happy halloween

Just wanted to wish everyone a very Happy Halloween!  I just finished our trick or treat wreath.  This year we are giving out little s'more kits! I put a pumpkin shaped marshmallow, chocolate graham cracker and mini Hershey bar into each bag. I even tucked in a stick to roast the marshmallow on.  If we were going to be home I would put the fire pit out front so they could roast their marshmallows right on the spot! Hope everyone has a fun evening.  Don't forget to eat, drink and be scary!

the monster mash

Yesterday was my son's monster themed play date! We had some snacks and did some crafts and had a blast.  When they got off the bus I had the "monster mash" playing and a fire in the fire pit to keep us warm. The boys ran right to the back deck to have a snack. I have to say that it is much easier to be crafty and include fun details when you have a very small number of guests. In comparison to the witches tea, I was able to throw this together pretty quickly.  Most of the ideas and snacks I found on my Halloween Pinterest board.

I kept the table simple with some fun eyeball napkins and plates and made some eyeball straws for fun!

Since the play date was after school and before dinner I served a few snacks. I made some monster munch (popcorn with candy corn, candy eyes, and even some candy mustaches!) I had pumpkin donuts with some glow in the dark fangs and edible eyes, some green monster cookies, and then stuck some eyeball stickers on some clementine's. I also had hot cider on the stove and some green monster punch! The boys loved it all.

 

 

I had three different activities. The first was to decorate some Halloween ornaments.  they filled them with candy corn and then used different craft supplies, glue and stickers to make monster faces. They came out very cute! After they used the same supplies to make monster pumpkins.  The boys took a break to run around and then came back to help me make monster slime!

 

I had black bags with the boys initials on them nearby so they had a place to put everything when they were done and it was easy for them to take everything home.

 

 

 

We lucked out with another gorgeous, fall afternoon and my son had a wonderful time with friends.  Today I am regrouping, getting our costumes ready, organizing classroom snacks and hostess gifts for our  friends who are hosting us for trick or treating! Hope you are having fun getting ready too.

 

Only 1 day left!

 

 

 

Witches Tea

Yesterday was a beautiful, sunny day here in Connecticut and the perfect time to host a mother/daughter witches tea party. We invited guests to our house from 3-5 and served finger foods, drinks and of course some sweets. I tried to keep the decorations clean and simple. I made most of them with things I already had around the house. Witch some ribbon and cardboard witches I made some wreaths which I ended up hanging from the lights on our garage. I spray painted a tree black and hung the same cardboard witches from its branches.

 

 

 

 

I also stacked pumpkins in our planters!

 

 

 

I had two crafts out for the kids.  One of the crafts was to make witches hands by filling some (non latex) gloves with candy corn as the fingers and topped it off with popcorn to fill out the hands.  We tied them with some purple twine and added a spider ring to the finger.

 

 

 

 

 

The second craft was to make witches hats with some chocolate ice cream cones and cookies. The kids filled them with candy and "glued" them on with frosting. I also hung pumpkin donuts from our play scape and the girls got a kick out of trying to eat them without using their hands!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had hot cider bubbling away on the stove which made the entire house smell divine and was a big hit, especially with some spiced rum added in for the adult witches!  I had cold cider outside for the kids and I even made a cinnamon stick broom which was inspired after viewing it in a Pottery Barn catalog!

I also served witches brew (lime seltzer, lime sherbet and a can of thawed out limeade) and some water with gummy worm ice cubes!

 

I didn't end up getting a great shot of the food table, but here is one. I served three different kinds of tea sandwiches and also made some sugar cookies and chocolate covered pretzel sticks (magic wands) and almost everything else was brought my sweet friends.

I set a table up for the children and used those little plastic cauldron's as their tea cups. They were easy to wash out and the kids got a kick out of them!  We also placed their goody bags at the top of their plates.  Inside were some witches warts, a witchy green finger lollipop, witch's potion bubbles and a witches hat ring pop!

 

For the adult favors I put some loose leaf tea in test tubes and tied them with string!

 It was really a lovely day to celebrate Halloween with my daughter.  We even ran out to get some Halloween manicures before the party.

 

Everyone wore their witch hat and it was a really glorious afternoon.  I will have fond memories of listening to all of the little witches running around screaming with delight in our backyard.

 

 

 

And since my sweet boys didn't get to partake in our fun yesterday, tomorrow afternoon they are having a monster themed play date with some of their friends.  I will be back with all of those details soon!

that's a wrap

 

As I've mentioned before, I love to buy personalized ribbon from Namemaker.  They have weekly sales so the prices are reasonable and I think it is a lovely way to personalize a gift.  For Halloween I ordered some that reads: "Witching you a Happy Halloween! Love, The Healys." It seems that the theme for this year's Halloween is going to be a witch! My daughter and I are hosting a mother/daughter witches tea this weekend for some of her classmates and she is dressing as a witch for Halloween!  I even found some beautiful ceramic witches cauldron mugs from the William Sonoma outlet that we are going to be giving to the children's teachers. 

