Pumpkin Pie Playdough

Let the pumpkin theme continue!! Since we are eating and drinking everything pumpkin this time of year, we might as well play with pumpkin too! A friend shared one of those Facebook video tutorials that had this recipe ( if you can call it that) on it and I knew I had to try it. It's super easy to make, extremely inexpensive, and who doesn't want it to be okay to play with pumpkin pie!

To make this delicious smelling dough, all you need is pumpkin puree, cornstarch and pumpkin spice! We mixed the cornstarch into the pumpkin puree 1/2 cup at a time until we reached the dough consistency we wanted. It ended up taking 6-7 cups, so I suggest doing it 1 cup at a time. Then we added in the pumpkin spice. To jazz it up a bit, I dug out some sugar leaves that I had in the sprinkle basket and tossed them in too. *TIP - because you need such a large amount of cornstarch I suggest buying it in bulk from a store like Bulk Barn.

Roman lost interest in mixing pretty quickly when I told him he had to mix gently and keep everything in the bowl, so he stuck to scooping and dumping. In hind sight, it probably would have been better to just let him mix however he wanted to. Bianca is currently in the "everything must go in my mouth!!!" stage, so she just watched us from the sidelines. As you can tell from the pictures, she was impressed with me....

Of course the first thing he did was run off to get his construction trucks so that he could "build a construction site". I always cringe when he puts cars with small pieces into dough like this because cleaning them can be a nightmare. Not this time though! I rinsed his tractor under warm water for a few seconds and voila! A squeaky clean tractor!

Roman had a blast playing with the dough! Once he had enough, I stuck it all into a freezer bag and popped it in the fridge. It's been about a week since we made it and the dough is still usable. When it's cold it is pretty crumbly but once you work with it and it warms up a bit, it's back to normal. I don't think I'll hang on to it much longer though because I don't want things to start growing. Oh, and those sugar leaves. Yeah, they basically dissolved. Not surprising since the dough is pretty wet and they are in fact made of sugar.

Have you made any scented dough for your kids to play with, or is there a scent you'd like to see me attempt? Comment below! I'd love to hear your ideas!

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.

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!

Follow Us Friday - Happy Halloween!

Obviously Halloween is over, but this is how we spent our spook-tacular day!

6:20am - Breakfast and getting ready
Lately Roman seems to be getting sick of the regular routine of alternating between waffles and eggs for breakfast so I had to come up with a plan B.  I found a box of apple & orange toddler cereal in the cupboard that I bought a while back so I decided to give that a shot.  Well wouldn't you know it he gobbled it right up.  I realize I could have just made him oatmeal since I was already eating it but I had the cereal in the cupboard so I figured I might as well use it.  No sense throwing away tasty food!

After breakfast we started our morning routine that, like in any normal house, starts with a pony ride!  Roman loves this rocking horse that we picked up at Costco when Roman was only a few months old.  Not only does it neigh and shake its head and tail, it also doubles as a handy side table beside the rocking chair in his room!

 

7:30pm - Little Roman needs a nap
About the time I started getting ready, little Roman started to pitch the mother of all fits.  I thought it was just his usual "No you can't get ready, I want to go outside!!!" fit, but it quickly became apparent that it was more than that.  Wouldn't you know it, the little turkey needed a nap!  I of course was not going to complain.  I'm not much of a dresser-upper when it comes to Halloween so a Batman t-shirt and a faux hawk is as close as I get to dressing up.

I was a little surprised Roman was still asleep so I decided to get something accomplished while I could.  There is one thing that without fail can completely stress me out and make my day miserable.  What is this demon you ask?  It's a disastrous kitchen!  Because our front door is off the kitchen, the counters and table tend to be a catch all for anything and everything.  Pre-Roman I would have been appalled that my sink was brimming with dishes, but now, it's just another day.  Once I got most of the disaster cleared I thought it was probably a good time to fill Roman's kitty basket with his Halloween goodies.  I needed an excuse to buy him a kitty book I found at Wal Mart, so I picked up a coloring book and crayons to go with it.  In case you haven't guessed, Roman has a love of all things kitty!

