3 Easy Halloween Treats

We're in the final stretch to Halloween which means the parties are in full swing! I've heard of small towns in rural areas holding Halloween parties for the kids at the community centre since its a little more difficult to trick-or-treat when your closest neighbour is 5 miles away. I personally LOVE this idea. I mean, I loved trick-or-treating as a kid, and Roman loves it now, but I love the feeling of community a party like this would give to the families in the area.

 

Today was the Halloween party at playgroup for all the kids. Roman had a blast running around as Nemo and playing with his friends, and of course indulging in all of the delicious treats. Today I'm going to share 3 recipes with you (2 of which I made for the party) that are super easy to whip up and are sure to be crowd pleasers!

Halloween Sugar Cookies
These cookies may look intimidating but I promise they are super easy! Start with a batch of sugar cookie dough and divide it into 4, or as many colors as you would like in your cookies. Roman decided to go with orange, teal, purple and green for his cookies. Once divided we mixed some Wilton gel color into each of the batches. You could also use liquid food coloring but this is what I had on hand. Once all your dough is colored, wrap it in plastic wrap, or pop it into a sandwich bag, and let it chill in the fridge for 1-2 hours.

 

Once the dough has chilled it's time to assemble the cookies! I did this super randomly and just grabbed a glob from each pile, squished them together and rolled them into a ball. To get a more swirly appearance, roll it into a log and give it a couple twists, and roll it back into a ball. Once all the balls were down I squished them down with the bottom of a glass. Bake the cookies at 400 for 7-9 minutes. You want to pull them out just before the edges start to brown. They'll look a little underdone but if you take them out now they'll have a slight crust of the outside and still be soft on the inside.

Monster Rice Krispie Treats
Roman had a blast making these! Start with a batch of Rice Krispie treats and press them into a parchment lined cookie sheet. Allow them to cool and cut into 2" squares and set them aside. Melt some chocolate wafers in any color you like (Roman decided on orange, green and pink) over a double boiler. Dip half of each treat into the chocolate and lay them on a piece of parchment. While the chocolate is still soft, decorate with candy eyes and/or sprinkles. Roman decided to put a bit of everything onto the treats, although I managed to keep a couple looking like monsters. Allow the chocolate to set and then enjoy!

Skeleton Spinach Dip Bath
I decided last minute to bring some veggies to the Halloween party and wanted to take a dip along as well. I recently received a package of spinach dip mix in my last Steeped Tea order so I decided to give it a try. Dip in a regular bowl isn't very exiting or very Halloweenie (is that a word?) so I had to come up with something different. I bought a loaf of sour dough and hollowed it out and filled it with the dip. Now here comes the Halloween! I picked up a plastic skeleton, cut off his legs and pelvis, and stuck him in the dip so it looked like he was taking a bath. Now who doesn't want to bathe in spinach dip?!

Since all of these recipes are easy to make, they are a great way to get the kids involved in party prep and get everyone in the Halloween spirit. Our family isn't too big on Halloween (we're more Christmas people), but since the kids came along we've been getting into it a little more. Does your family have any Halloween traditions? Any treats you just have to have this time of year?

3 Easy Halloween Crafts for Kids

If you're reading this post, it's very likely that it's the week before Halloween and you are scrambling to find a fun craft for the kids to make. Don't worry, we've all been there. Just this morning Roman sent me into panic mode when he asked to make a craft. You would think with my October preschool plan that I would have my ducks in a row. Well....not so much. So we ventured down to the basement and into the craft room to see what we could come up with.

All of these crafts can be made with things you likely already have in your house, or can be picked up with a quick trip down the craft isle at the dollar store!

Pop-up Ghost
Roman has wanted nothing to do with ghosts this entire pre-Halloween season. Not in a book, decorations, or on TV. He'll tolerate an inflatable ghost decoration but that's about it. I wasn't sure how he'd take to this ghost but I thought the fact that he was making the ghost would make it a little more acceptable.

