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!

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!

pre school play date

 

 

This morning was my son's pre school play date.  He invited a handful of his friends over from school for some crafts and snacks.  I served popcorn, ghost boo-nanas, mini caramel apples, pumpkin doughnut muffins and clementines.  We had orange milk, cider and mummy juice boxes.  I also had hot cider on the stove for all of the mom's.

 

 

I used white duct tape and eyes to make the juice boxes into mummy's.  I put them in galvanized window boxes that are hanging on the deck.

 

For activities the kids decorated pumpkin shaped sugar cookies, glittered pumpkins and tried to eat pumpkin doughnuts on a string without using their hands. I also put some halloween toys (spider rings, plastic bats, etc) in the sand box for them to find.

 

 

 

 

 I also put out the dress up box and a mirror outside and that was a big hit with the four year old crowd.

      And the favors were the orange jello play dough and pumpkin cookie cutters.  It was a very fun morning and my son was delighted to share the fun with his friends.