I replaced the ribbon on the gift box with some of the personalized kind and also added some to the favor bags for our witches tea below.

 

 

haunted candy houses

As is our Halloween tradition, we made haunted candy houses yesterday. It is a very simple craft to do with the kids and since it's all edible, they love it even more! Find yourself a box of chocolate graham crackers and whip up some royal frosting. My recipe calls for one pound of confectioners sugar, 2 tablespoons of Just Whites (powdered egg white) and 6 tablespoons of lukewarm water. Mix Just Whites and water until well blended and foamy and then slowly add the confectioners sugar.  You can also tint the frosting to whatever color you choose, we did orange.  Then, put out some festive candy and let the kids do the rest! This was even fun for my two year old who didn't need any help at all.  Hope you all had a sweet weekend too!

scaredy cats

I brought these scaredy cat brownies to one of our parties last weekend and they were a big hit!  You can find the full directions here. To make them even more simple I used a boxed brownie mix and just added the decorations to the top.  They were still delicious and SO easy.  Hope you all have a fun weekend!

that's a wrap

Hope everyone had a great long weekend! We went to the pumpkin patch twice, had three different parties to attend, hosted Sunday supper for my family and took a trip to see the wee faerie village.
On Tuesday I felt like I needed another weekend just to recuperate.  One of the parties that we attended was a tenth wedding anniversary combined with a two year old birthday. They called it a 10 and 2 party! Since my go to gift for a tenth wedding anniversary is a copy of The Wizard of Oz, I bought them the 75th celebratory edition. I also tucked in some ruby slippers as a gift for the two year old celebrating her birthday. I put them in a tin bucket and wrapped it all in cellophane and tied it up with a beautiful red bow.

that's a wrap

We got boo-ed last week! It was so much fun for the kids and my friend gave me the great idea of booing someone that we don't know. I have to get some items together so we can continue the tradition. In, the meantime I did make a Halloween basket for a friend that needed a little pick me up.  I included some wine and treats (homemade and store bought) and tucked in some paper plates and napkins so that no dishes would need to be done in order to enjoy it.

halloween hot cocoa

Last winter I had a hot cocoa bar on  my kitchen counter.  I thought why not start it a little sooner with our adorable Halloween mugs and some tricky cocoa.  I got the mugs last year at Crate and Barrel.  They usually sell child size mugs for Halloween and Christmas.   the cocoa I found at Marshalls.  It starts out as white powder, but as soon as you add the hot water it turns orange! The kids love it.  You can also find some pumpkin shaped marshmallows at target to complete the look.

pictures in disguise

 

 

This is a picture I took of some photographs that line our stairwell. A few years ago I saw this picture from my blogger friend Anna.  I thought it was such a simple and unique way to decorate for Halloween.  Instead, of just hats, I decided to take it one step further.  I found some adorable lip and mustache stickers at Target so I just stuck them right onto the frame, so easy! I also cut out a paper witches hat and a super hero mask.  The options are endless and my children think it's absolutely hysterical. So fun! I hope that you'll try it too!

spiders and rats

I have had fun decorating for Halloween this year.  These are three very simple and inexpensive ways to decorate.  I like decorations that are clean, tasteful and relatively simple, not over the top or to loud. I am pretty sure Martha Stewart should really be the one to get credit for all of these, but here is my version.

You can buy these rat cut out (by Martha!) at Michael's.  But, I also saw some glittered ones at the party store for only a few dollars.  You could even cut out your own if you are inclined.  My children think they are hysterical!

I let these beautiful hydrangeas dry out and some of the leaves have even turned a slight shade of brown.  They were the perfect spot for some glittered black spiders. 

I also had some black paper spiders that I taped to the inside of my white lampshade.  I love that you cannot see them when the light is turned off.  When you turn it on you see a great surprise!  Again I think I bought these at Michaels but you could certainly make them yourself and could put any kind of Halloween creature inside.

More Halloween to come next week, but for now I hope that you all have a lovely weekend!  Its a perfect fall day here in Connecticut.

the countdown begins

It's officially October! And, as is our tradition, we have put out our Halloween countdown calendar.  Nothing seems to fit in the tiny pockets, so I found some adorable buckets to hold everything instead!  It is a fun tradition that my children look forward to every year.  As in years past, some of the items are family activities, like making caramel apples or going pumpkin picking.  Here is our calendar last year and from a few years ago.  I'd love to hear how you are getting ready for Halloween in the comments below. 

that's a wrap

Last weekend we celebrated a friends birthday.  She loves martinis and different flavors of vodka so I gave her a set of stemless martini glasses.  Since it also happened to be the fair weekend I found some County Fair Cotton Candy vodka!  I brought some along with a bag of cotton candy (for the garnish) that I picked up right at the fair.  I put the glasses in a striped box and tied it with some ribbon, that was printed with olives!