Halloween Is Coming!

Ugh, sorry I have been MIA again but there was good reason!  I have been sick, better, working on my thesis (which I am not finishing), kids sick, John and I SUPER sick, and now we are FINALLY recovering!  We've been so sick for the last 3 1/2 weeks and we are both still dealing with the lingering effects of the flu but I am glad we are recovering!  Recovering just in time to participate in Halloween.

The kids have been eagerly waiting for Halloween.  I am excited for them for a couple of reasons.  One reason is that they finally realize that there is a Halloween and they know Halloween involves....dressing up in costomes and CANDY!  LOL  Now I purposely try and keep them from eating a bunch of junk food and in particular sugar. I saw the BEST idea online...the Halloween Fairy.  (Do you have ANY idea how long it took to find a decent picture that was not trampy? This pic by Annie Msson is beautiful!)

Why have I not heard of this before?  I have no problem really with letting the kids indulge in candy a couple of times a year.  James becomes a SPAZZZZ with a lot of sugar. I love and hate their birthday because James will bounce off the WALLS after eating cake and ice cream!  I got smarter in the last few years because I make the cake from scratch and reducing the sugar along with using cool whip as icing.  It greatly reduces the sugar load.

Ok, back to Halloween.  Kids go trick-or-treating.  They come back with a load of candy.  We do an inspection and leave them a lot of candy to choose from.  The kids get to indulge and eat all the candy they want (within reason...I don't want them to be sick or anything).  After eating what they want the kids go to bed and leave the rest of their candy outside their door.  Mom and Dad come by and collect the candy and swap out the candy for a small toy.

What a great idea, right?  Why had I not heard of this before??? Sugar has such negative health effects and there is diabetes on both side of the family for the children.  I know I am addicted to sugar and I try SUPER hard to avoid or  limit it.  I don't want the kids to be addicted too so I never really give them sugar to trigger that "need" in the brain.

It looks like the Halloween Fairy will be visiting our house this year!  Will she be showing up at your house too?