I cut the ghost out of a scrap piece of card stock and let Roman glue on some googly eyes and draw on a mouth with a marker. Roman has always loved pink so I wasn't surprised when that was his marker of choice. Then we glued the ghost onto a popsicle stick. I cut up some black tissue paper and Roman glued it onto a paper cup with white glue. Cut a slit in the bottom of the paper cup and stick the popsicle stick into it so that the ghost is in the cup.

Paper Plate Spider Web
All you need for this craft is a paper or Styrofoam plate, ribbon and a couple pipe cleaners. Start by punching several holes around the outside of the plate; the more holes the more spider web you'll have. String the ribbon through the holes making sure to criss-cross the ribbon to make a spider web. Knot the ribbon on both ends to keep it from coming undone.

To make the spider, cut five 2" lengths of black pipe cleaner. Stack 4 of the pope cleaners together and wrap the remaining pipe cleaner around the centre of the bunch. Spread out the legs o the spider and bend them at the ends to make the feet. Slip the spider between the web and the plate.

Styrofoam Ball Spider
This was by far Roman's favorite craft. Probably because it involved getting messy. We started by painting a Styrofoam ball black with regular craft paint, then let it sit to dry a bit. I cut four pipe cleaners in half to make the 8 legs, then folded them in half. Roman stuck in each of the legs and then attached googly eyes with a glue gun.

If you wanted to hang the spider you could use a tack to attach some fishing line to the top of the spider and then hang him from the ceiling.

I have to say I'm pretty impressed with what we managed to whip together during the hour that Bianca was napping! Roman had a blast "ROARING" around the house today with his spider (because that's obviously what a spider says), and was so excited to show John when he got home for lunch. I have a strange feeling we could end up with a cluster of spiders in our house by the time Halloween gets here.

Thanksgiving 2016

I almost wasn't going to write this post, but when I saw some of the pictures I took I knew I had to share them.

Thanksgiving isn't usually a very exciting holiday, but since it was Bianca's first "big" holiday I was a little more special this year. We spent the day at Mom & Dad's hanging out, visiting, and playing with all the super fun toys that live at Grandma & Grandpa's house. The train tracks are usually the first thing Roman dumps out, quickly followed by the Lego. But now that Bianca is crawling the Lego has to be kept in the bin or on top of the step where Bianca can't get to it and eat it. You'll notice in most, if not all, of these pictures Roman has firmly planted himself right next to his favorite person in the whole world, Uncle Selby. We're all pretty much garbage once Uncle Selby shows up, but not too often you'll hear any of us complain about it!

 

My favorite part of being ditched by Roman for Uncle Selby is that I get some time to hang out with B. Not too often do I get to spend one on one time with her, so I make sure to make the most of it as often as I can. It's also times like this that make me look forward to the day when Bianca is older and is wanting to help with Thanksgiving dinner in he kitchen. I can't wait for all those fun mother daughter experiences. Except for the 10 years of not being able to stand each other, can I skip that part?

 

Onto the food! Which is really the best part of Thanksgiving, or any holiday for that matter. It was a pretty standard meal this year; turkey, stuffing, gravy, peas and carrots, and mashed potatoes. Speaking of mashed potatoes, do you peel your potatoes? I truly can't be bothered, plus most of the nutritional value is in the peel, and I always take flack from Mom and Selby about it. Comment below and let me know if your a peel on or peel off family.

 

Bianca enjoyed every bite of her first turkey dinner, and the meal was pretty normal until...

 

 

The pumpkin pie and whipped cream came out; specifically the whipped cream. Roman scrapped off just enough pie to get every last blob of whipped cream off his piece, then promptly asked for more. Normal right? Wrong! Somehow Roman getting a second helping of whipped cream turned into Roman shooting whipped cream into the mouths of everyone at the table. I managed to spare Bianca this fate, mostly because I was more than a little scared that Roman would drown her in the tasty whipped delight. I think most of us got more compressed air than we did whipped cream, but Roman thought it was hilarious.

