turkey talk

We had a lovely long weekend.  We spent time with friends, went to visit the colorful turkeys, had cider and cookies with our favorite veteran (my dad!) and made some turkey lollipops (inspired by these!) I am hosting Thanksgiving this year so I am starting to think about ideas for place cards and  settings.  Anyone doing something fun for their table this year that they would like to share?
This morning we got our first few snowflakes!  It was so cute to hear my two year old excitedly saying "it's snowing, it's snowing!" It is making me get excited for Christmas. I have already ordered our Christmas cards and have started my shopping too.  I like to try to get most of my shopping done before Thanksgiving so I can really enjoy the weeks leading up to Christmas. I hope that you all had a lovely long weekend too.

that's a wrap

It's official. I'm obsessed with chevron! To me it's like the new polka dot. I found both of these rolls of wrapping paper at Marshalls! They often have a great selection and are always reasonably priced.
These were the two gifts I wrapped this weekend. The top gift was for a friend. I used a navy velvet ribbon and a Martha Stewart label to tie everything together. The bottom gift was for two sisters sharing a  birthday party. We got them rainbow looms,  (I found them at Michael's for $17) which are all the rage right now.  We included an organizer for all of the rubber bands and an extra set of multi colored bands. 

halloween 2013

We had such a busy, but fun day yesterday! Every year I try to organize and prepare ahead of time and every year Halloween is chaotic. This year I had a witch and TWO firemen. This was one of my favorite photos from the day.

I went as a jewelry thief! I wore a black and white striped shirt, a black mask and tons of necklaces! In my black bag I had ring pops, which I handed out to all of the kids in our group. It was such an easy and fun costume to wear!

It's rainy and windy here in Connecticut  this morning and a perfect day to take down our Halloween decorations and regroup and start thinking about Thanksgiving! Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

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.