What to do with all that CANDY!??

I love taking my kids out trick-or-treating, but I hate having buckets of candy in the house afterwards.....I try to hide it and ration it out....but it's a pain...

They get so much candy and I just don't want them eating all of it...especially because Tanner gets major migraine headaches from eating excess sugar and chocolate. Because this week has been Halloween week with lots of parties and candy, Tanner has gotten quite a few headaches in the last couple days. And I'm not talking little headaches...I'm talking crying, throwing-up, major migraines.

So, this being my dilema, I was thinking tonight (after another migraine day for Tanner), about what to do with all the candy.

I know some people take it to their dentist who buys it back for the troops at $1 per pound, which I thought about doing...but then I gave it some thought and decided to keep it and use it for various purposes (other than my kids just eating gobs of candy). So I told the boys my plan. They each got to pick about 25 pieces to keep and then they helped me divide up all the candy into piles and this is what I did with it:

*collected all the M&M's to be used to make M&M cookies for the holidays to give away

*gathered all the Snickers bars together...I cut these up and mix them into my
brownie mixes to make them extra chocolate-y...the brownies will go to the people I visit teach

*collected the York peppermint patties to break up and stir into hot cocoa to make it minty hot chocolate

*All the bags of cookies/crackers I'm saving as church snacks:)

*I gathered up all the fruit snacks/gummy stuff and put them in my diaper bag to use when I'm in the grocery store and need to keep Mallory and Preston busy:)

*I gathered up all the Skittles in a bag to use as potty training reward candy in the (hopefully)near future

*I saved all the good candy bars to give out to the Young Women in my class as treats:)

*Collected the plain Hershey bars to grate up and put on top of cakes or hot chocolate with whipped cream

*took all the Burger King and McDonald's coupons and put them in my purse for when we are around town.

*And lastly, I saved all the hard candy, colorful taffy, Nerds, licorice, etc. to decorate Gingerbread houses with in December!

Ok, I think that's it. Anyways...below are pics of the boys helping me divide it up...along with our finished product. Now all the candy is in its respective place...and it all has a purpose...I feel much better now...despite the major sugar overload, all is right with the world once again:)