Columbus Day Celebrations

Columbus Day, which also falls on Canada's Thanksgiving Day, is Monday.  Christopher Columbus was Italian and he completed four voyages, for the Spanish Kingdom, across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents.   During his first voyage in 1492, instead of reaching Japan or India as he had intended, Columbus landed in the Bahamas.  This is why he named the natives "Indians" thinking he landed in India.

Columbus' crew sailed on the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria.  Over the course of three more voyages, Columbus visited the Greater and Lesser Antilles, as well as the Caribbean coast of Venezuela and Central America, claiming them for the Spanish Empire.  Though Columbus was not the first European explorer to reach the Americas, having been preceded by the Norse expedition led by Leif Ericson in the 11th century, Columbus's voyages led to the first lasting European contact with the Americas.

Those are the common knowledge facts.  But when you dig a little deeper, it gets ugly.

When reading some of Columbus' journals and doing more research, things get fuzzy.  Columbus has been accused of mostly searching for gold, slaughtered thousands of natives, sold young girls into sex slavery and had an ego larger than his ships.  Other historians believe that his ships were followed by traders and entrepreneurs who did all of the horrific things.  Who really knows?

Certainly I do not want my children to emulate this.  So I will inform them of these mistakes and teach them how to reach their dreams without hurting others.  On this day especially, I like to encourage my kids to go after their dreams even when others don't believe in them...but to do so in a way of integrity.  

Needless to say, we won't be "celebrating" Columbus' achievements since I'm not even sure what they were.  I almost feel like it should be Dia De Los Muertos and we mourn all the natives who lost their lives and heritage.  But to each his own, so if you do want to celebrate, here are some different ideas to do so.

Here are some Columbus Day worksheets, crafts and activities that your kids might like:

Columbus Day Crafts

How about decorating your table with ships, earth decor, Native American decor or even some Spanish/Italian decor? 

Old maps of the world would be great too.

Ship Centerpiece

Elegant Ship Decor

Now check out these food ideas!

Veggie Boats How To

Boat Snack

Apple Snack

Cupcake Recipe

Earth Pancakes

Columbus Day Lunch

My wish to you is that you can make this day positive and a great educational experience with your kids about true integrity and character!

Past Halloween Parties

I was not allowed to celebrate Halloween as a kid.  My mother still believes it's Satan's day and trembles when I talk about trick-or-treating every year, but she tolerates me now! :)  I remember one year in college when I went door to door with my big black bible witnessing to people who were handing out candy.  I'm sure they were so annoyed that they opened their door to me! LOL!

After digging deep and studying all the holidays, I realized that most of them have strange and questionable beginnings.  I mean, we celebrate Christmas, the birth of Christ, and Biblical scholars still disagree on the actual date Jesus was born.  Some say September, some January, none say December 25th.  Either way, it's about celebrating what's in your heart today, not how people hundreds of years ago celebrated.

I've changed a lot since then and am now a HUGE Halloween fan!  Any reason to dress up silly and eat creatively crafted food is a good enough reason for me!  So below you will see the kid's parties I've thrown over the last few years.  You will notice that each year gets less and less, LOL!  But the good news is, once you buy your supplies, you have them forever and can reuse and reuse costing less and less every year!

2010

This was the biggest Halloween party I hosted!  I think I had over 75 moms and kids at my house that day and it was a blast!  Everyone helped out by bringing a fun food to share and boy were they fun!

My kids and I were pirates that year...arrrr matey!

 Look at this spread!

 Here is the drink station.  For the wall plates, I just printed some clip art, cut them out and double stick taped them onto the plates.

My drinks: Ghoul's Guice & Pirate Punch...with floating hands!

 This was on the other side of the room.  Just some crows, cats, owls, rats and caution tape!

Now check out all this food:

Oreo spiders

2011

Now this particular year we had a smaller group...25 moms and kids?  So I moved it into my breakfast area.

We didn't want to do costumes and have the kids ruin them with spills, so we just wore silly things instead!  What?  Who doesn't have orange/black stripped tights? :)

 Once again, I'm addicted to floating hands of ice!  Just pour kool-aid into a latex glove and freeze!

2012

Ok, now this one almost didn't happen.  It was last minute and I grabbed my Halloween box and threw it together in a few minutes!

Costumes? LOL!  How about just a witches hat?

I loved these hot dog fingers!  Just slice and boil with some onions.  Then trim and assemble with ketchup!

So that's all folks!  Just a couple of parties I've done in the past.  

Who knows what I'll do this year?  

We'll see....

We've Been Boo'd!

October is such a fun month!  And one of the things our neighborhood does to make it so fun is "Boo'ing" other neighbors.  Basically you make 2 baskets of goodies for unsuspecting neighbors.  Then you sneak up to their home at night, ring the doorbell, leave the goodies and run!  You then leave them a note/sign about being "boo'd" and they have to hang the sign on their front door so others know that they have already been boo'd.  Then they have 24 hours to boo 2 other families.  By Halloween, all the doors have little "boo" signs on them and everyone has received a special treat!

Here's what I did this year:

Bottle of wine, wine bag, wine glass, holographic ghost can, napkins, cups, glow stick wands, pumpkin carver kit, candy, bucket, boo sign.

Now, I know that this looks like a lot, however, I bought almost all of it last year after Halloween at 75% off.  So when October arrives, I just grab last year's stash, add perishables and whip it up!  All and all I think I paid about $15 to make the entire basket.

This was my favorite find!  A holographic ghost that talks!  The kids are going to love it!

Then I made these for the moms!  I saw these on etsy and just had to make them myself!  Just buy a glass or acrylic cup, clean it with alcohol, write on it with Sharpie Oil Based Paint Pens and then spray with Mod Podge Spray (make sure to tape off where the lips touch so you don't get Mod Podge where the lips go).

I customized the back with their family name and year.

Then I shoved it all in the basket and covered with spider webs!  

Here's the sign that I used and a little note to go with it! 

My Computer Is My Canvas made this printable.   

It's a very fun and wonderful tradition to start in your neighborhood!  Happy Boo'ing!

P.S.  Here's how it went with us...after baths and pajamas, we snuck out to boo our neighbors!  This is my crazy kids acting "scary". LOL!

Hiding behind bushes to hear their reaction!

Sneaking up to the next house!

What great memories!