8:20am - Who is Bruce?
The strangest thing happened.  When I heard crying coming from Roman's room I went in to get him but he wasn't there!  Instead I found a little boy named Bruce Wayne who requested his suit.  And wouldn't you know it, laying out in the closet (to get rid on the wrinkles) was a Batman suit and hanging from a hanger was a cape!  I can't believe I didn't know Roman's real name was Bruce and that he was Batman!  How does a toddler keep such a secret from his mother!?!

8:45am - Trick-or-Treating
I was so glad that Roman woke up when he did because we had so many places to go this morning.  Trick or treating is tough work when you're a little guy.  Everyone wants to see how cute you are in your costume and give you treats!  We started by visiting Aunt Kathy, who asked that we call her Dorothy, at her work.  Roman loved the treats and hugging Toto, but his favorite part was checking out all the cars, trucks, and tractors in the shop.  His treat bag from Aunt Kathy so was big the poor guy couldn't even carry it, but he was sure thankful for everything he got!

Next we headed over to visit John at work.  This time Roman decided to take his kitty pail in.  I was so surprised how quick he figured this whole business out.  Without any prompting from me he walked into the building, right up to John, lifted his kitty and said "Ugh", which I'm pretty sure means "trick or treat" in toddler.  Here he scored a few suckers and a box of gobstoppers from a very nice lady making a delivery there!

10:00am - Halloween Party!
Every morning we go to a play group at 10am which Roman and I both love, but today was a special play group.  Today the centre was putting on a Halloween party for all the little guys!  It's a good thing we got there early because it was crazy busy!  We kicked off the party by making a super cool ghost on a popsicle stick.  Roman was more interested in eating the ghost's head but we managed to finish the craft with no casualties.  All that creativity called out Roman's hunger monster so we headed to the snack table next.  The ladies did an amazing job with the food.  Roman started with some popcorn, moved on to an Oreo spider and finished with a ghost banana.  There might have been a Cheeto or two in there as well.

Roman tried to play with his friends but the room was so crammed with kids and parents that there wasn't much space to play.  If Roman could talk he would have asked "why are all these people playing in our room?", since there is usually only 3-4 kids there at a time.  Unfortunately because the room was so full we couldn't stay as long as we usually do because Roman ended up frustrated.

11:30am - Halloween Lunch
On the way home from the party I was hit with inspiration.  I was going to make Roman a Halloween lunch when we got home!  I had no idea what I was going to make until I walked in the door.  Halloween grilled cheese sandwiches seemed like a good choice.  Cute, festive, and all I had to do was make a regular grilled cheese and use cookie cutters to cut out the Halloween shapes!  I wish I would have gotten on this bandwagon sooner because it would have been so fun to come up with themed meals and snacks for Roman throughout the week.  Oh well, there is always next year.  I ended up eating the leftovers from Roman's grilled cheese along with a bowl of John's homemade vegetable soup.  Not as festive as Roman's meal but it was tasty non the less.

12:00pm - Nap
I was so excited that Roman went down for a nap at his regular time after all the craziness of the morning.  Of course nothing is ever that easy.  Not five minutes after he went down I had some Steeped Tea delivered to the house and Lola lost her mind.  Of course there was no putting Roman back to sleep after all that commotion, so we snuggled on the couch for a bit.

12:30pm - There is a God!
Thank heavens Roman decided to go back to sleep!  If there was one day that he absolutely needed to nap it would be today when he'll want to go trick-or-treating tonight!  While Roman napped I decided to attack the massive pork loin that was waiting for me in the fridge.  I picked this bad boy up at Costco yesterday and needed to break it down and freeze it.  These are a great deal and you should definitely pick one up the next time you're in Costco.  I cut most of the loin into thin pork chops that I'll likely use for cutlets later on, wrapped them in saran wrap and stuck them in a bag.  The rest of the loin I chopped into chunks for honey garlic pork bites, bagged them and added the sauce.

