Teal Pumpkin Project Time

It's that's time of year, when we start stocking up on bite sized chocolatey goodness and buying (or making) our kids something cute to wear for Halloween.  We used to go to our church Harvest festival thingy until a few years ago, but we stopped going because it was so crowded and at that point Weston didn't realize he had a food allergy, and so he it sometimes ended with a super sad kid. (We also stopped because we really saw this as an opportunity to meet our neighbors. . . after all, this is the one time a year where people willingly come knocking on your door. . . but that's a whole other blog post). This is where the Teal Pumpkin Project comes in.  Last year, we started joining in on The Teal Pumpkin Project fun.  I think we were the only ones in our neighborhood who did it, and most people had no clue what it was. 

Last year, and this year we have a teal colored pumpkin that is full of NON CANDY items for kids who have food allergies .  We will still give candy out, but there are special things for those kids that just can't have it.  The look on a kids face when they get some bubbles or this year, I found slime instead of something that they can't enjoy is amazing! 

There are so many kids out there that have allergies like Weston that go trick or treating every year and can't eat ANYTHING they get.  Weston has a soy and dairy so, unless someone out there hands out $4 Theo bars, Weston can't have any chocolate.  And let's be real, that's never going to happen.  We have friends that have kids that are allergic to nuts, fructose, gluten, and so many other things, that really, trick or treating is fun to do, but the when the rest of the kids are going through their stashes, they just hand it over to their parents.  At our house, Weston gets to trade his candy in for a Theo bar of his choice and that makes everyone happy. 

I just went to the dollar store and picked up a cheap halloween bucket and used my 50 percent off coupon at JoAnns to buy spray paint in a color that resembled teal and adhered to plastic.  Last year, I tried acrylic paint and it was horrible.  Do do that.  Bleh.  This worked great.  It bubbled in a few places, but probably because I was doing it in a hurry and got to close.  But, it's going to be filled with candy and sitting in the garage 364 days out of the year and I can re-do it next year because it's just so cheap. 

And isn't Target wonderful!  They have a whole isle of cheap things that are not candy.  I chose a lot of the $3 things that had 18-24 things in them.  That package of spider rings. . . 1 dollar!  And we are just excited about slime!  Last year, I bought some Halloween tatto boxes after Halloween for less than a dollar, so I will throw those in there, too.

 You can go visit last year's post and check out the free printable I made to stick outside your door to let people know that you have non food options for food allergies. 

And visit here to find out more about Teal Pumpkin Project.

And here to put your address on a map! How cool is that?!?!

Have a great weekend!