It is always a wonderful experience when you walk into a home where someone has just baked a pumpkin pie—all those intoxicating smells of nutmeg, cinnamon, pumpkin, and crisp piecrust. This piece is dedicated to all you pie-lovers out there, as well as all you non-bakers. I’ve put together some recommendations for where you can get delicious pumpkin pies. These pies are perfect for family get-togethers, Halloween costume parties, or as gifts to your friends and loved ones. In no particular order, here are five places where you can get fabulous pumpkin pie.

1. Try out Achatz Handmade Pie Company. The company makes two superb pumpkin pies, perfect for Halloween costume parties or for anytime of the year! There is the traditional pumpkin pie, with freshly made crust and filling with only the highest quality ingredients. But my personal favorite is their Pumpkin Crumb Pie. It’s almost like Crumb Cake mixed with Pumpkin Pie, and the flavors are amazing together. The Pumpkin Crumb Pie is essentially the traditional pumpkin pie with a layer of Achatz’ secret recipe crumb topping. This is great for a fancier Halloween costume party.

2. Bonerts Slice of Pie Company also has two delicious pumpkin pies. Like Achatz, Bonerts has a classic pumpkin pie and then a specialty pumpkin pie. Next time you’re planning a Halloween costume party, don’t forget to order a few of Bonerts’ Pumpkin Cream Cheese pies. It’s a great take on a classic pie, and the cream cheese gives the pie a rich, velvety texture that is incredible with the pumpkin flavor. Your Halloween costume party guests will be singing its praises!

3. In the spirit of the ghoulish Halloween, why not buy a Black Raspberry Pie from Garden Harvest Supply? The black, gooey filling and the flaky crust provide a nice alternative to pumpkin pie. With the Black Raspberry Pie, you can add creepy-crawly decorations like fake spiders, gummy worms, or plastic eyeballs. The deep, red-black color of the pie is a great addition to any Halloween costume party or Halloween costume get-together.

4. I can’t help mentioning Ms. Hill’s Pies. She’s a nice lady in Iowa who has been making delicious, handmade pies for over 30 years. That’s a lot of pies! For a nice “bloody” pie, why not buy the Cherry Pie? It tastes incredible, and it’s a great texture and color for Halloween costume parties and haunted houses. You could even hand out slices of pie to your trick-or-treaters in their Halloween costumes.

5. And last but not least, there are the delectable gourmet pies at Underhill Farms Gourmet & Specialty Pies. As the company states, “Each pie is made to order from the freshest ingredients, back to perfection, and delivered to your door.” Try the Single Crust Pumpkin Pie. They also sell a Sugar Free Pumpkin Pie, which is perfect if any of your Halloween costume party guests have trouble processing sugar. Plus, with all that Halloween candy, all that extra sugar in a pie is a bit unnecessary!

Scary Halloween Classroom Games

Most children love all things Halloween. As adults, we assume it's because Halloween means candy and children generally love candy. But many children love more than just the abundance of candy at Halloween time. They really get into the ghoulish aspect of the holiday and delight in the displays of goopy brains and squishy body parts.

Halloween games, therefore, can be really fun and goopy, if you wish. The kids will go with it, don't worry.

First up, a brain game. There's a fun game on store shelves where you pick through a rubber "brain" to figure out what's in it. You can create this easily yourself. Make some jello and fill it with a variety of items, like gummy worms and other gummy candies, some small candy and trinkets and other items. Tell the children to root around in the bowl of jello (call it a "brain" if this will get the kids more interested) to figure out what's in it. It's goopy and messy and kids love it. Best yet, color the jello black so it's too dark to see what's inside and it looks more like goopy brain matter (the way kids see it, anyway).

In that same, or similar vein, kids love the spaghetti game. Be sure they are wearing a smock over their clothes or are wearing play clothes before playing this game. Make a big bowl of spaghetti and fill it with all kinds of items, like plastic bugs, gummy worms and other items that might feel a bit strange. Make the children feel around in the bowl of spaghetti and identify the items they feel. Once they are done and cleaned up, have them list as many items as they can remember. Whoever gets the most items listed (and right) gets a prize. Spaghetti, anyone?

Another similar game that's always popular is to take a cardboard box and paint it black, both the inside and outside. Carve a small hole in the top, really just large enough for the children to get their hands into, and fill the box with a variety of items. They can be related to Halloween (like a small pumpkin) or not (wrapped Tootsie rolls or a tiny toy Hummer car). Have the children guess what's inside the box and award the box itself to the child who guesses the most number of items correctly. To make this goopy and silly, be sure to include some items that might feel like body parts or brain matter.

Kids love creating silly fictional stories, often with absurd plotlines. Halloween is the optimum time to let them run wild with their imaginations. Have them spend a bit of time writing out the scariest story they can think of. Some children might need some direction not to make it ridiculously grotesque, so use caution with these children in your clarification of this assignment. Once the stories are written, have the children hand them in and then have a guest reader for each one of them. Each child will come to the front of the class and read the story with as much dramatization as they can muster. Once the story is read, everyone has to guess who wrote the story. The writer should play along, otherwise everyone will know it was their story! The winner is the child who wrote a story so intriguing and unusual that nobody knew it was his or hers!

