Carving Party…Ready

Things are coming together for the annual Pumpkin Carving Party.
A few nights ago I emptied out the recycle bin and the kids and I sat around the table making a can toss game.

We had so much fun talking and planning the festivities. With a few sheets of construction paper, a little creativity and the can game came to life.

Every year I put some orange light bulbs in the front porch lights to add to the mood. I pain them myself which is probably horrible and I’m sure they sell colored bulbs but I can’t let go of the DIY. I think they look like candy corn after they have been lit for a few hours. I just add another coat of paint each year.

The Pumpkins are ready and waiting.

I have tons of patterns to choose from.

The carving tools are sorted.

Lots of candles available for the group lighting

The slow cookers are on and I’ll be making a rice crispy spider soon.
The garage is getting cleaned out now and things are coming together.

I hope you all have a fun and safe Trick or Treat!!!!!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween Fun

I love it!!!
I love the fall to begin with then you toss in things like Halloween (dress up) and Thanksgiving (food) and what more could a girl want????

I’ve always loved Halloween. I’m not fond of being scared but I do like the dressing up thing and then the candy is just icing on the cake. You get to be whatever/whoever you want. You can let your alter ego out and no one thinks twice about how you look. This was always great for those of us with sub par self-confidence. I remember being out trick-or-treating and thinking about what kind of costume I would make for the following year as I went door to door.

Even now I like to get creative and express my inner gypsy. Or maybe it’ll be biker chick this year. Hmmm, could do the witch …or ????? Hmmm, what will it be????

Well, costume or not, I love to see all the kids running from house to house bags open wide. Their energy is palpable. This neighborhood is great for the event too. The local police and fire companies drive slowly thru the streets and flash their lights tossing candy out and waving to the kids.

In anticipation each year we host a pumpkin carving party. I think of it as one of the high lights to my year. The house is full of friends and the kiddos play and run and scream and giggle all evening long. Everyone is laughing, eating and having such a good time. It fills my house with joy.

At the end of the evening we line up pumpkins on the front steps for a photo shoot.
Here’s some from previous years.

What do you do for Halloween???

Flavored Popcorn

I had an impromptu play date a week ago and needed some quick, fun snacks for the kids.
So why not let them “spice up” their popcorn?
This is also a fun thing to do for family movie night.

You can usually find most items already in your pantry.

Microwave popcorn
Paper bags
Spray butter (helps the flavor to stick)
Dry ranch or Italian dressing mix
Parmesan cheese
Packet of hot chocolate


After the popcorn is popped, pour it into paper bags for each flavor or for each person. Dump one flavor into each bag, close the bag and give it a good shake. (Kids love this part) You may need to use a little spray on butter to help the flavor stick to the popcorn. (I ran out of hot chocolate once and tried to use coco instead. If you need to do this, you must also add a little sugar)

If you like spicy, taco seasoning works good too.
Can you think of another way to flavor popcorn?
What do you like for a fun snack?

S'more this, S'more that...S'mortini

I love S’mores and I don’t know too many people that don’t like them.
You can check out my frozen S’mores here. And now they even have S’more goldfish crackers.


I guess you can S’more just about anything.

This S’more post is for the over 21 crowd only.

A few weeks ago we had some friends over for the evening. While the men got the kiddos into their PJs, us Ladies sat out on the back patio for a nightcap.

I made us a couple of S’mortinis.

I like this drink in a chilled glass so while you’re getting your ingredients ready fill your glass with ice water and set it aside.

In a baggie crush up some graham crackers and dump them on a dish.
Dump the ice water out of your glass. Use your finger and a drop of chocolate syrup to make the rim of the glass sticky. Then press the rim of the glass into the graham crackers.

Drizzle some more chocolate syrup along the insides of the glass.

In a cocktail shaker filled with ice pour…
2 oz chocolate liquor
2 oz vanilla vodka (or regular vodka and a few drops of vanilla extract)

Shake well and pour into glasses then garnish with a few marshmallows.

CHEERS!

Wow, Monday must not be going well for me if I’m starting the week with a cocktail.
I hope you’re having a good start to your week.

Ten-Minute Project

It really did take just about ten minutes to make. Thank goodness too because that’s about all the time I had to work on something. It’s go, go, go over here. I keep thinking that I’ll have time to get bigger projects done or that I can sit down a put together a nice blog post. Funny thing about time, the more you think you’re going to get the less that you really end up with.

Anyway, in my continued effort to organize and to help increase the independence level of my girly girls, I made this hair clip organizer.


I had some extra wood tags in my craft drawer and some old ribbon. (The tags come in a sheet and you pop out the size and shape you want. They’re nice to add to special gifts or for little craft projects.)

I painted the tag and then added a decorative flower to the front.

With some hot glue I attached a strip of ribbon to the back of the tag.
I slipped a small ribbon through the hole to use as a hanger.

Since my sewing machine was already out for another project I just changed the thread color quick and stitched a hem on the bottom of the big ribbon to give it a more finished look.

Now all their fancy hair clips have a place of their own. The girls have been wearing their fancy hair clips a lot more now that they can see and find them so easily.

Yep, I made most of those hair clips too. They needed them for different outfits. What can I say, I love to accessorize.

This organizer hangs on the wall behind the bathroom door. It's low enough that the girls can reach their clips but high enough that little man can't reach.