Free printable Advent calendars, Advent wreaths, Christmas crafts

Advent is the Catholic Christian season leading up to Christmas which begins around Thanksgiving. Parents, start gearing up for the season after Halloween (All Saints Day). For four weeks, prior to Christmas, Catholics practice Advent values prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Each week focuses on hope, expectation and joy. Here are free printable advent calendars for kids to make, to guide Christmas devotions. Free printable Catholic Christian Advent calendars, Advent wreaths, Christmas crafts

Kris Jenner weight loss, plastic surgery, sexy Alice in Wonderland Halloween costume wows

At the "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" costume parade, a surprise winner took first. Mom Kris Jenner wowed with her sexy Alice in Wonderland Halloween costume. Even Kylie Jenner who so impressed Christina Aguilera with her "Dirrty" look had to concede to mother. The "KUWTK" doyen flaunted weight loss, an impressive boob job and body by plastic surgery as a flirty Kim #Kardashian-style White Queen.   Kris Jenner weight loss, plastic surgery, sexy Alice in Wonderland Halloween costume wows

Free printable Adult Masks for Halloween Costumes

Halloween isn't just for little children. Adults can dress up too. Here are free printable Halloween masks of Star Wars, politicians, celebrities and more. These will be perfect for Star Wars: The Force Awakens fans. Use political masks in fun, educational government current events activities. Or use your Halloween costume to make a statement! Students will love making masks of world leaders, politicians and famous persons. Teachers might assign students to stage mock debates or elections. They could write speeches, debates or dramatizations of historical events and wear masks. Use celeb masks for for creative writing inspiration on satire, parody or essay writing. Use 3D animal masks in science.

Visit Wonder How-To for 100+ free printable Halloween masks. The site compiles printables from all over. Print cool steampunk masks that are vintage tech fun. Print Star Wars masks, Doctor Who masks and artsy creature masks. Wear your Star Wars mask when you see the new movie! Print, cut and assemble awesome 3D Halloween masks of animals. There are cool printable masks to color yourself. Traditional Trick or Treaters will love the assortment of free printable monster masks. Print Frankenstein, witch, zombie, skeleton, mummy, vampire, bat and more. There are Fox cartoon Halloween masks from King of the Hill and the Simpsons.

Star Wars masks come from Filth Wizardry. Political Halloween masks come from Forbes which published masks of those they deem the scariest people of the year. Forbes features politicians, especially those in scandal, notorious celebrities, world leaders, religious leaders and high profile criminals, and prominent society figures for that year. Included are O.J. Simpson, Sarah Palin, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, Martha Stewart, Ben Bernanke, Hilary Clinton, Borat Sagdiyev, for example. You can access archived free printable masks from 2002 to 2009. This list includes NewsGroper's free printable political masks that are similar to MAD magazine illustrations. Print masks of Barack Obama, Vladmir Putin, Ron Paul, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Fred Thompson and Brittany Spears.

Free printable spooky paper toys, creepy crafts, haunted Halloween fun and scary activities

Do you love yourself a deliciously spooky Halloween? Yes, please!! Do you anticipate a terrifically terrifying trick-or-treat? Maybe you go all out on a ghostly decorations Hallow-palooza? If so, don't miss this website.  (how's that for dark, and foreboding) redefines Halloween fun with a gigantic collection of vintage Gothic paper toys you can print free. There are free printable Halloween decorations featuring any kind of creepy thing you could want.

Ravens Blight

Print and make 3D haunted house, manor, chapel and train dioramas. Create a graveyard scene "peopled" by undead soldiers and a ghostly pirate ship with zombie pirates. Make paper models of a spectral carriage, a bullet-riddled gangster car and a medieval battle-hearse.

How to find Halloween corn mazes, pumpkin patches and U-Pick apple orchards

Looking for local pumpkin patches  in your area? How about a corn maze to take the kids to? Maybe you want to see what Halloween events and activities are going on nearby? There's an easy way to locate all of those and and more autumn events, using this handy fall fun finder.

Pumpkin Patches and More is a comprehensive database of autumn harvest venues organized by state. Click the link for your state. You'll be taken to a page of regional links. Find your region. From that link, you'll see a list of counties in your area, each with a list of Halloween activities--everything from apples to zombies!

