and the countdown begins....

Tomorrow is the first day of October and so the countdown to Halloween begins. I talked about this Halloween calendar on my blog last year and you can read about it here. I got the calendar at Pottery Barn Kids after Halloween one year for 50% off the regular price! I have noticed similar calendars at stores like Marshall's for an even more reasonable price.

This year I started collecting small items when Halloween stuff started hitting the shelves in August. I filled the whole calendar today so that it would be ready for the kids tomorrow. For the days when I don't have any small gift I put in pieces of scrapbook paper. I left the paper blank for now so that I can fill it in with a joke, or a gift certificate to bake cookies or do a Halloween craft. That way I can pick an activity based on how busy our day/week is. On the first day of Oct. both of my children will receive a gift that I will write about later. The rest of the days they take turns getting what is in the calendar. That way I don't have to buy as many items and they learn to wait their turn. My daughter was looking at the calendar this afternoon and said "I see a lollipop" and "I see bubbles." Since the "lollipop" is really a bath fizzy and the "bubble wand" is actually a glow stick, I told her there may be some tricks this year too! For the gifts that were a little to big to fit into the calendar, I wrapped them and put corresponding number stickers on them.