mummy munchies

(photos courtesy of family fun)

For our Halloween play date this week I am going to make pizza and hot dog mummies. They are simple enough to make and hopefully will be a hit with the 4 and under crowd. You can find the directions on how to make these here and here.

trick!

Halloween falls on the weekend this year and I would love to have a big party. However, since I am 6 months pregnant with baby number three, I knew that a party would be to much. Instead my daughter asked a few of her pre-school friends to come over after school for lunch and a play date. Since we are only having a few kids over I am able to add some fun personalized touches like these candy place cards. I got the idea from here and adapted it for Halloween. Stay tuned for our menu, activity and favors.

boo bark

During the holidays I often like to make peppermint bark. I thought it might be fun to make a Halloween version. I melted white chocolate and spread it in a thin layer on a sheet pan. I sprinkled it with Halloween shaped pretzels, candy corn, Halloween Oreos, and candy corn colored nonpareils. When it cooled I broke it into pieces and packaged it in a white tin. I added some Halloween ribbon and a candy corn ornament to bring as a hostess gift to a party later tonight. This was a simple and delicious project, and one that can be adapted for many different holidays.

october pizza & movie night

Friday in our house means that it's pizza & a movie night. Since it was the first day of October the kids got to open a gift from our countdown calendar. They got new spider web jammies! After changing into them we made pizza. We took store bought (whole wheat) pizza dough and shaped it into a pumpkin. We used orange cheese and the kids decorated it with their favorite toppings. It was easy, fun and delicious!

(picture courtesy of Amazon)

Then we watched one of our favorite Halloween movies.....

and munched on a favorite snack - popcorn and candy corn. It was a fun way to welcome October and an all around great way to spend a rainy night together as a family.

and the countdown begins....

Tomorrow is the first day of October and so the countdown to Halloween begins. I talked about this Halloween calendar on my blog last year and you can read about it here. I got the calendar at Pottery Barn Kids after Halloween one year for 50% off the regular price! I have noticed similar calendars at stores like Marshall's for an even more reasonable price.

This year I started collecting small items when Halloween stuff started hitting the shelves in August. I filled the whole calendar today so that it would be ready for the kids tomorrow. For the days when I don't have any small gift I put in pieces of scrapbook paper. I left the paper blank for now so that I can fill it in with a joke, or a gift certificate to bake cookies or do a Halloween craft. That way I can pick an activity based on how busy our day/week is. On the first day of Oct. both of my children will receive a gift that I will write about later. The rest of the days they take turns getting what is in the calendar. That way I don't have to buy as many items and they learn to wait their turn. My daughter was looking at the calendar this afternoon and said "I see a lollipop" and "I see bubbles." Since the "lollipop" is really a bath fizzy and the "bubble wand" is actually a glow stick, I told her there may be some tricks this year too! For the gifts that were a little to big to fit into the calendar, I wrapped them and put corresponding number stickers on them.

welcome fall

It's officially fall! That means that it is time for our local county fair where we enjoy taking rides on the Ferris wheel and playing with baby goats.

(photo courtesy of Barnes & noble)

The fair inspired us to start reading our very first chapter book. My daughter is enjoying listening to it as much as I am enjoying reading to her.

(photo courtesy of family fun)

We also made some of these mini caramel apples as a treat for my daughters pre-school. The directions can be found here. I wanted to make them with caramel instead of the suggested chips. Since regular caramel won't stick to the apples I used sheets of caramel (you can find them near the apples at most grocery stores). I cut them into circles using a cookie cutter before folding them around the apples. They came out cute and the kids loved them!

What are you doing to celebrate this glorious season?

cup-cake

Did you know that you can bake cupcakes right in a ceramic mug? Just make sure the mugs are oven safe, fill them with cake batter, and bake at the specified time for cupcakes. Next time I think I will sprinkle them with a little cinnamon on top to make them look even cuter.