Are you needing some very asthma friendly Halloween traditions for your toddler this year? Coincidentally are you also needing some very social distancing friendly traditions to start as well. When I made my asthma friendly indoor list of Halloween traditions last year I didn’t know that they would also be doubling this year as a “social distancing friendly list”. Oh the things you can relabel. You can check out the full list here!
Today’s blog is all about how to do an asthma friendly Halloween Themed Camping trip! This is our second annual one and yes it is totally possible to make it asthma friendly! Some of my daughter’s asthma triggers are wind, being out before a rain, and dust. How do we avoid these triggers while camping? BRING the camping inside!
***Medical disclaimer: What works for one asthma patient might not work for all. By reading this blog, you agree not to use this blog as medical advice to treat any medical condition in either yourself or others, including but not limited to patients that you are treating. Consult your own physician for any medical issues that you may be having. This entire disclaimer also applies to any guests or contributors to the blog. Under no circumstances shall Mommy Daughter Love or any contributors to the blog, or any employees, associates, or affiliates of MDL be responsible for damages arising from use of the blog.***
Setting Up the Tent
The first part of any good camping trip is to choose your camp ground and pitch your tent! Our camp ground for our Halloween themed asthma friendly camping trip is the living room! And so we pitched out tent. We used PVC piping for the tent. It is set up in an open rectangle. then we cover it with two sheets and hold it on to the PVC pipes with some larger chip clips. These chip clips work great with thin PVC pipes. I think they are actually plastic beach towel clips but they work great as chip bag clips and dual purpose to hold up photo back drops and tent sheets! In case you need something that is pretty versatile and cheep! IF your living room gets cold be sure to bring in a space heater, we have this one that shuts off on its own when it reaches the appropriate temperature. For people with asthma it is also nice to sleep by the essentials (we always have them handy) so bring the rescue inhaler and pulse ox meter with you as well and put in one corner of the tent!
Next you have to add the spooky stuff! No Halloween tent is complete without it! We went pretty mild this year (in comparison to last years decked out spook tent). We have the Halloween letter board which for us is a staple. It is super cute in photos! Then we have some hanging bat garland at the top of the tent! For our final Halloween touches we added some spider flowers and a painted pumpkin that we did as one of our activities of the night!
Roasted Ghosties:
The next thing on the nights agenda is probably the most important thing you can do for your camp out! It is roasting marsh mallows! Not just any kind of marshmallows though, GHOST shaped marshmallows! We grabbed a bag of these marshmallows from the Walmart pick up app. But they are also available on amazon through the prime app.
By using the Walmart pick up app we are not only protecting ourselves but also our front line Walmart workers! The more people who use the app, the less exposure these essential workers get! Lets help stop the spread together! So, whichever you are currently using to get your groceries (amazon or walmart app) is great (I love and use both). The CDC does officially recommend curb side pick up or grocery delivery for this fall to help stop the spread of covid-19. You can view their official recommendation here.
Roasted Ghosties are so fun, instead of being the “Ghost Busters” we became the “Ghost Roasters” and were singing songs about it for our ghost roasting camp out! Since the camp out we have made it a tradition to roast a marshmallow every night for October. BUT WAIT…how did we roast marshmallows inside? I have another neat asthma friendly trick for you guys!
How to Roast Marshmallows Inside:
First you turn on an oven burner. We have a coil burner (I have never tried it on a glass stove top). I turn it up to a 5 to 5.5 setting. Let it get warm
Then you put your marshmallows on the end of wooden Kebab sticks. This makes for no mess clean up. The kids can hold the sticks farther up above the burner for awhile but when the really want it roasted you can take it (the adults) and hold the marshmallows (using wooden kebab sticks so you don’t get burnt) about an inch above the burner.
Brown the marshmellow to your liking. They brown pretty quickly. (less than a minute.) Typically when a little bit of smoke starts to rise from the marsh mellow they are brown and ready to flip to the other side.
You can let the kiddos stand by you in a chair if they are old enough, and are able to stand still safely. Just make sure they don’t touch the burner or the marshmallow until it is cool! I say this because I have seen really bad advice going around lately, involving what to do with kids.
HAVE the kids take small bites of roasted marshmallows because they are choking hazards. They are gooey, just like the ones roasted outside.
Decorating Pumpkins!
You have to decorate Pumpkins for Halloween! It is an absolute must! For the camp out we painted a little round pumpkin to look like Spookley the square pumpkin. (Which is a must watch Halloween movie for kids by the way). For the pumpkin painting activity I drew the face on in permanent marker and my daughter painted it. But you could also just as easily have the kiddos draw their own faces and paint them as well. We used the apple barrel acrylic paint set which dried withing an hour on a pumpkin. We use these paints for everything. You can get a paint set from amazon or from the Walmart pick up app (where you can select your own colors).
Fruit Roll Up Tattoo’s
Let me start out by saying that these actually lasted several days on my arm and through hand washing dishes. So, my daughter and I both did the fruit roll up unicorn tattoo’s where you lick the tattoo’s and then stick them on your arm. For a more hygienic method you can also dampen them with water and stick them on your arm (you know pandemic world). You can press them to your tongue too and put the tattoo on your tongue (these don’t last very long and they don’t turn out as well). This activity was all together one of the highlights of the night though! Grab your box from the same places you go shopping (Walmart pick up or amazon prime!) I’m sure they have lots of other fun themes as well. We just went with the unicorn one because that is what my daughter is really into. Check it out:
There you have it! How to have a perfect camp out with all the fun activities! It is really affordable, asthma friendly, social shielding approved, and a super fun way to kick of fall and celebrate Halloween! Go out and make some great memories with your kids while you are actually stuck in doors!
Brie
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