Alternate Halloween Candy Uses

This picture says it all.  Granted, my three girls did go to several Halloween events, but this 33 lbs. of candy is POST mom & dad raids, sneaky puppies, and grandparent sharing.  33 LBS!  Ridiculous!

It’s not even a question of ‘Do I want my kids to have this much?’ It’s not possible for them to eat this load.  They’re really not that much into eating it anyway.  They like to organize, trade, and otherwise bribe their parents with it, but as far as eat it?  That’s unfortunately, my job.  SO!  Here are some ideas I came up with and a couple I stumbled across online to get it out of the house faster, …enjoy!

1. Sort through and freeze the small colorful pieces to use on your gingerbread houses this winter.  A Rovang tradition.

 

2. M&M duels: from Top 10 Scientific Uses For Leftover Halloween Candy

Whenever I get a package of plain M&Ms, I make it my duty to continue the strength and robustness of the candy as a species. To this end, I hold M&M duels.

Taking two candies between my thumb and forefinger, I apply pressure, squeezing them together until one of them cracks and splinters. That is the "loser," and I eat the inferior one immediately. The winner gets to go another round.

I have found that, in general, the brown and red M&Ms are tougher, and the newer blue ones are genetically inferior. I have hypothesized that the blue M&Ms as a race cannot survive long in the intense theatre of competition that is the modern candy and snack-food world.

3. Science experiments. Make hypotheses about the following scenarios and then test them.

- Does it float or sink?

- What happens when you microwave it?

- How long does it take to dissolve on your tongue? What does it do to your tongue? Make you drool?  Turn it another color?

“A group of engineering students from Purdue University designed a licking machine, modeled after a human tongue. After several trials, they discovered the machine took an average of 364 licks to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop.” {Website above}

- Drop lemon juice on it from a dropper and see what happens.

- Fun with Melting! from Candy Experiments 

Oven:
Cover a baking sheet with tinfoil
Unwrap your candy and put it on the sheet. (Caution: never melt a jawbreaker!)  Hmmm…now I’m curious
Place in low oven (300-350 F) and wait to see what happens.
You might be surprised at what melts and what doesn't!

- Put a tray of unwrapped candies in the sun to see the effects of sunlight. Maybe add another row of the same candy with applied sunscreen? What happens over time?

- Unwrap two of the same kinds of candy. Drop one in a glass of water and the other in a glass of club soda. What happens?

- ONLY WITH A PARENT!!  Go outside on the pavement and light ‘em up!  Who doesn’t like playing with fire?  Again, adult supervision, please.

4. My personal fave TREATS FOR TROOPS!

This organization collects treats to send to the troops for lots of reason. A couple being a.) to bribe tiny local informants, thus saving American lives, b.) to serve as care package environmentally friendly packing peanuts, and c.) treat…for troops!

5.  Having a sick child at home with strep, I don’t have time to write up triboluminescence, but look it up and get you some Wintergreen lifesavers.  Science is awesome!!!