 

After everyone was sufficiently stuffed, it was time for the kids to head off to bed for a nap. I had intended to spend their nap time in the basement digging through and cleaning out the closet in my old room, but instead I sat upstairs and yattered with everyone. I was thinking about turning my closet blast from the past into a blog post. Let me know if you'd be interested in seeing what is hiding in their from my high school/college days. It'll be just as much of a surprise to me as it will to you!

Harvest 2016

We finished our garden harvest a few weeks back, but things have been so busy that I haven't had a chance to write up this post! It was another great growing season this year and we ended up with a good amount of produce. Sure there were a few bumps in the road, including Bronx eating Roman's prized broccoli plants, but overall it was a good season.

 

Once again the tomato plants when hog wild and grew to an enormous size is no time flat. One of the plants was literally the size of me. John tried desperately to keep it standing, but even 3 large stakes couldn't keep it standing. It eventually sprawled out in all directions and smothered the watermelon plants. Poor things didn't stand a chance. I used the tomatoes to make close to 32L of sauce before finally giving up on the 4th and 5th pickings, of which I didn't even take pictures of because I was so over them. I pawned some off on a few friends and the rest (which are still sitting in the garage waiting to completely ripen) will be donated the Moose Jaw & District Food Bank. If you ever have extra produce from your garden, don't throw it out!! Most food banks and even some shelters will accept garden produce donations!

 

John's jalapeno plants managed to produce a lot of peppers despite being partially covered by the mammoth tomato plant. SO many peppers in fact that John was able to make a good sized jar of pickled peppers. The brussel sprouts however didn't do much other than attract a swarm of cabbage butterflies. I had be warned about these nasty little bugs but I thought to myself "not in my garden". Boy, was I wrong. I sprayed the plants down to kill the worms, but by the time I realized there was a problem, there weren't enough leaves left to worry about applying powder to get rid of the butterflies. The sprouts themselves only got about as big as a loonie, despite me removing leavings to try to help them grow as Google suggested. I probably won't be planting them again. Too much effort for too little sprouts. Roman's replacement broccoli plants also aided in the takeover in the butterfly situation, but at least we got a bit of broccoli out of them.

The zucchini plant also wasn't a big producer. The plant itself was giant, and we did get a few zucchinis off of it, but then the zucchinis started rotting on the plant. Turns out the soil didn't have enough calcium in it. Google (again) suggested egg shells in the soil to increase the calcium but I think it was too little too late. I'll probably give these tasty morsels another go next year because I love having shredded zucchini on hand for baking.

I love cucumbers! This is a big statement because I always thought I hated cucumber. Turns out I'm just a cucumber snob and only like garden cucumbers. Considering the plants looked pretty sad, they produced a TON of cucumbers; big ones at that! Roman wasn't a fan of picking the cucumbers because they were covered in "pokies", but would happily carry them once we brushed them away.

Finally we get to the experimental potato patch. I for one was shocked! We ended up with what I thought was a huge amount of potatoes for an experimental plant. I'm guessing we have close to 10 pounds sitting in the basement right now, plus we ate some as new potatoes. Roman had a blast digging up potatoes. Well, more like watching me dig and then diving in the pulling the potatoes out like he had found buried treasure.

Now all that's left is to clear all the plants out and dig up all the weeds. There were so many mosquitos here this year that the garden didn't get much tending. I watered for the second level of the yard, and tried to physically enter the garden as little as possible. Even to pick the vegetables we did we had to suit up in pants and hoodies, hood up and tied as tight as possible around our faces, and doused in a thick layer of bug spray. It was not a pleasant occasion.

Bianca's Baptism

The time finally came to have our baby girl baptized! The baptism itself was a small ceremony for just our family. Bianca worse the same gown Roman did when he was baptized. If you haven't read that post, this gown is actually made from my wedding dress. Apparently back in the day it was tradition to use the mom's wedding dress to make the baptism gown for the kids, but I had never heard of it until my dad mentioned it to me. Bianca's headband is one that I made for her to match the flowers I used in the table centre piece for the after party. Is it called an after party?

