Cozi Blog

Halloween Scavenger Hunt

It’s Halloween season again, the perfect season for a Halloween Treasure Hunt. Mike, Peppers and Pollywogs’ own poet, has created a great set of Halloween decoration clues to keep the kids on the hunt for their treats!

Here are the clues and answers:

Clue: If you find your next clue, I hope that you’ll grin. It’s under a vegetable that’s lit from within. Answer: Jack o’ lantern

Clue: Where’s the next clue? I think that I saw ... the last one holding it was made out of straw. Answer: Scarecrow

Clue: Some say I’m corny, but I’m also quite sweet. Finding the next clue will sure be a treat! Answer: Candy corn

Clue: I’ve got spirit, yes I do, but even when I’m cheering, I still say boo! (I’ll try not to scare you when you come for your clue.) Answer: Ghost

Clue: The “point” of your next clue is really quite eerie: the woman who wears me calls children “Dearie.” Answer: Witch’s hat

Clue: I’ve got a “bone” to pick with you. It’s about time you come and get this next clue. Answer: Skeleton

Clue: By eight hairy legs, I have been spun. If you can find me, your clue will be won. Answer: Spider web

Clue: Boil, boil, toil, and trouble. Come get your next clue, on the double! Answer: Cauldron

Clue: With my body of wood and feet made of straw, I’m the strangest flying vehicle that you ever saw! Answer: Broomstick

Clue: My body is black and my legs count four. Some say it’s bad luck when I cross the floor. Answer: Black Cat

Clue: You’ll be green with envy over the bolts in my neck. I may have your clue; why don’t you come check? Answer: Frankenstein

Happy Halloween hunting!

--Lisa Kothari, Peppers and Pollywogs

Kids Halloween Parties

A Zombie Party

Looking for something a little different for your upcoming kids Halloween party this year? Well a zombie party would be quite different—and fun!

To zombify your party invitation, purchase eyeball gumballs and heavy black card stock. Cut the card stock into squares and write your zombie party details on the card with white chalk. Attach your gum eyeball for added festivity. Ask the guests to dress as zombies!

Decorations:

• Hang intestinal streamers.

• Place gruesome plastic body parts near your front door or around your house to give your guests a little fright!

• Place glow-in-the-dark spiders and other creepy-crawlies around your party room.

• Dim the lights.

• Play zombie movies for the background party noise.

• Hang spider webs.

• Make it look dark, dank, and creepy with whatever you have on hand for Halloween decorations.

Activities:

• When the kids arrive, have them make up their faces to look like zombies, to match their costumes. You will have fun zombifying yourselves. Make sure to take pictures!

• Play Outbreak Zombie. Whoever is the designated Zombie must try to bite as many people as possible without getting caught. Once the Zombie is caught, the first person who was bitten is the next Zombie.

• Watch zombie movies.

• Create a creepy coffin. Using a large appliance box, have your zombies create a creepy coffin, and use straw and old clothes to create a dead person to stuff into the coffin. Then have your zombies parade through your neighborhood creeping everyone out in a Parade of the Undead.

• Play Pin the Liver on the Zombie. Print out a huge zombie picture and a picture of a liver. See who can pin it on the zombie best.

Menu:

• Serve pickled veggies and garlic, gelatin filled with gummy critters, spaghetti noodles filled with eyeballs (i.e., hard-boiled eggs)... the ideas are endless.  

• Serve a gelatin brain mold in a creepy color, such as purple-gray.

Party Favors:

• Send the kids home with rubber intestines and other creepy-crawly items for Halloween fun!

--Lisa Kothari, Peppers and Pollywogs

Create Your Own Haunted House

As the weeks wind toward Halloween, perhaps your family would like to make its own spooky house this season. It could beckon the trick-or-treaters to take a tour before they receive their treats (or tricks?), or you could use it to spook up some holiday fun the weekend before the big night in the neighborhood.

Whatever your motivation, here are a few tips to bring the haunts alive:

• Decide on the space you want to use. This could be your yard, your home, or just one area of your house, such as the basement.

• Plan your entrance and exit, and decide what types of spooks and scares you want to include.

• Get help—not only to transform the house, but to participate in spooking it as well.

• Don’t forget to add eerie lighting, scary sounds, and darkness. Throw dark sheets or black garbage bags over the windows so no light comes through.

