Halloween Decorating

Happy October!  My boys are practicing their "trick or treats" tirelessly, and as of today, the house is decorated!  I'm not much of a seasonal decorator until Christmas, but I'll admit, as the kids get older, it's getting more fun to decorate for the other holidays.

Our front yard cobwebs might not be much to look at - but I was following the direction of one bossy four year old and his spiders.  This experience ended up being some serious quality time with S, while his daddy was at work, and little brother was napping.  

Now, for some tips!  I'm going to write a post about my new love affair with dollar stores shortly.  Today, I spent $4 at the 99 Cent Store on more cobwebs than I could ever use (or could I...?), two glitter bats, the hanging skeleton you see in the picture, and some gel clings for the glass door.  The cobwebs came with some spiders, and I had many more left from previous Halloweens.  

1.  Don't spend a lot of money - the dollar stores have the same packaged body parts, creepy skeletons, cobwebs, and any other decoration at the Spirit Stores or Party City, but they're FAR cheaper.  Halloween is about fun, you don't need to get too ornate of expensive!  (I like to save that for Christmas!)
2. Use what you already have.  For example, I simply stacked the boys trick or treat buckets on top of an old Halloween box - and I'm pretty happy with the tower effect!
3. Pumpkins!  You can't see them in my photos - but pumpkins are the best.  That's all.
4. Reuse the gel clings!  Just stick them between wax paper until next year.
   
5. Involve the kids!  S had a hard time getting the cobwebs to stay - so I let him direct me as I did it and he followed along with the spiders.  He LOVED putting the gel clings on the door, and rearranged them several times.  Next year, I plan to give him and his brother a few dollars and let them pick out more $1 decorations.

At my house during Halloween, I'm more concerned with the quality time with my sons decorating and enjoying each other than I am with the actual finished product.  It's not overly scary, or overly decorated - it's just fun.  And we had fun.  And that's what it's all about, right?!