I had a kiddie Halloween party last yr & will do so again this yr. I keep it fun & it's mostly for younger kids but here are some of the things I did. Coloring pages I printed out 4 different jack-o-lantern coloring pages which I could make copies of & use it when the kids first arrive until everyone gets here & the official activities begin. I bought small boxes of crayons from Oriental Trading. Candy Corn Drop Halloween Party Game · Each child is given 15 pieces of candy corn. · Kids kneel on a chair and drop pieces of candy corn, one at a time, into a glass on the floor. · The person who gets the most corn in the glass wins! Pin the Nose on the Jack-o-Lantern: - I used reusable tape PICTURE FRAMES Take a Polaroid of the guests when they arrive and the photo and frame are a great gift. Oriental Trading as well as Micahels have cute foam frames which they can decorate with Halloween foamies Who's Got the Pumpkin Place everyone is a circle. Start a song (Halloween themed songs like Monster Mash are neat to use!) and toss a mini pumpkin to one person, they throw it to the next, and so on until the music stops. The person who is caught holding the pumpkin has to leave the circle. The last one left is the winner and keeps the pumpkin. Note: this is like hot potato. Of course what'a party without a pinata _ i add junky toys like spider rings & candy of course Pumpkin Bowling: Get a hold of 4-6 plastic pumpkin buckets and a small ball (plastic bowling balls are perfect). Stack the pumpkins in a pyramid on a hard surface and let the kids bowl to their hearts' content! Assign a little helper to assist you with picking up the pumpkins and stacking them. Mr Pumpkin Head (2 cersions) 1 -Get a real pumpkin and supply washable markers, and props such as glasses, paper mustache, hats, scarves, and wigs. Let each child have turn to decorate and dress up pumpkin. When next child's turn - just wash the markers off! 2- Oriental Trading has stickers to decroate balloons with - eye, nses, mouths, etc. & I had each child bring their own medicum sized pumpkin & they got to decroate theirs with a whole asst. fo facial features We set up a little trick or treating area: Of course you can do anything for that but I set up 3 stations: · 1st station: have plastic jack-o-lantern filled with lots of pennies. Then each child can reach up (eye level) and grab as many as they can with one hand. It is surprising how thrilled they are that they are getting a handful of pennies for their trick or treat bags. · 2nd station: Ghosts Pops - Take a small round lollipop. Lay it in the center of a kleenex and wrap around the head of the lollipop. Tie with a piece of yarn, string, or ribbon. Add 2 black dots for eyes and there you have your ghost. · the 3rd station I did min bags of microwaveable popcorn, but if you want to stay away from candy b/c they'll be getting plenty int he pinata you can do the animal crakers or pretzel bags instead Oriental Trading catalog as well as Party City also have other games, like a sand bag toss, Halloween bingo, Halloween twister, velcro Halloween dart board..... They also have great ideas for favors & goodie bags. Michie

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Our job took 3 slabs so 2 of them were a bookmatched pair and the third one was the next one in sequence (the one that had its rough face against the rough face against one of the pair. Since its polished face was 4 cm away in the block of granite from the polished faces of the other two, its pattern was very similar to theirs but there was some drift. Our L counter has a sink leg that was longer than the long dimension of the slabs and longer than twice the short dimension. The other leg was longer than the short dimension of the slabs. That means there was no way to lay it out on the slabs so that all seams were bookmatched. (If both legs are no longer than the long dimension of a slab, they can lay it out with a diagonal bookmatched seam in the corner. Our kitchen fabricator doesn't like to do the diagonal seam, but in our case it didn't matter because of the long leg.) The only way to do our counter with only one seam was for the seam to be at the sink or dishwasher. Fabricators seem to be divided on whether a seam at the sink is good or bad, but over the dishwasher is more of an issue because there is no cabinet front for support. We wanted the seam at the sink because it let us have just one seam and our fabricator preferred that as well. Our granite is 2 cm with a plywood underlay so it is well supported at the sink by the plywood and cabinet. Our granite is very active, but the grain doesn't have a strong direction - in some areas, it slants across the slab and in others it was pretty swirly. We spent a couple of hours with the fabricator laying out the templates on the slabs. We were doing granite backsplashes and wanted a good match between the counter and backsplash and also had to fit long pieces for our window sill and counter outside the kitchen window. We chose a placement where the two sides of the seam were in a swirly part of the granite. I can see the seam when I look for it, but I don't notice it otherwise even though the color match at the back of the sink isn't perfect. Recently we had a surround made for a new fireplace from the remnants from our kitchen. The top and one side came from one piece and the other side came from another piece because those were the only remnants long and wide enough. I think the fabricator did a good job of positioning the pieces on the remnants so that the seams aren't jarring even though the long direction of the top piece was parallel to the long direction of one of the side pieces on the same remnant. BTW, the left and right side pieces came from the same part of the slab on the two slabs that were back to back - you can see that they are close to mirror images of each other around the white smile-shaped mark but the darker area a foot or two below the "smile" shows more differences.

Ok. I created a 4Share account and uploaded the spreadsheet. I didn't do anything with Google docs though. I hope this works! Can someone let me know if it doesn't work? Below are the evaluation points..the next column would be the best attribute.. then the next column after that the next best and finally unacceptable. As I read about a cabinet line I would fill in the info and then color code the box according to whether it was best, next best, or unacceptable. I pulled the attributes from Consumer Reports and some books I have. Shelves Cabinet Box Back Wood Doors Wood Drawer Fronts Hinges Drawers: Depth Drawer Box Dovetail Drawers Full-Extension Drawers Soft Close Drawer Glides Warranty Finish KCMA seal Hanging rails/Mounting strips Pullout drawers Have types & Sizes needed? Notes Here's the evaluation points & attributes - Best=B, Next Best=NB, Unacceptable=UA. Not every point has all an Unacceptable or Next Best Shelves B: Adjustable 3/4 plywood NB: 5/8" Cabinet Box B: Corner gussets, I-beams, 3/4-1/2" face frame,furntiure-grade plywood less likely to warp than solid wood NB: 3/8" plywood UA: Particleboard, avoid laminate over particleboard Wood Doors B: Mortised corners, solid wood frame with solid wood panel NB: butt joints, veneer over plywood Wood Drawer Fronts B: 3/4" hardwood or metal w/bolt holes NB: 1/2" particleboard UA: MDF, particleboard, Hinges B: Cup, adjustable Drawer Attributes Depth B: Full Drawer Box B: Wood or plywood, 3/4" sides (2 cm), plywood bottom sitting in grooves NB: MDF med density fiberboard, 1/2" sides (1.2 cm), metal sides, stapled bottom back UA: Particleboard Dovetail Drawers B: yes Full-Extension Drawers B: yes Soft Close B: yes Drawer Glides B: Steel, Epoxy Coated, Ball Bearings, Bottom Mount, rated to hold 75 lbs NB: Nylon Rollers, Side Mount Warranty B: Lifetime Finish B: Conversion varnish, catalyzed KCMA seal B: yes Hanging rails/Mounting strips *don't have criteria here Pullout drawers B: Wood or plywood, 3/4" sides (2 cm), plywood bottom sitting in grooves NB: MDF med density fiberboard, 1/2" sides (1.2 cm), metal sides, stapled bottom back Here is a link that might be useful: Cabinet evaluation spreasheet