Halloween and Day of the Dead

We hosted a Day of the Dead co-op at our house. I love sharing Latin American culture with kids.

I prepared an altar the night before with pictures and things representing my grandparents.

We started the activity by reading a book about the holiday and then viewing the altar.

Next we made pan de muertos out of crescent rolls and orange juice. Fun and tasty!

We also made atole. So good!!

The kids made magnets, colored some sheets and we watched the movie Coco to tie it all in together.

Day of the Dead is actually a wonderful tradition of remembering ancestors. It is not like Halloween, but it falls at the same time as Halloween.

Halloween was on a Tuesday, but we celebrated on Saturday. We started with dinner in a pumpkin and carving with the sister missionaries, Sister Grover and Sister Bradshaw.

I have fun memories of eating dinner in a pumpkin as a kid and it was fun to share it with my kids and the missionaries.

While we ate, we also got down to carving.

We also decorated a couple cookies (more on that below...).

This year the kids wanted to host a Halloween party. They invited a lot of kids and we had a lot of fun plans.

Gummy worms in whipped cream

The candy bar game (Reese's Peanut Butter Cups were the hot item.)

Donuts on a string

Lots of fun food

Dry ice rootbeer (I got it out too soon and it was flat. David tried to warn me.)

Cookie decorating

The party was a huge success and the kids were happy about it. 

The chickens even got in on the action, carving their own pumpkin!

Before

After

We had a fun Halloween!