Day 13: Halloween Family Night

Our annual Halloween family night has been a tradition since the year my oldest brother was born! It's been the favorite family night, no matter what age! 

We usually invite some family, friends or neighbors to join in on the fun and this year we invited our new next door neighbors! (They probably thought we were weirdos after!)

(If you're wondering where this idea came from, my mom used to be in a little "moms" club where once a month they would all make up a family night and bring enough copies to share with everyone!)

(Babies ready for the night!)

We always start out with a Halloween story and the same one we've done the past 27 years- 

"5 little Ghosts" (such a cheesy/funny story!)

Me and my siblings used to FIGHT over who got to read this. Some years my mom had to let all 4 of us take turns because we would throw fits! Now everyone fights over who doesn't get to read it so it's been me the past 10 years ;)

(Simon's helping mommy with the story)

(My mom reading "The funny little pumpkin" story)

Next we all play "Boo Bingo!" Just the same as regular bingo but we've put little halloween images in the squares.

(Dog always begging for food!)

For dessert, we always make our "Ghost on Fire" cake! It's such a fun treat especially with kids!

(I'll be posting the instructions on this cake for tomorrows post!)

Now comes our favorite part- The Phantom!! My dad drew up this darling little phantom 27 years ago and we've used it every year sense! If you've never heard of the phantom, here's some instructions

(Type this up and make your own!)

(Homemade Spider Oreos - Instructions to be posted later/ And homemade Butterfingers! P.S.- Nothing makes me more mad then when someone doorbell ditches delicious treats without a name OR a recipe so I never know how to re-make their goodies! I always type up a recipe if I home-make something. Just a little tip!)

We always take 2 plates of goodies around to neighbors or friends, door bell ditch and run!! This is so much fun even as adults, something crazy always happens! Like one of our neighbors chasing us down the street! (Hey, free treats! Who cares who its from?! But he had to catch us!)

A few years ago my sister lost her shoe in the middle of a yard and never found it. Always such fun memories at our Halloween family night!

Day 12: Secret to shiny pumpkins!

Has anyone ever seen a gorgeous fall porch display and wonder how they got their pumpkins and gourds to shine up like that?! I had seen it many times and figured they were all fake, no way could an actual pumpkin get a shine like that! ;)

(Top: Before- Bottom: After)

I was wrong! And its so easy your going to laugh..

Krylon triple-thick crystal clear glaze!! Just spray paint your pumpkins and gourds and you will have yourself a nice porch display that will last throughout the month!

Look at the difference!! 

Day 11: Mesh Pumpkins

I love love love the look of mesh and I had quite a bit left over from my fall wreath I made so I decided to wrap some around my pumpkins on my porch and tie some cute fall ribbon around! I love how decorative they are without having to go to the trouble of carving or painting! Simple yet fun idea! They have so much color variety of mesh so you could get any look you want with these!  You will need the large deco mesh to get full coverage!

There's not really much explaining to this. Just stick your pumpkin in the center of your mesh, pull up the sides and tie them!

Day 10: Fall Family Photos!

This has been one of my favorite traditions Thomas and I have done over the past 7 years! Every year when the leaves turn we have gone up with our own little camera and got pictures taken in the leaves! We always would bring one of our friends so we could of course get a bunch of pictures together and this year we asked my little brother and his girlfriend to snap some shots for us! I love love love the ones we got last night! They're obviously my favorite because we have two new additions to our photos! I haven't had many posts with my babes in them so i'm excited to share some pictures with you! My little men are days away from being 6 months old! It truly blows my mind to think they're halfway to being 1!! Anyway, enough of my rambling- here's some of my favorites!

Everyone's in red but me. I guess I didn't get the memo!

 Love this one of Cohen and daddy!

This one just makes me laugh! We are the LEAST serious couple you will

ever meet and this picture totally captures that!

Daddy making Cohen practice his ninja skills!

Excuse the creepy eyes.. My editing wouldn't recognize it as red eye so i'm 

stuck with these!

Mom wasn't ready..

 Simons turn!

Me and Simon

This is usually how it goes. Daddy carrying both of them!

Simon was really interested in eating his hands!

