halloween tricks and treats (& boo at the zoo giveaway!)

Not being a fan of scary movies–or being startled, scared, or frightened–in the least bit, Halloween is not at all one of my favorite holidays.

Rather than focus on the creepy, I try to keep things on the cute, sweet, and tricky side over here. So when the good folks at the National Zoo asked if I wanted to offer my readers a family four-pack of tickets to Boo at the Zoo this Friday, I thought it would be right up my alley.

And this giveaway would also give me a chance to solicit some great snack, craft, and game ideas for my new job as a Halloween Party Planner for Maddy’s 1st grade class. I’ve got a fab parent Co-Room Parenting with me, so we’re sure this party will go down as one of the coolest ever, but we’re new at this, so we can sure use some help.

So here are just two ways we ring in Halloween over here, one not-at-all spooky decoration treat and one pretty funny trick:

• Halloween Not-So-Spooky Ghosts: Our Halloween Ghost decorations are so simple and are so, so cute.

We had medium-sized styrofoam balls that we stuck into gardening sticks we broke in half. We cut an old, old sheet into squares, covered the styrofoam lollipop, and tied a string under the ball as a ghost sheet.

our not-so-spooky Halloween ghosts

Then we drew on eyes and a ghost mouth, and we were finished! The ghosts line our ‘needs-to-be-weeded’ front garden and greet us as we come and go.

• Halloween Googly-Eye Trick: Googly-eyes always make us laugh over here, so around this time of year, usually the last 10-15 days leading up to Halloween, I get googly-eye crazy.

Just for fun, I put googly eyes in funny, secret spots each day and see who will be the first to find them and giggle.

One day the eyes might show up in the ‘O’ on a placemat. . .

. . . or they might end up on somebody’s breakfast spoon.

I really thought myself waaaay clever when they landed on our pencil sharpener, but the most laughs came on the day that the googly eyes were on the bathroom counter door.

They’re so inexpensive, they stick with the teeniest dot of glue, and they pop off and on like nothing. Happy googly-eye spotting!

GIVEAWAY: 4 tickets to Boo at the Zoo!

Do you want to head over to the National Zoo this Friday night, 10/22/10, for a fun family night at Boo at the Zoo? (Tickets are $30 each, and Saturday is already sold out!)

• All you need to do is leave a comment here with a suggestion for a fun, not-so-spooky treat, game, or craft that might work for a 1st grade Halloween Party. We don’t have a lot of time or money, so keep that in mind! (And please leave your email address so I can reach you!)

This contest is quick! For planning purposes, this contest will close at midnight on Wed., 10/20/10. Winner will be notified and will pick up the tickets at the gate on 10/22.

(And even if you aren’t local to the DC Metro area and can’t use the tickets for Boo at the Zoo, I’d sure love to read any of your Halloween Party ideas! Thank you, thank you!)

Many thanks for your ideas, friends, and many, many thanks to the great people at the National Zoo for giving a teach mama reader the 4 tickets to this event. This is an unsponsored post, but we love the National Zoo so much, we’re happy to share our zoo love with others.