• Replace your outside bulbs with orange bulbs. Also, you could replace your porch light with a black light bulb and hang some glow-in-the-dark decorations close by.

• If you have some leftover tiki torches from your summer parties, use them to light the path to the front door of your haunted house. 

• Alternatively, string clear or orange holiday lights, or try these cute spider lights.

• Hang spider web netting throughout the house to entangle your guests!

• Hang a “dead guy” in the front entrance: stuff a pair of jeans and a shirt with newspaper, and use an old bleach container to create a face. Top with an old hat.

• Decorate your doors to look like coffins, using butcher paper and paint.

• Using large appliance boxes, make coffins, fake walls, crypt chambers, etc.

• Set up a spooky dinner table, and serve a Jell-O brain mold, finger food, or a severed hand or head on a silver platter. Set a monster dummy or a real person at the table about to eat the feast. Creepy!

• Hang wet yarn from the ceiling for your guests to walk through.

• Have bloody hands lying around. Fill surgical gloves with sand, and tie them off with a rubber band. Add the effect of blood with red paint.

• Spritz cold water on the guests as they enter the haunted house.

• Use dry ice to make a boiling cauldron or a foggy effect, but be very careful to not let anyone touch the dry ice! Another option is a fog machine; it is a bit pricey, but you may be able to rent it out to others throughout the year!

   
Some helpful tips:

• Small children may be afraid or may not be able to handle going through the scary house. You can always alert your actors to be “gentle” and take off their masks and hand out treats to make the spooky house a friendlier one. You can also set an age limit for entrance. Although it will be dark, make sure you have enough light for people to see their way through. Again, clear holiday lights placed strategically will work well if you are on a budget.

• Don’t let anyone touch the dry ice! It can cause serious injury. Do not use candles or other flames—they are too much of a safety hazard. Try battery-operated candles or glow sticks instead.

• Make sure that the actors don’t touch anyone as they make their way through the haunted house; they should just play their role (i.e., looking creepy, playing dead, etc.).

• Make sure your space has adequate ventilation.

• Make sure you have enough help!

Happy haunting!

--Lisa Kothari, Peppers and Pollywogs

A Celebration of Autumn

 

Ready for Autumn? The air is crisp, the summer’s bounty is about to be harvested, and it’s a time to enjoy the season with your children and family. Here’s to a celebration of the traditional season of fall. If your child is having a party in September or October, this is an excellent theme.

This party works well at your home or at an outside venue, such as a local farm. Find out if there are any local farms in your area that allow parties; hayrides and apple picking would be great activities to include.

Invitations:

• Place cutouts in leaf or autumn harvest shapes on card stock, and include all of the information on the inside of your cards.

Decorations:

• Orange, brown, and yellow are great colors for this theme. Purchase party and table ware in these colors. Alternatively, you can decorate with leaf patterns.

• Use mini pumpkins for your table centerpiece.

• Tall cornhusks and bales of hay would add another decorative touch to the party.

Crafts:

• Paint or decorate mini pumpkins for the kids to take home.

• Make scarecrow candy necklaces. Using straw, have the kids string round candies with holes in the center to make their necklaces.

• Sponge paint placemats with leaf shapes.

  
  

Games and Activities:

• Bob for apples.

• Have a pumpkin roll contest. Divide the kids into two teams, and give each team a pumpkin. Have the kids line up and roll the pumpkin from person to person to one end and back.

• Toss a hula hoop around a large pumpkin.

• Have the kids jump over bales of hay as an obstacle relay race.

• String up donuts and tie the kids’ arms behind their backs. Have them eat the donuts off of the line without using their hands.

• Hold a scavenger hunt outdoors. If the party is at night, give the kids glow sticks.

• Fill a large cardboard box with leaves, and place toys in the leaves. Have the kids reach into the box to pick out a toy.

• Play hot pumpkin, like hot potato.

Menu:

• BBQ is always good for this type of a party; spice it up with spare ribs.

• Chili with all the finin’s is also an excellent option.

• Serve corn bread muffins.

• Make crispy rice cereal treats with orange food coloring. Stick them on a popsicle stick for a treat.

• Serve apple cider. As an added treat, place caramels on fancy sticks for the kids to stir into their apple cider to make hot caramelized apple cider.