Daddy with Simon!

Look at that grin.. melts my heart!

Day 9: Candy Corn Cupcakes!

First off, please ignore the black spots in my cupcakes! When I got the mix I didn't realize it was a Halloween brand with sprinkles in it! Other then that, I love how these turned out! I love everything candy corn during the fall so I was excited to try this!

STEP 1

 Separate your mix leaving about 2/3 for your orange and 1/3 for yellow. You use a lot less yellow for these!

STEP 2

Fill up your cupcake liners 1/4 the way full with the yellow batter.

STEP 3

Fill the rest up with orange batter

STEP 4

Frost and enjoy!!

Day 8:Fall Haystacks

I had the FUNNEST craft day ever today with some of my girlfriends!We all went to breakfast, then shopping then made some crafts while all of our kids played in the living room together. What a blast!! I'll post some of the darling things they made because they were all really simple and different! I made myself two little fall haystacks because I have one little area in my house that was definitely needing a little fall decor so I thought these would be perfect!

ITEMS USED:

2 Haystacks: $1.99 @ Hobby Lobby (came in a pack of 2)

2 Fall Stems: $1.47 @ Hobby Lobby

Fall Ribbon: $3.87 @ Hobby Lobby

TOTAL: $7.33

STEP 1:

(Hot glue ribbon around the longest part of the haystack)

STEP 2:

(Hot glue around the other side)

STEP 3:

(Glue on your little fall stems!)

Here's the CUTE crafts my friends made! Awnaliese made this adorable Christmas garland! It will hang over her front door! I am so in love with this!!

(I'll be posting a Christmas garland tutorial when it gets a little closer, but if your anxious to know right now, my mesh wreath tutorial basically gives you all the instruction you'll need!)

Brittany made this awesome wreath!! Its perfect for fall AND it matches her Christmas tree ornaments so it will be perfect for that too! 

(Sorry for the blurry picture..)

Lets keep this as a tradition ladies!! This was so much fun!! And good ideas for any moms out there! Get together with some other mamas and get crafting!!

Day 7: Halloween Pretzel Ideas

MmMm aren't chocolate covered pretzels about the yummiest things ever?! I have found a few different ideas to show you cute ways you can decorate them for Halloween! (These pictures aren't mine, I had zero time today so I had to borrow some!)

PUMPKINS

This one is probably one of my favorite ways! The easiest way to do it is dip it with your fingers. Once finshed dipping, lay them on wax paper and stick a green m&m at the top center to get your stem! Another cute idea is to stick a brown m&m for a stem and pipe green frosting for some leaves!

WITCHES BROOM

This was really cute and simple idea! No "chocolate dipping" required! Stick a small pretzel stick into a Reeces Peanut butter cup and get yourself a "Witches Broom!"

HALLOWEEN SPRINKLE'S

This is easy and also requires absolutely no skill! Dip your pretzels in the chocolate, lay them on wax paper and sprinkle them with your favorite Halloween sprinkles!


MUMMY PRETZELS

This one looks a bit more time consuming. Holding the bottom half of your large pretzel and using a #2 frosting tip, pipe frosting all over the top of your pretzel leaving some space for two red eyes!

Day 6: S'more Bars!

I know this isn't necessarily a "Halloween" treat but campfires and S'mores remind me of fall so I thought I'd throw this recipe in here! If you like S'mores, you will LOVE this!

Preheat oven to 350°- grease an 8 inch square pan

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/3 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs (about 4 crackers)

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 king-sized milk chocolate bars

1 1/2 cups marshmallow creme/fluff (NOT melted marshmallows)

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Beat in egg and vanilla. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt. Add to butter mixture and mix at a low speed until combined.

STEP 1:

Spray your pan and separate your mixture in half. Using half your dough, press evenly to the bottom of the pan. 

STEP 2:

 Place your two king sized Hershey's bars next to each other.


STEP 3:

Spread your marshmallow creme on top of the chocolate bars.

STEP 4:

 Using your second half of dough, start placing on top of marshmallow creme. Doing this piece by piece is the easiest way to do it!


STEP5:

Once its all the way covered, stick in the oven for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown.