GPP 2018 - Week One (Planning)

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AuntJamelle

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The Great Pumpkin Plan!!!!! Calendar and Basic Budget Week

Sept 16 to Sept 22, 2017:
  • Events/Activities To Participate In - The idea here is to just sit down and think about all these events and activities that could be part of the Fall/Halloween season. Planning now could allow you to fit in things you’ve always wanted to do but haven’t made happen - or decide where to trim events that just make things TOO hectic! High level planning only to get you thinking about what is coming - details can come later...
    • Hosting a party?
      • Small or large there are so many possibilities - and then can be family friendly too!
        • Host a Halloween cookie swap!

        • A Halloween themed Decorate Your Own Donut Party (maybe as part of a brunch event?)!

        • Halloween Murder Mystery parties are great for medium sized groups (there are tons of kits available for purchase online)!
    • Attending parties?
      • Do you get invited to the same place(s) every year? Even if you can’t confirm dates yet, thinking about what you may need to bring or prepare now is always good. Will you be making food to contribute? Is it a trunk or treat event where you need to plan to decorate your vehicle?
    • Trick or treating? Handing out? In neighborhood? Elsewhere?

    • Community events? Trip to Pumpkin Patch? Corn maze? Haunted House? Other?

    • School events?
      • For example, every year my son has a Halloween class party (I’ll have to sign up for some sort of food item) and the whole school has a Halloween costume parade that the parents come to watch (so we need to plan to make arrangements to attend)
    • Trip to local Halloween store for costumes? Or will you be ordering online this year?

    • Sending in classroom treats?
      • For those of us with younger children where this sort of thing is encouraged, now is the time to start browsing ideas for possible treat items. There are tons of them out there, from simple to complex. An early start will give you more flexibility and save late nights right before they are due - ask me how I know!
    • Worried about too much sugar? Consider using The Great Pumpkin Candy Swap idea!
      • After your kids collect their haul of candy, they select a small portion to keep and leave the rest out in the house, somewhere of your choosing, on Halloween night. In the night, The Great Pumpkin “comes” and takes the candy, leaving a toy or book behind instead for them to find the next morning.

      • Plan to prepare your kids for the idea (works best for younger ones obviously) and decide on item that will be left in place of the candy
    • Use printed or digital calendar of choice to plug in all dates currently known or ballpark ideas on the rest
  • Candy Stock-up
    • Purchase at least one bag of candy during normal grocery trips this week - HIDE!
      • Include jokes about candy (saved to Halloween - Fun and Games board)
  • Costume Discussion
    • Decide whether or not you or other adults in the household will dress up this year
      • Begin researching possible costume ideas
        • Pinterest

        • Halloween Costume Websites
      • Optional: Plan for Halloween themed attire for desired events - could be as simple as a Halloween themed shirt or a fun headband, face makeup, etc.

      • Do you have school aged children that would love to wear a fun Halloween shirt to school the day of a class party? Add needed items to your shopping lists!
    • Discuss costume choices with your kids as well; If at all possible, pin them down on a decision so that planning can begin!
  • Make a Basic Budget
    • Based on all of the above, sketch out a rough idea of what you want to spend in the following categories:
      • Costumes

      • Candy

      • Food (if hosting party or pot-lucking or for any seasonal treats)

      • Classroom Treats/Gifts (if applicable)

      • Tickets to chosen community events

      • New Decor

      • Any additional misc. expenses specific to your needs
 

luludou

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Wow! AJ you are such a planner! you amaze me everytime.

Last few years we have been invited to parties. I am making 3 costumes this year (I hope!), 2 for me and 1 for dh so that should cover up work & parties.
I need to make at least 150 candy bags as the town is having a Halloween extravaganza in our street. Usually I make 125... last year's extravaganza also in our street made 250 and ran out of at least 100. It is costing alot so I will be doing 150 and then closing the lights. :( children are coming from the other town for this.
Decor will be reusing what I already have (tons!!!)
 

Holiday_Mom

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Oh my goodness! It's that time?! I remember doing this last year and it was helpful for me to keep Halloween fresh in my mind with getting costumes, etc. I will give some thought to your questions and work on this next week when I have a bit more time. Thanks for posting!
 
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luludou

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Bought 2 boxes of 120 candy-size chocolate at costco's + a 300 piece bag of candy rolls. still need to buy lollipops. will prep 240 bags and the rest will be given as is.
 

AuntJamelle

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Event Planning

Halloween Party - Hosted by friends on Oct 20th this year; It's a trunk or treat style event. Last year we simply put up the huge blow up dragon - will see if I can come up with anything not too terribly time consuming to go along with that decorations wise. But that may just have to be it - a body can only do so much!

I'll need to have a supply of candy of course. I also have picked out two food items to contribute to the potluck - a fun multi-color Halloween bundt cake and Southwest Chicken Pinwheels. Ingredients are on Master Grocery List!

Halloween Camping Trip - Sites have been booked since April! :) Need to review campsite decor plans and get lots and lots of candy! I ordered a Halloween shirt but I don't think it ever came - need to track down the package :( We camp Oct 24th to Oct 28th this year. Can't wait!!! I have to get the camper packed and ready but I do have time for that plugged into my daily planner list.

Have a basic idea of camping menu - need to finalize.

Apple Orchard Visit - Need to discuss this with DH and see where we want to go this year. Either the place we always go or there is one I've heard is super nice a bit further away that might be fun to try this year! Want to go somewhere with some fun activities along with apple picking since I am not going to have time to can anything and there is no need to bring home a ton of apples.

Halloween Class Party - It will be on 10/31 this year. DH and I will both make arrangements to attend the Halloween Parade event that follows the party. I'll need to sign up for a food item to contribute - they will just have a list to pick from. The teacher said that parents could come up with games for the kids - I want to take a look at what I might be able to do - once again though - there is only so much time in the day. I really want to squeeze this in though - will be looking at Pinterest for ideas.

Halloween Classroom Treats - This year I am going to decorate brown paper lunch sacks to look like monster faces - then I'll just put an assortment of candy in each bag and call it a day! Scheduled to start working on the bags soon - I have all the supplies I'll need.

Costume Planning

We've had some discussions as a family about this and as usual DH throws out big ideas that would either take a lot of $ or more time than I have to pull off! lol Will bring it up again and see what we can actually make happen - more than likely it will just be a trip to go get DS a costume of his choice. But we need to schedule when we are going to go do the shopping!!!

Budget

I have apple orchard and costume costs plugged into our budget already. Candy I'll fold into weekly grocery budget. Same for party foods and camping menu.
 
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luludou

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AJ we usually get invited to a party (probably oct. 27th), thanks for the reminder for the potluck food to bring.
 
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MinnieCo

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Auntjamelle, do you camp every Halloween?? Sounds soooo fun!!! Please tell details. In Colorado we don't usually camp past September. It gets tooo cold and we're known to have lots of Halloween blizzards.
 
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AuntJamelle

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Lucie - Let us know what you pick out to take to your potluck! :)

Michelle - Yes we camp every year! Always the Wednesday before the weekend before Halloween. Then we pack up and come home on Sunday! The entire campground goes nuts - people go crazy decorating their campsites - setting up haunted houses, mazes, the works! Trick or treating is always on Saturday from 4P to 6P and there are an enormous amount of kids going around - I think people not staying at campground drive in for it too quite a bit.

We usually have people visit our campsite and hang out that day as well. Which means that is our big cooking day - lots of food! Lots of candy! So fun to see all the kids in their cute costumes! I'm looking forward to it! Best camping trip of the year!
 
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Holiday_Mom

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Ok, got dd's costume idea. Need to find the items to make it happen. We have a budget for that and the candy.
 
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HouseElf

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Plans are up on the calendar!

My son will attend one party, but his costume is already done!

We went Apple picking last weekend, and will visit the pumpkin patch next. We've planned a couple movie nights out - the new Goosebumps movie, and the new Halloween movie... my husband has never seen the original so we will watch that one the Friday before and the new movie the next day.

This year we will attend Saunders farm for our Halloween family trip, haven't been there in a few years.
http://saundersfarm.com/frightfest/

Thinking we'd do soda this year for Halloween, with treat bags for the younger trick or treaters option, and a few non-food items for teal pumpkin.

We haven't had any food allergy trick or treaters yet, so won't do many - and we've been seeing less than 50 overall for a few years.
 
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