DIY Googly Eye Monster Halloween Books

My sweet friend gave my boys little monster pop-up books for Halloween. They were $1 books. I am sure she picked them up at the Dollar Store or in Target's $1 amazing section. Either way, we transformed them into awesome googly eye books this morning. If you have been following my blog for a while...this is nothing new. See the Googly Eye Post here on how to make these easy books.

We added googly eyes of all sizes. My son's favorite part is shaking the silly eyes while we read the books.

On a Haunted Halloween note, look at this amazing and intricate spider web we discovered this morning right after the rain.

Penne with Pumpkin Cream Sauce

Thank you everyone for all your sweet and inspiring comments on all the Halloween Posts. October is almost over, and thank goodness, because I am almost out of Halloween projects. I make this yummy pasta every year because it has such a unique and flavorful sauce.

I also have some adorable "pumpkin" peppers to share with you. My sweet aunt sent me a spoof of my blog for some fun peppers. They are precious and so clever.

Ingredients:

1 bag of penne pasta

2 Tbsp butter

1 onion, chopped,

Salt and Pepper

Garlic salt to taste

Parsley to taste

Pumpkin puree 15 oz

1 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. In a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook the pasta until al dente.

2. Melt butter on medium-low. Add onion, salt and pepper. Cook 5-6 minutes until softened.

3. Stir in the pumpkin and heavy cream. Bring to a slow rolling boil.

4. Add the pasta to pumpkin cream mixture and toss.

5. Remove from heat and stir in parmesan, parsley, and garlic salt to taste.

6. Enjoy!

And...

Pumpkin Peppers from my Aunt Brenda

Ingredients:

Spanish rice, salsa, can of tomato soup, can of whole kernel corn

Cut, take out seeds, and blanch colorful peppers.

Stuff and bake until it bubbles.

Meet Mr. Jack-o-Lantern.

DIY Cardboard Haunted House

Nothing reminds me of Halloween more then spooky old houses. My son is in love with Scooby Doo right now, and they always have a big team of monsters, goblins, ghosts...and haunted houses. We decided to build one out of a cardboard box. It is perfect for any small characters. His fireman have raced to fires at the old haunted house. My youngest has moved in some of his little people. Army men have even holed up in our spooky old cardboard haunted house. Leave it up to your little one's imagination and let the fun begin.

Supplies:

Cardboard

Box cutter (exacto knife)

Black marker

Black spray paint

Masking tape

Directions:

1. Pick out piece of cardboard of desired size.

2. Draw a haunted house outline in pencil. I then went over it with a black sharpie. I looked at a picture online to draw mine. You could always print out the picture below if you want to use it as a template.

3. Carefully use box cutter to cut out the silhouette of the house, windows, and doors.

4. I cut another piece out for the floor and two small ones for the sides. This helps give it support to stand up.

5. Tape your floor and sides in place with masking tape.

6. The last step is to spray paint the whole haunted house black...and spooky!

Today, the haunted house was on a pirate's island. According to my son, "Arrgh...a pirate's not afraid of an old haunted house."

Halloween Hugs - Teacher Appreciation

My sons are blessed to have some amazing teachers. They spend so much time coming up with crafts, activities, and learning tools for my sons.We wanted to send something special to school to say thanks in return. I enjoy this fast and easy recipe for Halloween Hugs. They are such a tasty treat.

Ingredients:

Pretzels

Hugs (candy)

Candy Corn

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Lay out pretzels on a cookie sheet.

3. Top each pretzel with one Hug.

4. Bake at 350 degrees for 3 minutes or until hugs are slightly melted.

5. Remove from oven and immediately press candy corn into Hug.

6. Place in fridge to cool and set.

7. I just printed a pumpkin and the following saying to top off some clear cellophane party bags. I hope they like them. We all think they are delicious!

A Halloween Hug from me to you

For all the special things you do!

Pumpkin Dip or Pumpkin Pudding

I am quickly trying to fit in all my pumpkin favorites before the Halloween season is over. I got this recipe from a dear friend I worked with at a fertility center. She shared this little recipe with me one day and it was" love at first bite." The easy prep is just an added bonus. We love to dip graham cracker sticks in it, or just eat it as pudding. It makes a perfect appetizer for Thanksgiving dinner as well.

Ingredients:

1 tub cool whip

1 instant vanilla pudding mix

1 can pumpkin

Directions:

Mix above ingredients and serve with graham cracker sticks, apple wedges, or ginger snaps. My kids like to eat it as pudding too!

In case you missed some of my Halloween favorites...

Scrumptious Pumpkin Bread

Googly Eye Utensils and Halloween Lunch Ideas

Pumpkin Toss Game for Halloween

No Sew Halloween Monster Pillow

Halloween Pillowcase with Book Pocket

Trick-or-Treater Witch Yard Art

Unfortunately, I have not done many crafts since we arrived back from our vacation to Mexico last week. We were welecomed home with the stench of skunk in our home. No, the skunk was not actually in our home...but it smelled like it. The generous skunk evidently sprayed right underneath our home near the kitchen. Oh yes. It was horrible!! Even scentsy products had nothing on the terrible smell in our home. It is finally going away. I finally had the motivation this weekend to finish some crafts I was working on before I left for Mexico.

Do any of you subscribe to BHG 100 days of holidays? I think it is so fabulous. They send you great crafts, projects, food and decoration ideas for the holidays. I saw a precious idea for a witch trick-or-treater silhouette. I gave it a try and made this little witch.

I started by attempting to draw a similar witch as BHG with pencil. (They have a template you can print but I would never have gotten it to the right size) Once I was satisfied, I traced the outline with a sharpie marker and began cutting with my jigsaw.

I took the picture before I created her feet...I promise she has feet! After I cut out the witch, I spray painted her black. Then my husband helped me attach a T post to the back of her.

I altered my design a bit, and cut out a little slit under her hand so the plastic pumpkin would hang securely.

My son thinks she is great, and that we should actually put candy in her bucket. I am sure the minute her bucket had any real candy, he would quickly sneak back and eat the contents. It would be a fun surprise to fill her bucket for Halloween. Happy haunting little witch!

Googly Eye Utensils and Halloween Lunch

My son is very interested and intrigued by monsters, ghosts, mummy's and goblins right now. I am just happy he is not scared of them at three years old. He decided that it would be fun to bring a "spooky" Halloween lunch to school. It was a perfect activity for us. Our adventure began with some monster (googly eye) utensils. We just hot glued googly eyes of different sizes on some spoons and forks. These googly eye utensils would be perfect for a Halloween or monster birthday party.

Next, we cut out sandwich's with Halloween cookie cutters. It may seem like the same old boring idea to us as parents, but I can assure you, our kids still thinks it is creative and fun. The treasure is in the eye of the beholder.

We took a container of Mandarin oranges, and dressed it up like a Jack-O-Lantern, with a pair of eyes, a nose, and a mouth.

I had saved a milk carton from Chick-fil-A and we hot-glued googly eyes on it too. My son still loves milk and brings it to school every day. I covered a small box of raisins in orange striped paper and the googly eyes did their work again. I am not sure what it is about googly eyes... but they look silly on anything!

For desert, I cut a bat out of black paper and attached a Hershey bar for a treat. I think these would be fun for trick or treaters or Halloween class favors.

Here...is our spooky, scary, and haunted lunchbox. If I would have thought of it sooner, I would have packed everything in a plastic orange pumpkin. A lunch box, is truly anything you want it to be. Never be afraid to be creative!