Kids love the word find games when you give them a word or words relating to a holiday or something else and have them find words within those words. In this case, give them Halloween-related words and ask them to find as many scary words as they can. For example, you might give them the word "Halloween" and see how many scary words they can make from the letters. Or you could give them a series of words and let them rearrange the letters in all of the words to create scary words, or even create a story from the scary words. Put a time limit on this game and award a prize for the child who creates the most words in the least amount of time.

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Halloween Pregnancy Costume Ideas

The minute you begin your pregnancy everything is changing, your body, your clothes sizes, even your looks. But that doesn't mean you have to skip out on your favorite holidays, like Halloween. Being pregnant doesn’t mean you can’t dress up. Whether you are buying your costume or making them yourself, you can have fun. There are many costumes you can buy for couples or just for yourself. The Pregnancy couple may want to go as a baker and an oven, or an egg and bacon bit. Both outfits are really cute and creative, you can even make them at home if you chose too.

If you want to get really creative you can make your own costumes, here are a few costumes that you can make just using your belly and normal clothes are:

The eyeball- This is something my husband created, all you need is a little facial paint and black clothes. This is something even a person that can't draw can have a little bit of fun with. Wear all black clothes on Halloween and paint your belly white, make the center of the eye whatever color you desire and don't forget the red veins. Make it scary or cute, whatever fits your desire. Have a bit of fun and show off that tummy by keeping the shirt up or wear a shirt that shows your tummy. My husband got a kick out of this one and was so excited that he got to do the artwork.

If you want to dress up completely but not stand out, try going as a human pumpkin. Wear a tiny green cap or make one out of felt and all orange, if you can cut a slit in your shirt for your belly to stick out. Now, paint it orange and decorate your pumpkin.

A pea is another simple costume you can make and stay warm. Go find some green jeans or sweats and a green sweatshirt. Keep the shirt up or cut a hole in it to make your little pod stick out and paint it all green.

If you aren't feeling up to having a full body costume, you could always just paint the belly and proudly show it off. After all, how often will you be pregnant? Think of anything that is round: basketball, volleyball, soccer ball, a bowling ball, etc

Don't forget witches were mothers too, so if you've always dressed as a witch for Halloween you don't have to stop the tradition. This year go as a pregnant witch or maybe a witch holding a pumpkin. Use that belly!

A Bun in the oven- Get a medium or small box, cut it out so that you can wear it over your shoulders. Make room for your head to slide through. Decorate it with paints like an oven. Cut open the front of the box so that it will open and close. On the outside of the box write, “Bun in the Oven.” Paint your belly a light beige for all to see the little baby bun.

Halloween Games for Kids and Adults

Whether you decide to take the kids out for an hour of trick-or-treating and then come back for the party, or just forego the neighborhood wanderings this year, it is an absolute must that you have a fiendishly good time by playing Halloween games. This holiday is usually considered a kid’s day, but I like to think of Halloween as a time to become a kid again, and Halloween games – even if they are really designed to please the kiddies – can really be Halloween games for both kids and adults.

Here are some great ideas for Halloween games to make everyone giggle and have a good time:

• Pass the Pumpkin – This game is great fun and all you need are three pumpkins and some people. Just group up the players into groups of pretty even ability levels, or make it kids against the adults or boys against the girls if you like. Each group starts with a pumpkin and the first player passes it to another in the group. Then that person passes it on to someone else, and so on. The winning team is the team that does not drop the pumpkin. Ohhh…did I forget to mention, you should put some Crisco on the pumpkins first? Howling good fun! This is an outside game of course!

• Mummy Maniacs – This game is way cool and all you need is some white crepe paper or rolls of toilet paper. First, divide up the kids (or adults) into teams of two players each. One takes the paper and makes the other one into the mummy, being sure to wrap the legs together, not separately. Then, the non-mummies run around in a roped-off area, and it is the job of the mummies to “capture” an enemy partner. The first one to hug the enemy is the winner.

• Witches Broom Dancing – This is a variation on follow-the-leader, and all you need is a broom. Put all players in a circle. The first person takes the witch’s broom and dances around the circle with it. Then, she hands it to whatever player she chooses, and that person must imitate her dance exactly. If she doesn’t she sits down and another person takes a turn. The last player standing wins.

• Spider Sack Relay Race – This game makes players into spiders and requires just a little forethought and before-the-party preparation. All you need are three old pairs of panty hose and some old rags to stuff inside them. Put the rags in the legs of the pantyhose. Then, divide the players into three teams. The first player ties the pantyhose around his waist so that the legs dangle on his sides. He bends over and crawls on his hands and feet (or hands and knees, whichever) and goes to the finish line, where a teammate waits for him. Then, the teammate takes off the dangly pantyhose spider legs, and puts them on herself and crawls back to the beginning. Play continues until all players have crawled. First team to get everyone across a finish line wins.

It’s easy to become a kid again on Halloween night and make it a special night with your friends and the kids. All you to do is put your thinking cap on and introduce everyone to one of the above games or another Halloween game you come up with.