Getting In The Spirit Of Halloween

Halloween is one of our family’s favorite time of the year, so we always go the extra mile in the month of October to get things ready for all the festivities, including going to pumpkin patches, listening to spooky stories, and picking out costumes. It’s a great way to celebrate the excitement of the changing seasons with Narayan and all the kids in the family, and lets the adults reminisce about all the fun we had when we were kids! If there’s one time of year I simply cannot wait for, this is it.

In partnership with Audible.

Since Halloween is such a big deal around our house, I thought I’d share a bit of what we do to get ready for the big day. I hope you and your families have some fun things planned, too!

Decorating

Before anything else, we decorate our house. We’ve been collecting decorations for years, so there’s no shortage of faux cobwebs, furry spiders, and little cauldrons filled with candy! For our annual Halloween party, we set the table with treats like candy apples, cup cakes and make a little haunted house in our backyard.

Pumpkin Patch

One of the highlights of our Halloween prep each year is going to the pumpkin patch (check out last year’s trip here). Living in the Bay Area, there are a ton of beautiful farms that transform into Halloween carnivals with train rides, petting zoos and more along the coast. For Narayan, the bigger the pumpkin, the better! 

Spooky Stories

Since Narayan is so interested in the spooky side of Halloween this year, we started listening to kid-friendly spooky story audiobooks almost every night. Not only does listening to stories (versus reading them) keep our hands free to help Narayan with whatever projects he’s working on, but it also helps him learn new vocab. words, which in turn is going to help him become a better reader! If you’ve never tried listening to spooky stories via audiobooks, give it a try on Audible – there’s a 30-day free trial and I guarantee your whole family will be into it!

Costumes

I love DIY costumes whenever possible (it saves money and let’s you get some extra mileage out of your existing wardrobe!), but with all the amazing pre-made costume options available these days, we get a kick out of taking Narayan to the local Halloween pop-up store to try on some different options – the process is entertainment in itself!