I doubt that any kid in America is able to think about much this week other than costumes, candy, trick or treating, candy, and really just candy.  To try to distract the kids from their own candy obsessions, we've been busy around our house planning some tricks.  Mostly our tricks include jumping out to try to scare each other because neither of the kids are really all that trick-plotting developed yet.  I think this is pretty evident by the way in which Martin reacts when my dad tells him to do stuff - roll in the mud?  sure!  put weeds in my mouth?  okay!  He just doesn't get what things might be tricks.  I think partly this is because he is more than happy to do those things that he would usually not be allowed to do.  But also, I don't think he recognizes them when they come this way.  Right now, this is pretty innocent, but if it continues this way I just know that he'll be the future star of Jackass, Season 20.  And if that happens, you can guarantee that his Grandpa Pack will probably be on the show too.  It is one of his favorites, after all.

Last week Martin's friend Sam came over to play and have lunch.  Before he arrived, we decided to prepare a trick that was also a treat.  I saw this project over at one of my new favorite sites, Not Martha.  Orange halves filled with jello, chilled, then cut up and served like sections.  Except, it's a trick, so instead of real fruit it's delicious jello.  Just the kind of trick that I knew my kids could manage.  And to avoid a future in the danger entertainment industry, I thought we should learn a few tricks of our own.

In case you decide to make this trick/treat, you should know a few things:
1) It might take one or two orange halves before you get the groove of scooping them out.  It took me three halves because the first time I cut the orange in half the wrong way and it didn't work very well.
2) It is not important to get every little bit of the pith (the white part) out if you are preparing these for kids.  They eat them with reckless abandon and don't appreciate things like perfectly scraped out orange rinds.  Also, they won't get any jokes about how scraping out oranges is the "piths".
3) Making this project gives you the opportunity to teach your children how to make fake teeth out of orange peels.  It's one of those things kids need to know before they get into school if they're going to really make it.  I think I read that somewhere, like in "Everything I Need to Know I Learned Before I Was In Kindergarten".


4) Placing the orange halves in muffin tins makes them really steady when you fill them.
5) Using a pyrex pitcher to mix up the jello makes pouring really easy.


5) Mine were not filled all the way to the very, very top, and when I cut them each of the orange halves had one side where they looked a bit mutated.  This kind of thing doesn't bother kids (see #2), but if it bothers you, you can either meticulously fill them to the very brim and use a level ensure that they are perfect - or - you maybe shouldn't do projects like this with kids because you will not have all that much fun.
6) Follow the basic instructions over at Not Martha and you'll do just fine, we did.

Kid project rating system:  B+, it was fairly fun making them, everyone got to have a job, all the kids really liked eating them.  We'll make them again.