I love Halloween!

Halloween is my favorite holiday!  I know that most people would choose Christmas or maybe even Thanksgiving, but for me....it's all about Halloween!  

I don't know when it started, but it's been that way as long as I can remember!  I have about 10 rubbermaid totes that are filled with decorations!  I usually started getting ready the first week in October so I can get the whole house decorated in a week or so.  I decorate EVERY room in my house for the event!  I usually theme each room: ghosts and witches in the kitchen, pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns in the bathrooms, skeletons, mummies, and vampires in the living room.  From there the themes spread out to general creepiness and Halloween ideas.  I have rolls of scene-setters that I put up on the walls to make the rooms look like castles and dungeons and such.  I cover all the windows in the front of my house with enormous black spider webs and giant spiders.  I live in the country now and so I don't get trick-or-treaters anymore, but I still have bins of candy laid out all over (although I have realized that the window ledges are now place for chocolate! Way too soft by the afternoons).  I have Halloween dishes, serving dishes, and both stemware and glassware!  I even put out some glow-in-the-dark plastic flatware shaped like skeletons and ghosts!  

I have a collection of Halloween clothes and dress in them for the week before Halloween and then I dress up as a witch every year (on the Friday before Halloween at school if the holiday falls on a weekend) and go out on the town!  

My favorite Halloween read is:

Big Pumpkin by Erica Silverman and S. D. Schindler

It has been a favorite of mine for years so of course my kids love it too!  When I was going to school in Winona, one of my assignments in my Children's Lit. class was to choose a story and do a read-aloud to a kindergarten class.  Since it was October, I chose Big Pumpkin!  I made a storyboard story out of it - I used a tri-fold presentation board for the setting and then made all the characters from the book out of craft foam.  My kids and I made a tape of us reading the story so I could play it while I "acted" out the story on the board.  It was amazing!  We all chose different characters and did the voices!  I dressed up as the witch to tell the story and was great! The little students loved it!  If you have never read this story, go check it out!

I am guest posting on two blogs - Scarrlet Reader and The Book Rat

The contest rules for those are:

1. You must be a follower of both the host blog and The Wormhole.

2. You must be at least 13 years old.

3. You must come HERE and post a comment with a valid email address to enter.

4. May only enter once - multiple entries will be discarded.

***contest ends 10/31/10 (noon - central time) - winner announced and notified by 11/5/10***


The prize? There will be one winner for each of the guest blogs - the winner will receive either a Halloween gift basket or a Halloween book sent from The Book Depository.