Happy Halloween!

Most of our kids learned a new word this Halloween: resourceful.  I told them that they needed to make a costume out of things we already have.  Our dress-up stash overfloweth.  Here's what they came up with...

Christina was Jessie from Toy Story 2 & Wesley was Woody.  Christina made a sheriff star for Wes' shirt, he wore Caroline's boots, and a hat from Trek.

Thomas was a zombie tax collector.  Christina and I did his make-up.

Grace was a ballerina and Caroline was a witch.

We went to our church Halloween party.  Christina and the Young Women were in charge of the face painting and arts and crafts room.  They did a great job!

Simply Halloween

Friday night we had our ward Trunk or Treat....delicious hot cider & yummy donuts, and round and round trunk or treating.

We reused costumes from last year and the dress-up basket....Thomas was Anikan Skywalker again, Grace was a witch (the stick broom was Wayne's handiwork), Caroline was Cinderella, and Wesley was himself....Wesonator. He really doesn't like wearing his cape (thus the capeless photo below taken at the last stop of the night, our house). This little guy came to us with a "no fuss" attitude. This is usually great, unless I want him to sport the cape I made for him, or get a haircut....both situations seem to annoy Little Handsome. Christina didn't dress up this year, but was happy to help Wesley collect and eat Halloween candy.

We dumped the kids' candy from Trunk or Treating into a bowl and that's what we offered Trick or Treaters on Halloween night. 4 bags worth of candy in the house is beyond PLENTY!

Before the kids headed out, we had a simply spooky Halloween dinner with the missionaries:

Witches' Brew {a triple batch}

Graveyard Salad {garlic bread tombstones on leafy cemetery grounds}

Candy Corn Dessert {layered lemon and orange jello with whipped cream on top}

Wesley offered a "Dank you" after each trick or treating stop, and the kids all agreed that the best stop was Garrett's house where they got HUGE candy bars!

We hope you had a Happy Halloween!

Halloween Report

If you were at our house for Halloween this year you would have seen this when you walked in the door...

How to make a Halloween Banner: The letters, tutorial, and inspiration came from Cottage Magpie, the black and white paper behind the letters came from Target in the scrapbook isle, and the ribbons either I already had or came from JoAnn's.

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You would have seen the following invitation to our Halloween Dinner posted on each child's door...

Dinner featured Yellow-eyed Mummies (Ketchup didn't show up on the turkey dogs)

Witches' Fingers (green beans)  "Please pass the witches' fingers." was heard at the dinner table.

 and Last Years' Pumpkins (Pumpernickel bread cut with a pumpkin cookie cutter).

We ate by candlelight.  Our centerpiece was a vanilla candle sitting in black beans in a glass votive. "Nice touch with the black beans, mom!" -Thomas

Wayne joined in the fun and set speakers on our porch playing Halloween music.  He did the trick or treating trek with the kids while I held the fort and Wesley slept.  I'll catch him in his costume today and post a pic.

COSTUMES:  I was THRILLED to have 2 little girls who wanted to be GHOSTS this year!  We had 2 white sheets ready to be ripped at the hem and that was that!  

For Aniken I bought a l/s brown shirt from Old Navy that Thomas could wear to school, black sweats, and spent maybe $3 at JoAnn's for the vest material.  A black belt from my old jacket finished that costume off. 

For Christina's M&M costume I just bought some pink fleece, sewed up the sides, cut holes for the head and arms, and added elastic at the bottom.  I ironed on an M using fusible web and part of the white sheet I had cut up from the 2 ghost costumes.  The Result:  4 decked out Trick or Treaters...

Warning: Too much Halloween trick or treating fun can result in a "Post Halloween Meltdown."  The cure is a cup of hot chocolate with mini marshmallows on top, and snuggling time.

We hope your Halloween was lots of fun too!

As fun as ours was, I have to admit I'm so excited for November to be here.

I've already got the first Thanksgiving decoration I acquired (made in Boston Ward RS in '97) sitting in my kitchen window....

Halloween Dinner Party for kids

Halloween.  Much thanks to fellow bloggers who shared creative things they did with their kids for Halloween last year, I decided my timeout with Halloween is over. Seriously, some years we didn't even buy a pumpkin.  Every year I've put up  a few fall decorations, but not much if anything for Halloween unless the kids brought home artwork from school.  I'm over that slump.  We're going to have some silly fun with this silly (IMO) holiday, and prove it's never too late to start family traditions.  

For starters, we'll have an Annual Halloween Dinner Party.  With cousin Mattie visiting this week, we upped our family Halloween dinner party to just a couple nights ago.  If we had really planned this well, the kids would have gotten a little more wear out of their costumes by wearing them to the dinner table.  We'll do that next time.

~~Here's the low down on our Halloween Dinner Party~~

Decor:  The kids made bat and jack 'o lantern silhouettes for our window- simply cut from black cardstock.

Menu:  Jack 'O Lanterns with Brains & Eyeballs- Orange peppers hollowed out and cut with a Pampered Chef V-cutting tool & a pairing knife, filled with whole wheat angel hair, and homemade meatball spaghetti sauce.  Pull the pasta through the eyes and mouth and put the top of the pepper back on top.

Bones- Breadstick dough with the ends tied in knots before baking.

Brain Cupcakes- Halloween Funfetti cupcakes with orange-colored vanilla frosting squeezed out of a Zip-loc bag in zig-zag form with 2 stripes down the middle of the cupcake to resemble a brain.

Very simple, the kids had a ball, and we've got something to build on in the coming years.  In fact, I'm up for calling this a run through in preparation for this coming Halloween.  We'll add carving pumpkins to our plans.  I also love the haunted house gingerbread houses.  I'd love to hear your ideas for Halloween-ish activities and food...I'll add them to our list of Halloween fun to choose from each year.

Happy Halloween!

After dinner, I painted the little girls' toes black with orange polka dots to match the pedi's Heather and I got on Wednesday.  Over at Sally's Beauty Supply they have mini nail polish in black and orange for 99c each.  I used the round end of a sewing pin to make the polka dots.  The girls love their Festive and Fun toes.