Just as I finished the pork, this nap that we had worked so hard for was threatened again!  This time it was a delivery of cups and water bottles from Tupperware.  How is it that these people know exactly when a kid is sleeping and that's when they show up at your house?  Luckily I was able to bribe Bronx and Lola with snacks this time to keep them quiet!  With all crisis' overrated I decided to sit down and catch up on some YouTube videos.  I have a few favorite YouTubers that I like to follow and this is the perfect opportunity to watch those videos!

2:30pm - Pumpkin Carving!
Once Roman woke up I decided we should carve our pumpkin!  Nothing like leaving it until the last minute right?  I had meant to do it with him yesterday but I decided to go to Mom's yesterday, and I didn't have any newspaper to sit the pumpkin on which surely would have lead to a disaster.  I thought Roman would be all over the pumpkin guts, but I was really surprised that he wanted nothing to do with them.  He was quite happy to poke around inside the pumpkin with a spoon, and munch on the pumpkin.  It took him a long time to warm up to the idea of sticking his hand in there. Give it a few years and he'll be flinging pumpkin guts all over the house like his Mom and Uncle Selby used to.  It really is a miracle that I survived my childhood.  My Mom deserves way more credit than she gets for not killing me as a kid.

With our pumpkin carved, we headed outside to set them up on the planters out front.  We don't have a ton of Halloween decorations but Roman loves the ones we have, particularly the giant kitty.  He gets so excited every night when I plug it in and runs to the window saying "Kitty! Kitty!".  Of course you can't take Roman outside and walk right past his tricycle without going for a ride.  The ride didn't last long today since he seemed to have much more fun pushing the tricycle than riding it.

4:00pm - Snack
Roman had been eyeing the Teddy Grahams he got from Aunt Kathy in his Halloween bag so we decided to tear into them for his snack.  Along with the Teddy Grahams he finished off the Old Fashioned Apple Crisp fruit pouch he started while at Aunt Kathy's work (also from his Halloween bag), a Yumberries & plum with ancient grains fruit pouch and some milk.  It must have been a pretty good snack because he even helped me clean up afterwards!  What do you think the chances of this continuing in the coming years are?  Yeah, I didn't think so either...  He did let me color with him in his new coloring book afterwards though!  Which is more than I can say for myself because I've hidden my coloring book and crayons from him since he was tiny haha.

6:00pm - Supper
For supper tonight Roman and I made a dish that I haven't had in forever.  Mom used to make this salsa beef dish a lot when I lived at home, and when she brought it up the other day I knew I had to make it.  I was obviously too busy watching Roman eat the corn  and handing out candy to take a picture, so you'll have to trust me that it's tasty.  Maybe it'll be it's own post one day!

6:15pm - Trick-Or-Treating....again!
After quickly shoveling our food into our mouths, John got Roman all bundled up and headed out to collect some goodies!  It was so cute watching the two of them walk down the street with Roman hanging on to his kitty basket!  I will admit that I was close to tearing up over the whole thing.  Lord help me when he goes off the Kindergarten if I'm getting misty over trick-or-treating.

After they finished half of our street, I ran out to snap a couple pictures of John and Roman.  Would you believe that I had to take some of the candy out of Roman's kitty so that they could carry it!  Roman must be well loved on our street because a few of the houses had special bags already waiting for him.  Our neighbors had a massive treat bag waiting for him which included, a juice box, a cheese and bread stick snack, 6 containers of Play-doh and some candy!  What a lucky boy Roman is!

If you read my "What's in your treat bags?" post then you already know what we handed out for treats.  I had enough treat bags for 24 kids, which I thought was a safe amount since we had less than 20 kids last year.  Well wouldn't you know it that this year we got slammed with kids.  By 6:45pm I already had 18 kids and I was starting to panic!

7:00pm - Checking out his haul and Tubby time
Roman was completely wired when he came in from trick-or-treating with John.  Be blasted through the door, ran up squealing to give me a hug, and was stomping and dancing all over the kitchen.  Every kid should know that the first thing you do when you get home is dump out all your candy and give it the initial sort.  Roman had a blast pulling all his treats out of his kitty and putting them back in.  Once he was satisfied with his sort he headed off to the tub!