• Make caramel apples.

• Make sugar cookies cut into autumn shapes. Have the kids decorate the cookies with frosting and candies.

• Make a batch of cupcakes with orange frosting and black, orange, and white sprinkles. The kids can always do the decorating.

Goody Bags:

• Purchase little plastic pumpkins, which are so popular as trick-or-treat bags this time of year. Fill them with all things fall: caramel apple cider packets with a cinnamon stick, little themed notebooks, pencils, erasers, pumpkin candy, and candy corn packets.

--Lisa Kothari, Peppers and Pollywogs

A Mad Scientist Party

For school-aged children, there may be nothing like a Mad Scientist party, especially as school gets underway and kids are back in science class. It’s a fun party theme that holds their attention and could even be educational. If your child is interested in the wacky side of science, seriously consider this theme!

Invitations:

Print the party details on small pieces of paper that can be rolled up, and place them in large test tubes with a rubber stopper. On the outside of the tube, write in permanent marker, “Inside contains the Mad Scientist Secret Formula for Party Fun!” These will have to be hand-delivered or mailed in cushioned envelopes.

Decorations:

• Place a sign welcoming guests to Dr. X’s Mad Lab at the entrance.

• In the party room, use silver and black to make it look like a high-tech lab.

• Using black construction paper, cut out question marks, mathematical formulas, etc., and place them around the party room.

• Have green slime on the lab tables.

• Fill different sized jars with colored water. Inside, place plastic eyeballs, hands, noses, plastic animals, etc.

• At the tables where the Mad Scientist experiments will happen, place face masks, magnifying glasses, test tubes, etc. to make the area look authentic.

• When the kids arrive, provide them with white coats, and have them create name tags. Encourage them to make up mad scientist names, such as Dr. Insanity.

Activities:

You can either have the kids do the activities as a group, or have them rotate throughout the party room to different lab stations to complete the mad science activities.

• Green Ooze: 3/4 cup cornstarch, 1/2 cup water. Mix together. Add green food coloring to look like slime.

• Static Electricity: Balloons, aluminum soda can. Blow up the balloons and rub them on the kids’ hair to make it rise. Set the soda can on a hard surface so it can roll. Move one of the rubbed balloons closer to the can. Does it move the can? Will the rubbed balloon stick to a wall?

• A Shocker: Per child: 1 penny, 1 lemon, 1 paper clip. Cut a ¼-inch slit in to the lemon to fit the penny, then another for the paperclip, close to but not touching the penny. Have the kids touch their tongues to each of the metals.

• Falling Coin: 1 glass, 1 index card, 1 coin. Place the card over the glass evenly. Place the coin in center. Flick the card end with your finger to send it flying. What happens to the coin?

• Suck an Egg into a Jar: 1 peeled, room-temperature hard-boiled egg, 1 jar with a narrow top (baby food jars work well), hot water. The egg will not fit into the jar on its own. Fill the jar with the hot water for 2-3 minutes. Pour the water out, and set the egg on the opening. The egg will end up inside the jar!

• Osmotic Celery: Set celery stalks in glasses of tinted water. The stalks will absorb the color, and then the kids can eat them!

Outdoor Activities:

• Volcanic Eruption: Make a volcano from a soda can, set on a tin pan, and form papier-mâché around it. Leave the hole in the top open. Dry and paint with browns and greens. To make the volcano erupt, place baking soda in the can, and then pour in vinegar tinted with food coloring.

• Rocket Launch: Fill a small plastic film canister with one teaspoon of water. Quickly add one Alka-Seltzer tablet, put the lid on, and place the canister on the floor with the lid side down. Wait about 10 seconds, and your rocket should fly into the air.

Games:

• Atom Burst: Tie two balloons to each of the kids’ ankles. Have them run around trying to burst each other’s atoms. The last kid with a “live atom” wins!

• Mini-Molecules: Take very close-up pictures of everyday items around your home. During the party, have the kids use their magnifying glasses to figure out what they are.

• Scientist Scramble: Muddle up the names of famous scientists, and have the kids unscramble them.

Menu:

• Serve snacks in clear bowls and name them madly: electric chips, magnetic munchers, etc.

• Serve electric dogs (hot dogs).

• Serve green punch. Place plastic critters and body parts in the punch for extra madness!

