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Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Candy Corn Craft

Pinspiration:  31 Days of October Crafts

This one was more fun to prep than to create, but the kids had a great time.  Ripping the paper was the best activity for my creative 2 year old.  Letting the kids prep the craft was the best idea.  This is definitely a craft to keep kids busy while you cook.  As you can see, the gluing of the paper pieces was not very exciting for my dd.




Until Next Time, 

Happy Halloween!

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Spooky Ghost Craft

Pinspiration:  31 Days of Halloween

Halloween is my second favorite holiday to decorate for.  However, since our house is under construction, I don't feel very motivated to decorate.  The kiddos had a different idea.  For the first time, both kids were excited for Halloween.  (I mean who wouldn't be excited to dress up as Batman or Elsa?)

I decided to finally put some of my pins to good use and we spend the entire week making Halloween themed crafts.  This also calmed the kiddos down, they were so excited they literally couldn't control themselves.  Do check out the pin that inspired this project.  She has several great ideas, one being the chocolate bones that we made for our Halloween Party.  This one did not take as long as others we had done this week, but I think they turned out the best.  I even had to join in on this project.


Sorry for the sideways image.  I'm still learning how to drive this blog.


Until Next Time,
Happy Halloween!

Sunday, November 8, 2015

Kids Halloween Party

Pinspriation:  Halloween Party Board

In a last minute decision, we decided that despite our renovations, we wanted to throw a Halloween Party.  How awesome was it that Halloween fell on a Saturday?!?  To make things better, we had perfect weather!  This party was so much fun to host, we have decided to make this a tradition.

Here's what we ended up doing:

Food


The possibilities for one bag of Oreo is AMAZING!

Cutting the cheese (Haha, OK, are we ready to move on?) was very easy.  My husband suggested that I stack a few pieces of cheese then cut with the cookie cutters.  This worked very well.
This added the perfect Halloween touch to our chili bar.

The kids had these for breakfast.  I could not find fake teeth, but candy corn worked pretty well.

The kids at the party LOVED these mummy hot dogs.

This was so simple and tasted great!  Kids and adults loved the almond bark covered bones. (bones made with two mini marshmallows and a pretzel stick)

Cookie decorating station.  I thought I got a close up of the witches brooms (string cheese on a pretzel stick), but I did not.  However, I will be making them again next year so be sure to stop back after next Halloween.
We also have a bowl of candy corn and candy pumpkins for a little STEM building activity with toothpicks, but no one wanted to partake.

The pumpkin dip was amazing!  I will be making it again for Thanksgiving.

Of course the kiddos loved the dirt and worms.

Activities

I made a pumpkin bowling station from painted cans, but I must have forgotten to take a picture.  It was adorable, but not a fan favorite.

I have to admit, I had my doubts about how well the spider races would work, but they worked very well!  This was a favorite for the preschool aged boys.

All of the kids enjoyed the pumpkin decorating station.  We got these fabulous tiny pumpkins from Walmart.  I put out markers and stickers.  We currently have these pumpkins decorating our ever changing front garden.  Currently it is the "Pumpkin Patch Garden".  Keep reading to see our "Spooky Garden" or as Lainey calls it, our "Pookie Garden".

My kids enjoyed this activity before the party, but it was not a huge hit with our guests.
I put out Play Dough and some eyes, pompoms, and fuzzy sticks to make monsters.




All of the kids enjoyed our spooky obstacle course.  We put a 2x4 down for a balance beam through spider alley, and hung bats and ghosts in our ball pit/indoor maze.  I also threw a few spiders in the ball pit as well.  The shrieks and giggles that came out of the maze was my favorite part of this activity.


This was another activity that did not get much use during the party.  However, we enjoyed playing tic-tac-toe afterwards and the next day.  My favorite part of this activity is that it did not have to come down with the Halloween decorations.  We just replaced the pieces with two different colored pumpkin scatters and voila, we have a Thanksgiving themed tic-tac-toe board.

Decor

We tried the spooky glowing eyes.  This did not work as well as the pin suggests.  Perhaps the front of our house was too well lit for the trick-or-treaters, or our glow sticks were not bright enough.  I will give it another shot next year and give it up if it is another flop.





We transformed the Music Garden into a Spooky Garden for the Trick-or-Treaters.  The kids LOVED decorating.  Since we were out collecting candy during the Trick-or-Treat hours, we left our candy/toy/dog treat bowls on the metal bucket.

Our front porch with blue pumpkin, to indicate we had non-edible treats for our friends with food allergies, and milk jug ghosts.  Again, I think we will need stronger glow sticks, stragegic placement in a dark area of the yard, or a darker front porch to give the full effect.

Our pumpkin carved from a stencil.

These mice on the steps got the most decoration compliments from our guests, old and young.

Until next time, 
Happy Halloween!