or tomorow. There is one entry per person.

The winner of this Halloween Costume Contest will win a $100 wal-mart gift card and a Veggie Tales DVD. Four runner ups will win a Veggie Tales DVD too.

Enter Here Now.

Halloween is all about dressing up and having fun. If you are a parent it's about how cute you can make you kid look in a Halloween costume. If you have a cute snapshot of your child ages 0 to 5 in their Halloween costume be sure and enter them in the Halloween Baby Costume Contest over at ContestForMoms.com

You have until October 31st, 2006 ,with 11pm being the deadline, to enter. So make sure you snap a photo right before or after your kids go trick or treating and submit it to them.

And if you want to see lots of adorable kids dressed up go there now.

This year I am going to try my hand at painting my youngest son's face for Halloween. Here is a fun and free article that provides moms with ideas on face painting and designs.

Easy Halloween Face Painting Designs by Face Painting

With Halloween quickly approaching, face painting season is kicking into high gear. Try these easy, but immensely child-pleasing Halloween "cheek art" designs at class parties, fall festivals and homecoming carnivals.

TOOLS
Begin with good quality, water-based face paints. You can find them online or in some theatrical stores. A palette of six, good-quality face paints is priced around $12.00 and includes enough paint for 70 or more cheek art designs. Water-based face paints apply as easily as watercolors and remove cleanly with a paper towel and water.

For a small gathering of children, two or three small to medium sized paint brushes will be sufficient. A bowl of water to rinse the brushes and a roll of paper towels conclude the list of basic supplies.

GHOST
In my opinion, the simplest design to paint is that of a ghost. The basic shape of the ghost is that of a triangle. With a brush loaded with white paint, paint a loose triangle by creating a wavy line to outline the ghost. Fill in with more white paint, dot on black eyes and a smile and the ghost is complete.

CANDY CORN
Nothing is "sweeter" than a face dotted with painted candy corn. The basic shape is a pyramid, with yellow on the bottom third, orange on the middle third and white at the peak. You can create a candy corn crown by painting the candies in succession along the forehead.

JACK-O-LANTERN
To paint a jack-o-lantern, begin with a circle or oval of orange paint. When the orange paint dries, add small triangles in black paint for the eyes and nose and paint a toothy smile in black as well. Add a green stem and your jack-o-lantern is complete.

IN SUMMARY
The most important thing to remember when face painting is to have fun and keep it simple! Children aren't expecting a Picasso to be painted on their face. They simply love to celebrate the occasion and face painting is the perfect way to light up the face of any child.

JoAnne Westcott is the author of Easy Face Painting: How You Can Get Professional Results Even If You've Never Picked Up A Paintbrush.
You can learn more about face painting and how to acquire the simple skills to get started by visiting http://www.ezfacepainting.com/

Article by:
Would you like to be the life of the party? Click here!

We finally got a real pumpkin but haven't decided on carving it or painting it yet. If we decide carving, my husband will be in charge of that and the kids can scoop out all the seeds and play with them while he carves.

Since both of our boys love Spongebob, I found a free Spongebob pumpkin carving pattern online to use on our pumpkin. I'm sure it won't be easy but it will bring huge smiles to our two boys faces when all is done.

To get your free spongebob pumpkin pattern online go here to DLTK-holidays.com

Yesterday as I was searching online for some fun free Halloween themed crafts for my five year old I found a fun Halloween coloring book that is completely online. No printing necessary. Your child can color up to 12 different Halloween scenes online. I recommend this fun Halloween computer activity for ages three and up. My five year old will love it.

Go to the Online Halloween Coloring Book now. It's FREE and may give you thirty minutes to an hour of free time around your house while your child is playing online.

I used to think that making Halloween costumes involved lots of sewing and creativity but not if you have the e-book mentioned below. There is no sewing involved and you can make a Halloween costume for your child in a short time. You still have lots of time left to make a costume if you get the book today.

Would you like to quickly make creative Halloween costumes that you and your children will be proud of -- for a fraction of the price of store-bought? Click here!

From today till Halloween we will blog about everything Halloween. Here in our home Halloween is among our favorite holidays to celebrate. Hopefully you will get a chance to stop by here and see what we have to offer each day from now to Halloween.

Happy Halloween from our home to yours!

Most of you know about my 2 year old son's stomach problems if you have been reading my personal blog here for a while.

So in an effort to make the stomach problems go away we have switched to meat alternatives for most of our meals. The whole family has basically given up meat for our 2 year old. Instead of eating real meat, we are now eating meat alternatives such as the soy burger(Our fave is Morning Star Griller Crumbles), soy chicken nuggets,etc.

These products are great for kids. They taste great and have less fat, carbs, and cholesterol. They are a healhty meat alternative for kids. And believe me, if my kids like them your kids will too!

If you need some additional reasons to go with meat alternatives I have posted a few more reason below.

1.) Meat alternatives actually taste good and your time in the kitchen is reduced.

2.) Eating Meat Alternatives will reduce your and your child's risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, certain types of cancers,etc.


Switching from meat to no meat isn't easy. I suggest taking your time and try different varieties to see which ones you will like best.

The boys and I were going through some old clothes and we had a pile of very used white t-shirts so I let them make doodle shirts out of them. Have you seen the doodle bears and doodle dolls? Well, these are doodle shirts and they are much cheaper and actually more fun than going and buying the toy to doodle on.

We used crayola markers (you can use any kind) for the shirts. My two boys, ages 5 and 2, had lots of fun and wore them around all day. Today we washed them and they designed them all over again.

Here is a photo of how one of them turned out.



Here is what you need to get started on your cheap & easy doodle shirt craft for toddlers, pre-k and kindergarten age kids. This is a fun craft idea for homeschooled kids too.

Old T-shirts (preferably white but you can use other light colors)
Markers (any brand for kids)
Creativity & fun