As soon as the ceremony was over Roman started trying to blow out the "happy birthday candles" from the pews. The Father was nice enough to let Roman blow out the candles, which I'm pretty sure was the highlight of his morning.

I felt a little guilty that Bianca's party wasn't as elaborate, and didn't have as many guests as Roman's did, but I actually like the way it all came together. Who says a small family get together can't be pretty and special! I'm not sure what brought on the peony theme, but once I had my heart set on it I had to make it happen. I picked up some faux peonies, burlap ribbon and pearls from Gale's Wholesale to make the centre piece for the table. I painted one of the many mason jars I have floating around the house pink and wrapped it with the ribbon and then the pearls. I had some pink and white glittered tissue paper and twine on hand, so I decided to make some tissue paper garlands for the window and Bianca's highchair. I think I'm going to hang the longer window garland over Bianca's bed to make her room look a little more girly.

B thought her garland was delicious, but not quite as delicious as her lunch! We had a pretty basic lunch of meat, cheese, buns, pickles and veggies. I realized after we started setting the table that I forgot to run the dishwasher so I didn't have enough plates for everyone. Next problem, rounding up some paper plates. Turns out we did have some on hand. However, the were leftover from Roman's construction party *face palm*. So I thought it would be fun to post a picture of how I staged the table for the pictures and how it actually looked when we sat down to eat.

Of course, no party is complete without cake! Or cupcakes in this case! I knew I wanted to do something super girly and fun for Bianca's cupcakes because I haven't made a girly cake in forever! I'm well versed in the cool boy cakes but I really miss making pretty things. So I decided to give buttercream peonies a shot. I found this video on YouTube to brush up on how to do it, then headed into the basement to find my tools. Then when the kids when down for a nap one day, I sat down with my bowl of buttercream and started piping. The first few were pretty rough and went straight into my mouth, but then I got the hang of it. I also realized that I didn't have to eat the messed up flowers and could just scrap them back into the bowl. I'm super pleased with how they turned out!

Normally I save the first cupcake for the kids' birthday but we decided to make an exception for B. Well, turns out Bianca is my daughter in more way than one. She was slightly confused by the strangely shaped food at first, but after I touched it to her lips, it was game on. She grabbed on to that cupcake and devoured it like a champ. It's proud moments like this that make me tear up a bit *tear*

All in all it was a fantastic day celebrating our amazing little girl. Now just three more months to prepare for her first birthday!

Halloween Treat Bags 2016

Halloween is only a few weeks away and all the treats are out in stores, so now is the time to start planning and assembling your Halloween treat bags! Starting early means you get the pick of all the best treats, especially the non-food treats which tend to get really picked over the closer we get to the big day. I love non-food treats; they're guaranteed nut free, they work for most age groups, and the kids get tons of candy anyway so why not set your house apart! I also love that they don't expire, so when I have leftover treat bags I can hold on to them until the next year! Which is exactly what I did last year. I had over 20 bags left that I tucked away in a bin, so this year I only had to buy half of the goodies I usually do! Hello money saver!

It will come as no shock to anyone that my favorite place to pick up my treats are Dollarama and Dollar Tree. I had a few packages of stickers and treat bags from Dollar Tree, and a bag of rocket candy from Bulk Barn. Don't worry, the candy isn't stale. Roman made sure to taste test several of them to make sure!

This year Dollarama really had their pencil and eraser game together! 8 pencils and erasers for $2, yes please! I also picked up some plastic Halloween rings, mostly because I needed a few spiders for a Preschool activity I have planned for Roman in October, but they were also a good addition to the treat bags.

