I remember as a kid being let loose on my neighborhood on Halloween night. Me and my sisters, our cousins and friends would get pillowcases and hit every house we could. We would come home with tons of candy, enough to keep us satisfied for at least the next month, maybe more. We would get dressed up sometimes making our own costumes and sometimes we would get the store bought costume, it didn't matter to me as long as I got to go out and beg for candy. We didn't have our parents accompany us, it was just us kids. We would hit every house and have a lot of fun. After we got done with the trick or treating part we would show up at the high school gym for the annual Halloween carnival where we would always leave with 2 or 3 two liter bottles of soda, and of course more candy. If all the sugar from the candy wasn't enough we had the soda to top us off.

Of course after all that activity we would all go to our homes and then the great candy trade started. We would dump all of our candy out in a big pile and then begin the separation process, chocolate candy in one pile, suckers, sour candy, gum, and chewy candy in all their separate piles until we had them all separated and of course the adults took the candy they wanted. After the separation was done we would start the trading, I'll give you two pieces of gum for that almond joy, or whatever we could get. There was always the candy no one wanted though, like those ones with the black and orange wrappers, nougat or something, what where these people thinking. We always would try to remember the house that we got those from so that we could avoid it the next year, of course we never remembered though.

My kids are lucky to have been able to do pretty much the same things as I did as a kid, we live in a very small community and we know who are crazies are. I know that not everybody can do this though so I am going to share a few different ways to get your Halloween groove on.

1. Community Halloween fair or carnivals- these can be a lot of fun with many of them offering games and contests. Some offer costume contests and cake walks which are always fun. Most of these events should be listed in your local newspaper or on your city website. another good place for resources is your local Chamber of Commerce, they usually keep a calender of local events.

2. Plan your own neighborhood carnival-Before we moved to Oklahoma we lived in Colorado and it was hard to take our young kids out to Trick or Treat so we had a small Halloween party for them. We let them dress up we got one movie, snacks and drinks and played games. The kids really enjoyed it.

3. Block party- This could be a of fun. If you could get your neighbors to agree to have the party and of course get permission to block the street from the city you could let the kids trick or treat in the neighborhood and them after everyone could meet in the street for games and fun. It's a nice way to get to know your neighbors too.
4. Scary movie night- This is probably a better idea for tweens. You could rent or buy several scary movies and let each kid bring a snack or drink. They could watch scary movies all night. I have done this as a kid and greatly enjoyed it!

These ideas would be more appropriate for older children.

1. Glow in the dark paint ball- I did not know anything about this until it popped into my head that paintballing in the dark could be a lot of fun.

2. hide and seek in the dark- who doesn't like hide and seek, such a fun game and in the dark just makes it that much more fun.

3. garage party- As a teenager and a tween I went to some of these and had some of the best time. Most of these where with adult supervision and kids usually brought the music they wanted to listen to. So there was a great variety of music.
4. haunted house- whether you go to visit one or build your own it's all fun!
5. egging- I don't know if this one can be done legally everywhere. Here in my small town in Oklahoma it is allowed as long as the kids only hit each other and not cars and houses. To make this safer I would recommend wearing a paintball helmet or some kind of eye protection. Yes, I am one of those mothers that is afraid everyone is going to poke their eye out.

These are just a few ideas I had, If you are looking for more information aboutHalloween then check these out!