Our Halloween Parade

We hope everyone is having a fun and safe Halloween! We thought it would be fun to show off our little monsters and munchkins today. Here they are...

Here is my baby girl last year. We were the Addams family so naturally I dressed her as Pubert. I'm pretty sure she'll get back at me someday for dressing her as a boy. But I did forego the mustache so she can't be too mad.

On our way home from Brazil we had a 13 hour layover in Charlotte, NC so we did a little exploring. We went to Cracker Barrell for the very first time ever and loved it! The food was so good that all 4 of us were satisfied (which doesn't happen often), the southern hospitality was wonderful and the gift shop was so charming! Even though we have a little collection of Halloween costumes we couldn't resist when we found these little fairy dresses. These little girls have been parading around in them since we got home! -Jenn

Just a quick photo from the Peanut gallery!

Happy Halloween,
Lauralee

Happy Halloween!!!

from our

Girlie Ghost

Izzy- (from Jake and the Neverland Pirate

and our famous 2012 Zombie Prom Queen
and  Jan.

 My scary little devil, witch, and vampires couldn't get a photogenic picture all together. But, here they are. We're wishing you a happy Halloween!!

What is your favorite costume ever? Please share!

Halloween Art

 As Lauralee has shown us, Halloween decor doesn't need to be pricey to be awesome. Inspired by my sister Katy, I created this simple decoration that was cheap and fun to make.

I found the frame at my favorite store (D.I. of course). It was on sale for $2. What a deal! It looked so elegant and Gothic. Perfect for a Halloween something. If you don't want to hunt through the depths of the used, I saw similar frames at Target .

After this find I went hunting for the perfect greeting card. I found the ones that come in packs are better than single cards because they don't have writing all over them. This spider one was in a pack of six at Hallmark for $5.

I then tried to cut it into an oval to fit the frame. Bad idea. Katy gave me the idea to cut out the picture, mimicking the detail as closely as possible. Once it was cut out, I then glued it to some sparkly black scrap booking paper (.69 at Joann's) that I fit to the frame.

After about six minutes of hard labor I was done! It was so easy and the whole thing cost about eight bucks. Not bad if you ask me. Happy Halloween and Happy Creating!
~Maren

 

Here it is hanging out with it's fellow decorations.

Halloween Cupcakes... and teaching teens or tweens to decorate them

I taught the 8-11 year old girls in my neighborhood and church group how to make my favorite Halloween cupcakes. I wish these cupcakes were totally my idea, but I must gratefully give credit to Make it and Love it (one of my very favorite blogs) for most of it.  These girls had lots of fun, and their cupcakes were adorable.
So, make these yourself or teach some teens or tween or even scouts (although, good luck with that :)) how to decorate them. Here's how I taught the girls...

What you'll need:

butter cream frosting (this recipe)

   divide, leave some white, some purple, some pink with a touch of yellow

   put the purple in a piping bag with a large tip such as Wilton 1M or 2D

   put the pink/yellow in a piping back with Wilton #12 tip, or one with a medium size hole 

White fondant
A bowl or lid (to cut out the ghosts)

chocolate icing (just a little container from the store, or make it)

food writing markers, black, red (or red gel)

chocolate chips

gummy lifesavers

M&M's

Tootsie Pops

Spider Rings

Halloween Sprinkles

First the eyeball....

Spread white frosting on the cupcake. 

Put a chocolate chip in the middle of a gummy lifesaver and put it in the middle of the cupcake.

With a red food writer marker or red gel, draw lines for blood shot eyes.

Next, the brain...

With the pink/ yellow frosting pipe 2 zigzags in the middle, then do zigzags on the sides.

For the mummies...

Roll fondant into small strips and cut into pieces.

Spread chocolate frosting on the cupcake.

Put 2 M&M's on the cupcake as eyes.

Draw little dots on the "eyes" for pupils.

Put small strips of fondant around eyes to resemble a mummy. 

Then make the spider swirls...

With the bag of purple frosting, pipe swirls on the cake. Here is a great explanation for swirling the icing on a cupcake.

Next, pour the sprinkles.

Then stick a spider ring in the middle.  

Last, make the ghosts...

Swirl white frosting on a cupcake.

Then put a tootsie pop in the swirl.

Have someone roll out white fondant and cut with a bowl or lid to make ghosts the size you want.

Cover the tootsie pop with the fondant.

Draw eyes on the fondant ghost with black food writer marker. 

There were lots of smiles all around with this activity...

Thanks for stopping by!!

Nancy

Caramel Popcorn Balls

Caramel Popcorn Balls

I have fond memories of Halloween.  When I was little, I remember helping my mom in the kitchen tie bows with curling ribbon and yarn around popcorn balls to hand out to the trick or treater's.  Back in those days only the "RICH" people bought candy, everyone else gave out homemade goods.  (Or at least that was what I thought.)  At this time my mom was a stay-at-home mom and she loved to be creative. Although some would call it a little bit "CRAZY" I loved it.  She was known for her philosophy of if you are going to do something: Do it Right, Do it Big and ALWAYS at the LAST MINUTE!!!   It never failed that we were tying bows right up til the moment that we got to leave to go trick or treating.  There are so many times as a mom now I watch myself trying to repeat those same memories for my kids.  We have continued to make Caramel Popcorn Balls for my kids to give out to their cousins and other family members.  So if you need a little homemade

TREAT this will do the TRICK!

RECIPE FOR CARAMEL POPCORN BALLS

Steps for the Caramel Sauce



Caramel Sauce



 How to make a popcorn ball. 



Happy Halloween!

Jan