Venues listed on the website offer such things as:

• apple orchards
• fall bakeries
• beehives
• children's activities
• cider mills
• corn mazes
• costume contests
• donuts
• educational activities
• fall festivals
• farmers markets
• field trips
• hay mazes
• hay rides
• horse-drawn carriages
• horse rides
• haunted barns
• haunted houses
• nature trails
• night time events (farms, orchards, pumpkin patches and corn mazes get a spooky evening makeover)
• orchards
• pumpkin patches
• petting zoos
• pick your own pumpkins, apples and other produce
• play lands
• spooky barns
• train rides
• trick-or-treating
• tours
• U-pick apples
• wagon rides
• wineries
• zombie paintball (check that link for places to play that Halloween role-play game)

Write-ups provide venue addresses, phone numbers, maps and website links (if available) along with detailed explanations of what to see and do. If available, pumpkin and apple prices are listed along with any costs for events. The website lists varieties of apples and other fruits and vegetables that farms may offer seasonally. The website is updated regularly.

Scroll around for apple and pumpkin recipes, pumpkin carving templates to print, pumpkin choosing tips, Halloween facts, corn maze ideas and more. Visit this companion link for state-by-state pick-your-own produce farms.

Zombie Paintball takes Halloween freakfest to all boo levels!

Never mind Ebola, folks. There's an even greater threat, warned the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)--a Zombie Apocalypse! When the horrifying brain-eater invasion was (jestingly) forecast a few years ago, folks were advised to create zombie emergency preparedness kits.

This Halloween 2014, intrepid zombie warriors have discovered a new weapon for their arsenal against the undead: paintball guns. Zombie paintball is this Halloween's hottest (well, coldest, as in cold and dead) activity. What is zombie paintball? It's a LARP--live action role-play--survival game. People dress as zombies so others can practice their tracking skills. Paintball splats seem to stick to zombies and make them more visible.

Zombie hunters got in some paintball practice at West Michigan's Wurst Fest a few weeks ago, reported Fox 17. But the main event will, of course, be Halloween. All Hallow's Eve is the high point of the zombie (and things ghoulish) year. Zombies logically target Halloween for their Armageddon.

Worried that your zombie survival skills might not be up to par? Maybe you should try your hand at zombie paintball? Here's a list of places that offer zombie paintball. Click on your state to find events near you.

But beware--zombie preparedness doesn't come cheap. In Michigan, zombie hunts takes place atDarksyde Acres (Jonesville). For $5 you get to take 20 shots at the ghouls or $20 gets you 100 shots. Fear the Farm in Battle Creek, is the closest haunted venue to Grand Rapids with zombie hunting. Costs there are 75 shots for $20 and 150 for $30.

Free printable Laura Ingalls Wilder pioneer activities, early American history lessons

If you were a girl growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, you read and loved Laura Ingalls Wilder and her Little House on the Prairie book series. Maybe you were lucky to have the handsome boxed set of Laura Ingalls Wilder books. Then you loved the Little House on the Prairie TV series when it came out. Long before "Pioneer Woman" and settler survival type reality TV shows, there was Laura Ingalls Wilder and her stories about life in the 1880s midwest. Laura Ingalls Wilder fans will be happy to know that a new movie based on the Little House on the Prairie books is in the works at Paramount.

But teachers and homeschool parents, you don't have to wait for that film. Now you can bring earlyAmerican history into your social studies lessons with free printable Laura Ingalls Wilder book activities. Get free printable American history lesson plans book activities from the seven books in the series. The series begins with "Little House in the Big Woods" when Laura is five and was written over a period from 1932-1943. But going in chronological order "Farmer Boy"comes first. It's based on childhood memories of Laura's father Charles Ingalls. Next comes "Little House on the Prairie", "On the Banks of Plum Creek", "By the Shores of Silver Lake", "The Long Winter", "Little Town on the Prairie" and "These Happy Golden Years." "The First Four Years" (stories from Laura's early married life). didn't come out till 1971 and I clearly remember the big deal that was, and later when "West from Home" (not part of the original series) came out in 1974.

The publication of these books sparked renewed interest in early American history and pioneer lore. My mother first read Little House in the Big Woods to me when I was near Laura's age in the story. Laura Ingalls Wilder had a gift for story-telling to match her fascinating life. I purchased the rest of the series, one by one and read them. I later read the Little House on the Prairie books to my own children and used them in our homeschool. The Little House books make perfect American history activities and social studies lesson plans on the life of American pioneers.

