Another Halloween Down

I hope you and your goblins had a happy Halloween!

Mine had a mostly grand time.

Towards the end, not so much for Alex.

I don’t think I’ve ever had a Halloween in 11 years of motherhood
that didn’t involve at least one child in this state.

Note the two pumpkins.
One is his big brother’s.
He wanted ALL the pumpkins
so Jack was a sweetie and let him carry his.

And he still looked like this.

I am not really much of a fan of Halloween.
I try to hide it but I do it badly.
The children have given me chocolate to make up for it.
I’m a big fan of chocolate
so I suppose Halloween is okay.  😉

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Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!
I hope you have a magical day
with your goblins or princesses or superheroes.

I personally have
a vampire,
a corpse bride,
a superhero
and a really adorable bug.

Don’t drink too much ghoul-ade!

10 Random Links!

Do you end up with a billion windows up
for things you want to read, do and get back to
when you surf the web?

Here’s 10 links that have slowed down my browsing lately.  🙂

1.  Books for Treats encourages folks to hand out books instead of candy.
My mother did that when I was a kid.
I was so embarrassed.
The kids were always thrilled.
Even the big kids.

2.  I just wrote an article about MilkShare
and think it is one of the niftiest organizations ever.
They match up moms with extra breast milk
with moms whose babies need it.
You can look for moms in your town or ship it
(recipients pay the costs).
What a fantastic way to use extra milk
and help a baby thrive.  🙂

3.  I love the idea of using some of our new pumpkin puree
to make these pumpkin pancakes.  Yum!

4.  I want to make this monster flesh with the kids tomorrow.
It looks super fun
(especially when you pour vinegar on it!)
and there’s no Borax in it.
Most of you know how I feel about having children play with Borax.
Be sure to read the "why it works" page!

5.  Necco Wafers are going all natural.
I’m all for any candies that don’t have artificial dyes and flavors!
They’re fun for making gingerbread houses too.

6.  Speaking of candy, I wrote up
10 things to do with extra Halloween candy.
I’ve been told that there’s no such thing
as extra Halloween candy
but I’m all for at least finding another use for the stuff nobody really likes.  🙂

7.  These sweet felt tissue cases from Martha Stewart
look like such a great holiday gift for the kids to make!
Victoria wants to make some ASAP.

8.  Okay, another pumpkin recipe,
this time for pumpkin spice cookies.
What is it about fall that makes me pumpkin crazy?
It’s written for vegans and non, too.

9.  I’m dyeing to do this fun craft with the kids soon.  😉

10. Look at these gorgeous leaves!
We have to do this craft too.
Wouldn’t they look lovely in a window?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And with that, chickadees, I’m off to bring two bowls of ice cream
to bed with my sweetie.

Any sites clogging up all your browser windows lately?
Please share!

Happy Friday!

Painted Luminaries!

Looking for one last Halloween craft to squeeze in before the big night?
I love these luminaries from Crafts by Amanda.

And now, I am feeling sick once again and I’m off to bed.
Apparently another batch of elderberry syrup is in my future.
Either that, or a doctor.
Send healthy vibes!

 

Altered Trees

I stumbled onto this picture on Flickr the other day and fell in love.Then I found another.

And a whole book and web site.

My friend Tiffany thinks they’re strange and wrong.

I think they’re strange and wonderful.

But I like strange.

Thoughts?

Halloween Humor

What kind of mistakes do ghosts make?

BOO-BOOS

What do monsters play at birthday parties?

SWALLOW THE LEADER

What’s a monster’s favorite drink?

GHOUL-ADE

What do you call a cat that’s a ghost?

A SCAREDY-CAT

What is a ghost’s favorite candy?

BOO-BLE GUM

What’s Dracula’s favorite fruit?

NECK-TARININES

What’s a monster favorite cheese?

MONSTER-ELLA

From ALL THE DAZE, where you can find lots more Halloween fun

10 Ways to Make Today Magical

1.  Dress the dog up for Halloween and take him on a walk.  Count the smiles you get from passers by.

2.  Carve jack-o-lanterns together.  If you like, put a different spin on it by carving aliens or monsters like these.

3.  Gather some nice leaves outside and bring them in.  Have the kids write messages (inspirational quotes, jokes or just silliness) on the undersides in permanent marker and then return them to the wild.  Imagine together what people will think when they find a leaf underfoot that’s speaking to them!