Goody Bags:

Send the kids home with a face mask, test tubes, green slime, goggles, magnifying glasses, magnets, etc. Alternatively, send them home with test tubes filled with candy.

Have a fab mad party!

--Lisa Kothari, Peppers and Pollywogs

Budget Party Games

 

Looking for a few new yet classic games to play at your kids’ parties, beyond Musical Chairs and Pin the Tail on the Donkey?

Here are a few that you may not have heard of:

Pass the Parcel

• Items needed: gift wrap, small present, music

• This game is hugely popular in the UK and Australia! Wrap your prize in as many layers of gift wrap as you have kids attending. Have the children pass the parcel around to one another while music plays. When the music stops, the child holding the parcel unwraps one layer. The game continues until the last child unwraps the final layer and wins!

Candy Hunt

• Items needed: candy, paper bags

• Hide candy around the party area, and give each guest a paper bag. Give them five minutes to find as much candy as they can. The children can take these sweet bags home as their party favors.

Sock ‘Em

• Items needed: socks, music, a prize

• Make a huge pile of socks, perhaps ten times as many as the number of kids attending the party. Play music while the guests try to put on as many socks as they can. When you turn the music off, whoever is wearing the most socks wins the prize!

Button, Button

• Items needed: a button

• Ask a birthday guest to leave the room, and hide a button in the party area. When the child returns, have him or her try to find the button. The other guests must direct the child by saying if he or she is hot or cold as compared to the location of the button. Once the button is found, another guest is chosen until all have had a turn.

Balloon Buds

• Items needed: balloons, a prize

• Pair up the kids into teams. Have each team stand back to back with a balloon wedged between their backs. The kids must walk sideways with the balloon in place to a designated finish line. The team that crosses the finish line first wins! If a team drops the balloon, they must begin again.

--Lisa Kothari, Peppers and Pollywogs

Back to School Celebration

It is almost time for the new school year to start. For many of you, it already has. This means brand-new shoes, sharpened pencils, fresh school supplies, and cool book covers. As a kid, I lived for this time of year. Call me crazy, but I was happier in school than with all of that summer time on my hands. So I figure why not celebrate this new beginning? If you are thinking along the same lines and want to celebrate this time of year with your kids, check out a few of the ideas and resources below.

Hand-deliver a fresh apple with a little tag attached that gives the details of the gathering. You could also put the party details on apple- or pencil-shaped cutouts that could be easily mailed.

Make the party room look like a mock classroom, with a chalkboard or white board, a desk, books, and school supplies. Use school colors and decorate with balloons, streamers, and a school banner. Apples on the party table would also be excellent.

Play word and mind games, and hold a gym class. Play bingo, Trivial Pursuit, 20 questions, word search, etc. For gym, play Simon Says, Red Rover, dodge ball, kickball, and Twister. Hold a relay race in which the kids get ready for school by filling their backpack and lunch bag, and then racing to one end and back.

For older kids, you may want to pop in a movie such as Ferris Bueller’s Day Off—a fun and easy activity for this age group.

For crafts, have the kids make bookmarks and/or book covers.

Food ideas are easy: pack school lunches. Ideas include small sandwiches, string cheese, a pack of goldfish crackers, an apple or a banana, and a little candy bar.

If you are going to hand out goodies, send them back to school in style. Fill paper gift bags with tissue, and add lots of school supplies like pencils, notebooks, erasers, locker mirrors, sticky pads, and gel pens.

--Lisa Kothari, Peppers and Pollywogs

End-of-Summer Campout

A fun end-of-summer party idea is a campout!

This theme works especially well with children between the ages of 8 and 12. A fun overnight slumber party in late August is a perfect way to end summer.

Here are some fun activities to pass the time:

• Enjoy a proper cookout, and end the evening with s’mores.

• Have a water balloon fight.

• Tell scary ghost stories before going to bed. Have the storyteller hold a flashlight.

• Play flashlight tag.

• Pitch tents together.

• Use a telescope and gaze at the stars. Teach a fun astronomy lesson while you do this.

• Make tie-dyed T-shirts—a great take-home campout party favor.

• Blow bubbles and shine your flashlights on them. This produces cool effects everyone is sure to love.

• Make luminary bags with your guests to light the path to their tents.