7:15pm - Bed Time
I was honestly shocked that Roman went to bed as early and easily as he did.  I figured for sure we'd have a battle on our hands judging by the amount of energy he had in him after he came inside.  Of course getting him to sleep, was only half of the battle.  With kids still out roaming the streets we then had to keep the dogs quiet and keep Roman asleep.  Thankfully our dogs are extremely food motivated so teat bribes managed to keep them quiet for the most part.

8:00pm - The Purge: Anarchy
Why did I let John convince me to watch this movie?  I'm not a fan or scary movies or movies that mess with your mind for the most part, and definitely not at night on Halloween.  If you haven't seen this movie, the premise is that the U.S. Government has enacted a law that makes all crimes legal for 12 hours and people basically run around killing (purging) people because it "cleanses their soul".  Perfect movie for a night when you have random people coming up to your door with masks on right?  Ack!  The movie was pretty interesting but I could have lived without it tonight.

9:00pm - Lights out
We finally turned the lights and Halloween decorations off because it was getting a little late and I didn't want to risk waking Roman up anymore.  The final tally for little goblins was 38!  38 and I only had treat bags for 24 kids.  Luckily we had some really little guys that loved getting a couple Play-dohs and I also raided Roman's treat bag and gave out some of the candy/chips that John and I weren't going to eat.  I'm just glad I didn't have to turn kids away because we didn't have candy.  That's a sure fire way to get your house egged!

Overall it was a great Halloween for Roman!  Now to take down all the Halloween decorations and get ready for the ultimate holiday, Christmas!!!

What's in your treat bags? - Halloween 2014

I know a lot of people have a hate on for the Halloween treat bag but I love them and here is why.  I love giving the little goblins a variety of treats, especially with the different ages and allergies you can encounter these days.  When you're handing out 5 different things it takes way to much time to grab each item to give to each kid, especially if you get a good size herd at your door.  With the treat bags I only have to grab one bag per kid and they are on their way in a flash.  Another great reason for using treat bags, they make it seem like the kids are getting a lot of stuff, even if there are only a couple pieces of candy in it, and this greatly reduces the risk of your house being egged.  Do kids still do that kind of stuff?

I usually leave buying my candy until as late as possible so John and I don't eat it all.  So the other day Roman and I made a trip to Bulk Barn to pick up some delicious treats for the tick-or-treaters.  I wanted to get a few different things so I knew Bulk Barn would be the best place to go since I could buy just enough to fill my treat bags, and not have boxes of candy laying around the house.  Plus I could get a good variety of wrapped treats.  I ended up getting Jolly Rancher suckers, caramel pumpkin balls, gumball eyes, peanut free chocolate spiders, and rockets.  I had also picked up pencils, erasers, and boxes of stickers at Dollar Giant a month or so ago.  For the littlest goblins that can't necessarily eat the candy, I picked up a bag of mini Playdoh containers at Wal Mart.  I like to include some non-candy treats as well because I loved to get them as a kid.  It was always fun to take your fancy new pencil to school the next day.  Or maybe I was the only kid that had a love for school supplies at that age - a love that continues today!

I may also be the only person on the planet that actually enjoys assembling the treat bags.  Last year Roman was nice enough to help me by sitting in his bouncy chair and swatting at a stuffed zebra for the 30 minutes that it took.  We all know there is no way that he would sit still for that long now so when he went down for his nap I retreated to my craft room to assemble the bags.  Speaking of the bags these little devils gave me a good amount of trouble.  Granted I picked them up at Dollar Giant as well, and they were 40 for $1 so I shouldn't be surprised, but I had a heck of a time getting the tops to seal.  After they started sealing the bags started pulling away from the zippers.  Arg!  Surprisingly after I made it through about 10 bags or so, both problems stopped and the bags worked like a charm.  I was also pulling from the back of the package, so if you buy these bags I suggest starting at the front to save yourself the hassle.  After the battle with the bags I decided to distress by testing out a caramel pumpkin and seeing what the stickers looked like.  It's all about quality control people!

 
I ended up with a few different versions of my original treat bag because I ran out of different things at different times.  As I ran out of things I tried to keep the value of the treat bags close to the same by adding more of another item and surprisingly I was pretty close on all of them!  Below are the contents of the different bags along with the cost of each bag.