4.  Gather some old buttons, beads, ribbon and doodads and make homemade necklaces together.  Get creative about what you can string — rocks with holes, bits of broken toys, you name it!

5.  Smash acorns!  Magical Mama Shari says her kids had a blast collecting acorns and smashing them with a hammer.  I know my kiddos would love that too.  For goodness sakes, make them wear protective eyewear though.  😉

6.  Get some oranges and cloves and make fabulous pomanders like this guy.

7.  Play the sliced banana trick on your kids.

8.  Have a laughing contest.  Participants can do anything they can think of to make the others laugh.

9.  Take a cue from these folks and work on a really big scale chalk project.  Also take a cue and use real chalk pastels instead of cheap sidewalk chalk.  Think of the vibrant colors!

10. Head outside and leave some natural art for folks to discover.

 

And with that, I’m off to spend some quality time with a six year-old.

Have a magical week!
~Alicia

A Few Fun Halloween Links

Here’s a few Halloween nifties I’ve got bookmarked atthe moment….

Print out this fabulous skeleton and let your kids assemble it.

Make some miniature monster cookies like these.

Or make some quick and easy marshmallow ghosties like these.

Or maybe a little pretzel skeleton like this guy.

And I absolutely love the idea of painting a pumpkin with chalkboard paint!
(In this case a paper one)

Today we carved four pumpkins and roasted pie pumpkins.
We have glowing Jack-o-lanterns outside
and 9 cups of pumpkin mush in freezer baggies,
plus one cup waiting for morning–
I’m making pumpkin maple bars.
Yum.

What’s on your Halloween to-do list?

Edible Art Ideas for Every Age!

I’m feeling a bit under the weather again so I’m swiping this from one of my very old newsletters and calling it a day!  🙂

Quick Edible Art Ideas for…..

Babies: Mix some baby oatmeal with a couple of drops of food coloring, tape a piece of paper down, and let him finger-paint in his high chair.  For extra fun, use two bowls and two colors.  Incidentally, this is the only way I could get my babies to eat oatmeal, as paint!

Toddlers: Put some vanilla yogurt in a ziploc bag and add a couple of drops of one color food coloring to one side and another to a separate part in the bag.  Close the bag (seal with tape if your child is good at opening them) and give her the bag.  Let her mash the colors through the yogurt, watching as the colors spread and mix.  You can put a few crunchy things in for texture if you like, too, and talk about how they feel.

When your child has mixed the bag well, snip a tiny piece of the corner of the bag and show her how to pipe the yogurt in designs onto a plate.  Give her a piece of fruit to drag through the designs and use as a spoon.

Preschoolers: Make pancakes and set out ingredients to make faces on them.  You can make eyes out of chocolate chips or raisins, mouths out of piped strawberry jelly, freckles from sprinkles of cinnamon, teeth from mini marshmallows…. raid the pantry and see what else you can come up with.

Alternately, let them just create art on their pancakes.  They can dribble designs with piped jelly, draw stripes with a toothpick dipped in chocolate syrup, cover sections and sprinkle powdered sugar on the parts that remain (doilies make great designs)….

Grade schoolers: Bake a cake together and give him a variety of cake decorating tools to frost it himself.  Alternately, let him "decorate" dinner.  Mashed potatoes pipe beautifully around meat loaf!  Use a pastry bag and different tips to make swirled butter pats or to fill twice baked potatoes.  Sprinkle with fresh, snipped herbs and really pay attention to designs.  It’ll be too pretty to eat!

Teens: Try your hands at candy making together.  Get some books from the library and experiment making homemade taffy, lollipops or chocolate covered cherries.  They make inexpensive presents for kids to give– if any are left from sampling.  😉

Happy weekend!  Send healthy vibes!

Spooky Snacks!

 

Family Fun has some quick and easy recipes for ghoulish treats!  
Best of all, most of the munchies are actually healthy.  
Make apple bites, carrot
eyeballs, string cheese fingers and more.

Bon appetit!