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.

what are we doing today?

This is one of those projects that came to me in the middle of the night when I was soothing my daughter as a baby. I realized that there were 5 different sections on her closet door that I could use as a weekly calendar. I printed out the days of the week in pink and green and laminated them so that they would last longer. I attached scrapbook paper to some thin cork board that I bought in a roll and then hung it on the door. I use stickers and pictures to let my daughter know what she will be doing during the week and attach invitations to parties as well. It's a fun way for my daughter to learn the days of the week and keep track of events for her week.