If you've seen my post from a few years back, then you're familiar with my system for filling treat bags. I started out by filling the bags with: 1 pencil, 1 eraser, 1 ring, 1 box of stickers, and 1 rocket candy. When I ran out of pencils and erasers I put 2 rocket candies in instead. I try to keep the value of the bags fairly equal so every trick-or-treater gets their fair share! These bags ended up costing about $1 including the bag itself, which is super affordable. Some people, including John, might think that giving pencils and erasers is a little lame, but I assure you it is not. Last year I had a couple kids come to the door, and as they rounded the corner to leave I hear one say "See, I told you she had the pencils!!". That's right, I'm the cool lady on the crescent!

Normally treat bags are my thing. I sequester myself in my craft room, turn on some tunes, and assemble all the treat bags. Well that just wasn't going to happen this year, so I decided to ask Roman to help me! I expected Roman to want to keep some of the treats, but he was genuinely excited to be making bags for the trick-or-treaters. I'm sure being the official rocket candy taste tester helped to keep his sticky fingers off everything else. Assembling treat bags was definitely a fun way to spend our quiet time while Bianca had her morning nap!

Home Preschool - October 2016

We're are officially into fall, my favorite time of year!!! There isn't anything I don't love about this season; the temperature, the colors, the smells and the holidays. In Canada we celebrate Thanksgiving in the first part of October, which makes October a busy month. I struggled a bit when planning this month's activities because I want to do it all but there just isn't enough time!! There needs to be a solid month between holidays so we have time to do all the things!! Before I get into the plan for October, I want to touch on some of the activities Roman enjoyed the most from September.

By far Roman's favorite activities were the exploding paint bags and the dramatic play: spaghetti shop. The paint bag's didn't actually explode, more like popped and oozed, but Roman didn't mind at all. He jump on top of them to send the paint flying, which he thought was much more fun. The neighbors however probably were not thrilled since we were doing it outside at 8am on a Saturday morning. This is why I give them holiday gifts haha. I couldn't find powder tempera paint so I just squirted some regular craft paint into a sandwich bag of vinegar, added a big scoop of baking soda, seal it, and ran!

The spaghetti shop was a whole other can of worms. Roman LOVED it. In fact the spaghetti is still sitting in the fridge three days later because he keeps pulling it out to play with. I'll probably toss it tonight and if he wants to play again we can cook up some more. That's the great part of this activity; it's SO inexpensive! We haven't tried the activities from the last week of September yet, since it's only the 27th, but I have a feeling Roman is going to love them.

Now for October!

October 1st-8th - Chocolate dipped krispie treat turkey pops, Toilet paper roll turkey &
                             Apple tree ABC match
October 9th-15th - Halloween eyeball topiary & Moon Dough
October 16th-22nd - Fall pretend play, Baking soda & vinegar reactions & Peek-a-boo ghost
October 23rd-31st - Bubble science with pumpkins, Spider web fine motor activity &
                                 Simple scissor practice

I'm excited for all of these activities, but especially the krispie treats and the eyeball topiary. While I think Roman will enjoy those, I know for a fact he will love the baking soda reactions, moon dough, and bubble science with pumpkins. We were at Superstore the other day and they already have pumpkins out. I've never seen anyone so excited. He wanted a treat (as I feel all kids do), but this time he requested his treat be a pumpkin so he can cook it and eat it. Yup, he's my child!

Homemade Pumpkin Puree

Fall is the season of pumpkins! Pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin waffles, pumpkin cookies; really I could go on forever. But all of delicious treats have on thing in common. Pumpkin, specifically pumpkin puree. Your first instinct is probably to pick up a can from the grocery store, but why not set your pumpkin masterpiece apart by using fresh pumpkin!

 Pumpkins are readily available right now and very inexpensive. I promise this isn't as scary or difficult as it might sound! You want to choose a pumpkin a smaller pumpkin as the larger jack-o-lantern pumpkins can be a little off in texture.

