Pack These 7 Halloween Necessities

Be ready before you go out on Halloween night!

As an experienced mom who's been trick-or-treating with her kids for 11 years now (my oldest is 14), I've had my share of Halloween “whoopsies.” What I mean is, I've forgotten to bring stuff that would have been helpful and had to rely on the kindness of the other moms I was with to help me out. So, allow me, dear reader, to spare you embarrassment and turmoil by reminding you to bring the following as you take your wee one(s) trick-or-treating:

1. Flashlights – Notice it's a plural. YOU will need a flashlight and each child will as well. Those light up wands other parents have may look cute and help you see your kid, but it won't help them as they navigate uneven pavement and dog poo. I bring an extra flashlight because my darling daughter has dropped hers and not realized it until she's several houses away; by that time, she wants to keep up with her friends and will have no part of going back to retrieve it.
   
   
2. An Extra Jacket Or Sweatshirt For Your Kid – Here, in the Northeast, it's dark and cold when we go out. 20 minutes into our journey, I can guarantee that my daughter will announce that she's cold. An extra jacket or sweatshirt comes in mighty handy.
   
   
3. Plastic Bags For Candy Overflow – People give out a lot of candy and those Halloween baskets get heavy. Your little one will be begging you to take some of it, so bring a plastic grocery bag to handle the overflow.
   
   

   

   Sometimes there's too much Halloween candy for kids to hold!

   
   
4. Water – Running from house to house is hard work. My daughter gets fluoridated water which I pretend will mitigate the damage the candy will be doing to her teeth. 
   
   
5. A Snack For You – The website www.savvysource.com lists among their Halloween essentials, “healthy snacks for the kids.” Seriously, do they think kids are going to choose string cheese over a bagful of candy?! Just so YOU'RE not tempted to dip into the till, bring an apple or low-fat granola bar for yourself.
   
   
6. Your Camera – Cellphones take nice pictures, but cameras take better ones. I use both for maximum coverage of Halloween.
   
   
7. Hand Sanitizer – My area's been hit hard by the Enterovirus. I'm not taking any chances with my child getting sick. I'm hauling Purell and making her use it. Alternatively, you could bring baby wipes.  

And don't forget to limit your time while you're out trick-or-treating. Halloween this year is on a Friday and after a full week of school, the kids are going to be TIRED. You don't want to wind up a mile or more from home only to hear a little voice implore, “Carry me!” We're out in the 'hood 90 minutes max. After that, Mommy gets cranky and Halloween-ed out.

Take it from a mom who has been around many blocks. Grab the items above before you head out on Halloween. You won't be sorry!

~~

Thanks for reading!  Check back in with me in a day or so when I list Halloween Rules to review with your child before they go out.  Without rules, there will be Halloween Anarchy...guaranteed! 

My 5 Favorite Free iPad Apps

Once upon a time, I had a Kindle Fire. I loved that thing and when it died, the day after the warranty expired, of course, I was quite sad. Unfortunately, it died at the same time that my laptop did, so when forced to choose which device my limited means would replace, I opted to replace the laptop. Junior, who had been the #1 borrower of my Kindle, was also upset, however, he did have the money to get his own tablet but chose, instead, to get an iPad Mini.


Curious about our newest Apple, I stole, errr...borrowed, it the other day while Junior was at school. After playing with it for a few hours and downloading some free apps from the App Store, here are my five favorites:

1. The Kindle App – When I had my Kindle, I downloaded free books from my local library with the added benefit that when the borrowing time was up, they'd just “magically” disappear from the device. The Kindle app gives all the benefits of reading on the Kindle with access to many of the free books Amazon's Kindle Store offers. The app replicates all of my favorite features of the actual Kindle including access to Amazon's Whispersync which “automatically syncs your last page read, bookmarks, notes, and highlights across devices (including the Kindle), so you can pick up your book where you left off on another device.”
   
   
2. Dictionary.com (Dictionary and Thesaurus) – Being a word-a-holic, I love looking up words and this app gave me speedy access to more than two million words and definitions. The best part is that it works offline, so even if I didn't have Web access, I could use it.
   
   
3. Police Scanner + - I really enjoyed listening to police scanners when I was a local reporter and still do even though I'm not writing for our local website. With this app, I can listen to more than 40,000 police, fire, EMS, airport, railroad, comedy, talk, and music stations – FREE!
   
   
4. Soothing Sounds Light – The kids and I sleep with separate noise machines and we always schlep one whenever we travel. Soothing Sounds has a customizable sounds library and the manufacturer boasts that “you'll never hear the same 10 seconds of sound.” That means you won't hear the same bird chips every X-amount of seconds, something that drives me crazy with other noise apps. You can change the volume and intensity of each sound, meaning that you can either hear ocean waves gently lapping on a shore or hear the crashing of those waves on rocks. You can even save the combinations of intensity levels that you've created and re-play those at will. Use it as background noise during the day or while you sleep.
   
   
5. Sticky Notes Reminders & Notes App With Alarms & Sharing – Use Sticky Note reminders without the individual papers falling off your device or marring your screen. Create notes in dozens of styles, add alarms to the notes, password protect them, and share them with others. The best part of this app, however, is that you can add notes to your lockscreen so you don't have to unlock your device to view them.
   

Ok, so since the iPad Mini isn't mine, I had to delete all of these wonderful apps, but it was fun poking around the App Store to see what developers have come up with to make our lives “easier.” It may just be time to start saving up for a Mini.


–


Thanks for reading! Please check back in with me in a day or so for more fun!