• Take a long hike/walk through your neighborhood, or, even better, in a nearby wooded area or park.

• Have a sing-along around the campfire. Does anyone play guitar?

• Provide bug jars and catch fireflies.

Favors for this party can include flashlights, tie-dyed T-shirts, or little knapsacks filled with camping stuff (bug spray, glow-in-the-dark stickers, water guns, glow bracelets, little plastic animals that you would find in the woods, etc.). The ideas are endless.

As you can see, overnight camping parties are great fun. Kids love them, and you will too, given the variety of activities that can easily fill the night.

One cautionary note, and this is true of any sleepover: Make sure to get contact information from parents when they drop their kids off. Some kids are ready to spend the night away from home and others are not. In case someone wants to go home or gets sick, make sure to have the parents’ contact details on hand to make that important call.

Happy camping trails to you!

--Lisa Kothari, Peppers and Pollywogs

Create a Birthday Party Budget

 

Parents often tell me that the cost of all of the birthday parties their children attend each year really adds up—and that doesn’t include the expense of throwing their own children’s birthday parties. Why is attending parties so expensive? Gifts!

If your child attends a birthday party for each classmate, even spending a small amount on each present can result in a big expense. Kids often feel pressure to give a good gift, and parents can feel this way as well. But these days, when some schools require that all children in a class be invited to birthday parties, the cost of gifts can be a problem. If you have 25 kids in a classroom and 20 decide to have some sort of party, at $10 a pop for each gift you have just spent $200 on presents. This only takes into account one of your kids; if you have more, you can see how quickly the costs multiply.

It all adds up, but you can make a budget so you won’t break the bank. Think about how many parties your child will be invited to this year. If you have more than one child, you will have to take all the parties your kids will attend into account. Once you have this estimate, you can work out a budget for gifts.

Spending anywhere from $5 to $10 on a child’s birthday gift is plenty. The present doesn’t need to be big, just thoughtful. You might consider spending a little more only on your child’s special friend or a family member.

$5 to $10 can purchase great activity books with colorful markers or crayons, interesting little games to play in the car, a cool miniature toy, a candy surprise, an interesting book, etc.

One party present won’t break the bank, but 20 party presents may during one school year. Be aware of this, plan a present budget, and stick to it. Ask yourself this question: Do you remember what you got on your 7th birthday? Neither will this generation.

Get your family organized and on the same page with Cozi, the free online family organizer.

--Lisa Kothari, Peppers and Pollywogs

"All About Me" Party for Toddlers

This is a party theme that is easy to put together, very budget-friendly, and often a favorite of kids aged 2 to 3 years old. This party is all about the party child. Kids this age are learning and recognizing who they are, and having a party that reflects them is a lot of fun for this age. For you, it’s super-easy to put together!

Here are the tips:

·        Ask your guests to dress in the same outfit as your child will. Make it something simple like jeans and a blue T-shirt. Your child will be delighted when everyone walks in dressed the same.

·        Decorate with your child’s favorite colors, using balloons, streamers, and tableware. Have a favorite candy or snack scattered around the table as well. Hang pictures of your child around the party room; hang them from streamers for extra fun.

·        Have several of your child’s favorite toys on a table, and provide play dough for the kids to make replicas of your kid’s favorite things.

 

·        Have the birthday boy or girl lead the gang in a round of “Simon Says,” but use your child’s name instead of Simon.

·        Play “Pin the Nose on ___ (Your Child’s Name).” Print a very large picture of your kid and hang it up. Cut out a big red nose for the kids to pin the nose on.

·        What are some other fun games your child loves? Charades? Tag? Hide and Seek? Freeze? Mother May I? Red Light, Green Light?

·        Take pictures of each guest with your child, and place it in a frame to be taken home by the guests as the party favor. If you have a digital camera, these pictures can be printed off and placed in the frames during the party. Or just send the frames home and send the pictures with the thank-you notes later.

·        Put the birthday child’s picture on the cake. Of course, make the cake in your child’s favorite flavor and icing color.

·        Serve your child’s favorite foods, even if outlandish, to add fun to the party menu.

The point of this party is to celebrate the uniqueness of your child. It’s easy, it’s budget-friendly, and because there is no one just like your kid, it will be very special!

 

--Lisa Kothari, Peppers and Pollywogs