The website Laura's Prairie House calls itself the Definitive Laura Ingalls Wilder and Little House on the Prairie. The site has dozens of free printable American history and book activities, crafts, recipes and coloring pages. These books help social studies teachers explore the difference between American pioneers and settlers. Pioneers were trail blazers who built new towns and settlements. Settlers moved into these areas and settled them. Laura Ingalls Wilder's family, both the her parents Charles and Caroline Ingalls and her husband Almanzo Wilder were settlers and pioneers. They brought customs and traditions with them from the New England towns they lived in and they formed many new traditions based on the areas they settled.

There are free printable Little House in the Big Woods lesson plans, crafts, games and book activities. There are free printable Little House on the Prairie book activities and free On the Banks of Plum Creek printables. There are recipes for maple candy, johnny cake, parched corn, cornbread, vinegar pie, horehound candy and other foods Laura features in her books. Other sites feature more Little House free printables You can print American history crafts, recipes, sheet music and lyrics from songs as well as complete episode guides and links from the Little House on the Prairie television show. Laura's Prairie Home features comprehensive biographical data on the 

Free printable paper hats, paper hat patterns, Hat Day paper crafts printables

Lids, bonnets and berets, oh my--Jan. 15 is National Hat Day. So if you've got a derby, don it! You don't have a hat? Well, make one out of paper. When I was a kid, my grandfather, who was newspaper pressroom foreman, showed me how to fold paper hats from newspaper. Can I remember now? No. But fortunately, there's internet for printables galore! Here are free printable paper hats, paper hat patterns and activities for Hat Day (or any day!)

Enchanted Learning has all sorts of free printables for paper crafts, hats, masks, games and learning activities. Print without a banner for a $20 site donation. Access thousands of free printable lesson plans, classroom paper crafts, charts, booklets, diagrams and activities. Check out this page for dozens of free printable paper hat patterns for Hat Day.

SS42 has lots of free printable paper hats in several styles--baseball hats, hats with monster heads (zombies, vampire, spider web and pumpkin). There are free printable paper animal hats with noses and bills to go with animal costumes and a paper bucket hat to design and color yourself for Hat Day. Here are free printable paper hat patterns like the pointy party paper hats that attaches with a rubber band. Paper hat patterns make fun DIY birthday party paper crafts printables.

Paper Glitter has gobs of super adorable free printable party supplies, gift tags, labels for treat bags, party invitations, envelopes, to-do lists, greeting cards, paper dolls and yup, a free printable party hat to cut and paste. This site specializes in Bible and holiday paper crafts printables. Click each holiday link for free printable paper crafts including paper hats. In "Curious George Rides a Bike" George shows an easy way to make paper hat patterns or paper boats from newspaper. Missed Hat Day--no worries--you can declare any day Hat Day with these fun printables.

Free printable Catholic saints coloring pages for All Saints' Day

Most people know that October 31 is Halloween, or All Hallows Eve. Fewer know that there's only a Halloween because of the days that follow. November 1 marks the Catholic holy day of obligation, All Saints' Day and November 2 is All Souls' Day (celebrated as Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead in Mexico). Halloween was a pagan blowout that anticipated the fasting of the proceeding holy day.  Use these free printable Catholic saints coloring pages, crafts and lesson plans to learn more about All Saint's Day and Halloween.
* Catholic Mom's All Saint's Day activities page has printable crafts and coloring pages specific to that holy day, plus tips for celebrating a Christian Halloween. Visit the Catholic Kids home page for free printable liturgical lesson plans for CCD and religious education lesson plan. Each week's gospel is discussed and age-appropriate activities linked: free printable puzzles, word searches, study sheets, crafts, Bible verses, games and activities. 
* ABCatholic has a free printable Catholic alphabet coloring book with images of saints, Bible stories and sacraments.  
* Waltzing Matilda features handmade free printable Catholic saints coloring pages. The blog moderator has drawn images for sacraments and liturgical use also. 
* Paper Dali is another mom blog with homemade free printable saints coloring pages. Some are free and some must be purchased.free her Etsy shop. Scroll around for the freebies. All are very attractive and well worth the nominal fee. 
* Catholic Icing offers handmade All Saints' Day printables and crafts. Read through the blog posts and sidebar menu for crafts, games and printables. 

* JClub has free printable Bible and Catholic saints coloring pages. 

* EWTN (Eternal Word Television Network) Kids offers free mass readings, prayer activities, crafts and coloring pages for children. Users must create a free account with user name and password.