Now you might be thinking that 70-79 cents per kid seems a little steep.  So, I made a trip to Wal Mart to see what the cost per mini chocolate bar worked out to be since they are the most common Halloween treat.  They had two different options at my Wal Mart; $6.50 for 50 bars (13 cents per bar) or $15 for 90 bars (17 cents per bar).  From my experience most people usually give out 3-4 bars per kid so that works out to 39-68 cents per goblin.  For an extra 10 cents you look like the coolest house on the block, and your chance of being egged is drastically reduced!  The Playdoh worked out to 42 cents each which when added to a treat bag is a little pricey but those little guys are so cute I don't mind spending the extra money!

What was/is your favorite or most memorable Halloween treat?  When I was little there was an old retired prison guard that handed out apples every year.  All of us kids got so excited when we got an apple from Walter.  Luckily we lived in an extremely small town and we could actually eat the apple because everyone knew it came from Walter!

Chocolate Covered Halloween Cookies

Since I'm trying to get more into the Halloween spirit for Roman, I decided to make some Halloween treats!  I wanted to make something easy that wouldn't take up an entire day - I'm all for getting in the Halloween spirit but I'm willing to sacrifice an entire day just yet.  Chocolate covered Oreos seem to be the new "in" thing so I thought I'd make my own version. 

Like all great baking adventures I started by heading to Bulk Barn with Roman to pick up supplies.  I like shopping at Bulk Barn because I can buy only the quantity I need, which is handy when it comes to more expensive items because then I don't end up with a bunch of leftovers that I won't use.  Plus I know I'll only have to make one stop and they will have everything I need.  I ended up leaving the store with melting chocolate, a few kinds of sprinkles and some PeekFreans cookies.

The best way to melt chocolate is with a double boiler.  I usually just melt it in a pot and really haven't had any trouble with it.  When John saw me with chocolate in the pot he said "I don't know much about chocolate, but aren't you supposed to use a double boiler?".  I responded that you should but I never do and I've never burnt my chocolate.  Well, guess what happened today.  Yup, I burnt the chocolate.  I guess that's what happens when you get cocky.  So I started again by bringing a couple inches of water to a boil in a pot and sitting a glass bowl on top.  I added the chocolate and stirred until it was completely melted.  You want to be careful not to over heat it as your chocolate will start to get lumpy and thick.  When the chocolate is almost melted, reduce the heat to bring the water down to a simmer.  This will keep your chocolate warm but not overheat it.

Using my lovely BBQ tongs (it's the only pair of tongs I own) I dipped and flipped the cookies in the chocolate until they were completely covered in chocolate.  Grab the cookies with the tongs again and shake off as much of the excess chocolate as you can.  Be warned, if you shake too hard you may break your cookie!  I found out the hard way.  Place the cookie on a parchment lined cookie sheet.  If your tongs left marks in the chocolate, use a knife or an icing spatula to spread the chocolate around to cover the marks.  If there are areas that aren't covered as well as you would like you can also spread on more chocolate just as if you were icing a cake.  Finally, top the cookies with your sprinkles or other decorations while the chocolate is still soft.

For the pumpkin cookie decorations I used pecans and pumpkin seeds for the stem and leaves.  To make the stem I cut the point off a pecan half and stuck it onto the top of the cookie along with pumpkin seeds on either side of the stem.

The chocolate will take a couple of hours to harden so you'll have to be patient.  Or you can pop them in the fridge and you'll get to indulge in the chocolatiness that much faster!  Now you're probably wondering what you should do with the leftover melted chocolate.  This chocolate isn't cheap so I save every last drop - here's the trick!  Lay a piece of plastic wrap in a cereal bow and scoop in any leftover chocolate while it's warm.  Allow the chocolate to completely harden then just remove it from the bowl, peel off the plastic wrap, and store it in a sandwich bag.  When you want to use it again, cut the lump into small chunks and warm it in a double boiler again.  Oh and don't worry about the chocolate on the tongs, just lick that off, consider it your reward for making other people such delicious cookies!

 

The possibilities for this type of treat are endless, so get creative and make some spooky cookies for Halloween!