Last night, as I sat working at my computer, I heard a noise that sounded like a cross between a cricket and a squirrel. It didn't register immediately, but then suddenly, alarm bells went off. I knew exactly what makes that noise -- a bat.

I peeked out my home office door. There on the floor, slightly trapped under the basement door, was a bat. It looked right at me, opened its mouth, and squealed. I squealed back and slammed the office door. Luckily, my husband's pretty handy with a coffee can, or I might have been stuck in the office all night.

The safest way to get a bat out of your home is to close off the room it's in and open the windows. Barring that, you can cover it with a coffee can or similar container and gently slide a magazine underneath, then take the animal outdoors.

After the break, I'll discuss how to keep them from getting in in the first place.

Are you throwing a party this Halloween? Have a theme lined up? If not, consider transforming your home into the Great Hall at Hogwarts, the fictional school for witches and wizards from the beloved Harry Potter series. Here are ideas from the entertaining experts at About.com: Make a big sign to hang by your front door reading "Platform Nine and Three-Quarters." Gold paint or marker on black card would look great. Next, use black felt to make a Sorting Hat, which can be the centerpiece of the buffet table. You or the kids can decorate it with stars, moons, and so on. Third, if you have stuffed owls or owl puppets (or if you can beg or borrow them), place them around the living room or string them from the ceiling with invisible fishing line. While you're at it, use more black card to cut out bat shapes and hang them from the ceiling too. Sounds fun, huh?

For more awesome suggestions, click here! Even more great ideas can be found at AmazingMoms and KidsPartyFun. Naturally, your party guests should be encouraged to dress in Harry Potter-themed costumes! The genius of the Harry Potter-theme party is that all the decorations are family-friendly (not too scary), as well as being easy and inexpensive to make. Plus everyone -- big and small -- loves Harry Potter, making this a perfect Halloween party theme for families.

Over the last few years, I've seen a couple of Halloween wreaths in stores. They're usually pretty cool, but slightly expensive for what they are... like, I'd spend that much on a real fir or holly Christmas wreath, but not for a wreath of black silk roses or sleek black feathers. Never mind that they'd probably cost about the same amount of money to make. And my family made crazy-detailed themed Christmas wreaths when I was a teenager, so I've always thought that planning them and getting them right wasn't worth the hassle.

But now, Amy at Glitter, Vinyl, and Thread has made some really cool kitschy wreaths for Halloween that aren't too difficult at all, and that seem to be totally worth what it takes to make them! My favorite is the eyeball wreath, but there's also a fang wreath, and an orange garland wreath with cute spooky critters all over it.

The orange wreath is easy: it's just a wreath form wrapped with several different types of garland, after which a few loose things were added to it. The fang wreath has a slightly higher difficulty level, due to the need to drill holes in the fangs; Amy has a drill press. The eyeball wreath seems the most labor-intensive, with lots of drilling and stitching, but is undeniably tons of fun.

[via Crafty Crafty]

In case my blog title leaves some people a little confused, now is a good time to consider building and placing bat houses for our insect eating, night flying friends. Bat houses are very simple in design.

All bats need is an inverted enclosure with places inside where they can grasp with their little feet to hang upside down for some down time (or is that upside down time?) In any case, bats need places to roost and you can help to make it easy for them to find a home. Use this as an opportunity to teach your kids about the true value of bats.