The first step, and the nastiest in my opinion, is to cut the pumpkin in half and scoop out all the guts. I tried to enlist Roman's help on this one but he wasn't having it. If you can't cut the pumpkin in half you can just chop it into a few pieces, it's all going to be blended anyway. Place your pumpkin pieces skin side down on a parchment lined baking sheet, and pop them into a 375° oven for 45 minutes.

Let the pumpkin cool slightly before cutting the flesh away from the skin. Or ignore this step and burn your hand like I did, it's really a matter of personal choice. I like to live on the wild side. Toss the pumpkin into a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. You may have to add a little water to get it to blend well. Of course Roman was more than happy to help with this part.

Now that you have your pumpkin puree you can do one of three things with it;1. Use it immediately, 2. Transfer the puree to a freezer bag and freeze it for later use, or 3. transfer it to an airtight container to use in the next few days. I decided to use some mason and jam jars to hold my puree until I can get around to making some muffins with it. I didn't have any lids kicking around so I used a layer of tin foil under the collar to seal it up.

See, that was pretty painless! Now you have some delicious, homemade puree to use in your Thanksgiving pies, tarts, cheesecakes, cupcakes, muffins, brownies, cookies.....Well, look at the time! Time for me to hit the kitchen and make some muffins!

Baby Food Jar Turkeys

I love Thanksgiving and all the food that comes with it, but it's often a holiday that has been overlooked as far as decorating and crafts in past years. Well, overlooked no longer! I was bound and determined to make some Thanksgiving crafts this year. How is that working out for me? Well, so far this is the only craft we've done and Thanksgiving is a week away. Oie, best laid plans right? In my defence I am getting ready for Thanksgiving and Bianca's upcoming baptism, while looking after two kids and running this blog. Don't make excuses, make a schedule! At least, that's what I tell myself....

I came across a picture of these cute little turkeys on Pinterest, and I knew I had a few baby food jars in the basement I'd been saving, so it was a perfect fit. It was also super quick and easy to do. In fact, we whipped these bad boys up in under an hour! Also, can we talk about why the plural version of turkey is turkeys and not turkies? Why do you taunt us English language, why!!!!!!!!

Baby Food Jar Turkeys
baby food jar
modge podge
foam paint brush
glitter (brown/orange/red/yellow)
googly eyes
construction paper (brown/orange/red/yellow)
hot glue/white glue

Apply a thin layer of modge podge to the inside of the baby food jar, making sure to cover the entire surface or you'll end up with a splotchy turkey. Pour a good amount of glitter into the jar and tightly seal the lid. Shake the jar so the glitter evenly covers the entire surface. Roman loved this part the most. If you have excess glitter inside the jar, you can pour it onto a creased piece of paper and pour it back into your glitter container.

For the turkey's tail feathers (shake your tail feather!), John traced Roman's hand onto three different colors of construction paper. You can have as many or as few handprints for your turkey's tail, but I think three is the minimum you'd want. Next, we cut them out and hot glued them onto the back of the turkey. **TIP- most jars will have a spot where glue from the label is stuck to the jar. Use this as the back of the jar as the handprints will cover it up. Lastly I cut out a beak and a gobble and hot glued them, along with the googly eyes, onto the front of the turkey. You could use white glue to attach the elements, but I don't have the patience to wait for it to dry.

Let the turkey sit with the lid of the jar off to allow the modge podge to completely dry, otherwise your turkey will forever have a white-cast, as though he applied a little too much sunscreen. If you aren't a fan of the color of your baby food jar's lid, you could totally give it a quick coat of paint to make it brown or red. I had planed on doing that, but the green didn't bother me as much as I thought it would.

 

These little turkeys are definitely a Pinterest win! I would have loved to make one turkey with Bianca's handprints, but let's be real, getting her to sit that long with her hand flat would be nearly impossible; maybe next year. I think these will be decorations that we look forward to setting out each year and watching how the size of the hands change over time. Not to mention that fact that we finally have Thanksgiving decorations! Mom win!