About a month ago when my oldest daughter came home from school proclaiming that she would be Thumbelina for Halloween, I was surprised.

Not because of the costume she chose — she’s always had a fondness for things in pink with wings — but more because it was time for Halloween already.

My immediate thought was “It can’t be Halloween already. We still have a bag full of candy from last year’s trick or treating excursion.”

But a quick look at the calendar confirmed my fear — it was October and in less than a month a massive amount of chocolate covered this and thats and fruity skulls and bones would take over my house.

With three children under the age of 6, two of which are prime trick-or-treating age, the amount of candy they can collect from neighbors is outstanding. Really, I don’t remember coming home when I was a child with nearly the stash they do.

But the amount of candy is only half the problem. The bigger problem is the fact that none of my children are big sweet eaters, so the majority of the candy goes untouched and gets pushed to the back to the pantry after a few weeks.

So this year as Halloween inched closer I began looking for ways to get rid of the excess candy. A quick search on the Internet connected me to mothers (and fathers) who year after year have the same problem candy overload problem that I do.

And lucky for me, they are much more creative than I and shared lots of fun and easy ways to use the Halloween candy.

The first, and seemingly easiest way, is to bake with the candy. Cookies, cakes or brownies, they all seemed to be fair game for a splash of candy.

For cookies, simply chop up your favorite chocolate candy bar and stir it into chocolate chip or sugar cookie batter.

When it comes to cakes and cupcakes, feel free to use both chocolate candies and the fruity variety as well. Stir pieces of chocolate bars into frosting or cake batter and decorate the end product with chewy fruit candies.

Chocolate covered mint patties are a good addition to brownie mix.

If you aren’t in the mood for baking or aren’t skilled in the kitchen, don’t worry. There are options for you too.

One Web site suggested creating a candy land of sorts by constructing candy

covered graham cracker houses.

Much like a traditional Christmas gingerbread house, the house form is constructed using graham crackers with cake frosting acting as the glue.

Once the frosting has dried and hardened, use the trick-or-treating candy and left-over frosting to decorate the house.

Chocolate wafer candies like Kit-Kats make good sheets of siding and Starbursts and Now and Laters are a good size for roofing shingles.

Suckers make good trees for the yard and chocolate covered tombstones give the scene a special Halloween feel.

The added benefit to the crafty option is it gives children a fun and creative outlet for a cold or rainy day.

If you aren’t crafty or don’t want to risk the mess, then you can always save the candy for treat bags for your next birthday party, stuff it in a piñata, or throw it in a stocking for Christmas — just be sure to discard the pumpkins first.

Since my two oldest daughters — the youngest is only 16 months — enjoy a craft project as much as the next kid the candy house seems like a winner for us.

This weekend I’ll throw a couple of boxes of graham crackers and a tub or two of frosting into my shopping cart and make sure to have the camera ready because I’m sure we are in for a fun and possibly messy post Halloween treat.

Jennifer Edwards is the lifestyles reporter at The Democrat. She can be reached at jennifer.edwards@natchezdemocrat.com