A Mom's Year

Creating a comfortable life one moment at a time

Halloween’s Over Already?

It seems I’m not quite ready to move on from Halloween yet. A friend of mine said that it’s always a little sad to say goodbye to Halloween and October and I know just how she feels. Some of it, I suspect, is because I know what’s coming: the Holidays. I love Christmas, but now that I’m the mom I know it’s a ton of work. Fall festivities are so mellow in comparison.

So. A few last thoughts on Halloween and then I’ll buck up and start laying the groundwork that will (I hope) make those crazy six weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year’s enjoyable instead of overwhelming.

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Happy Halloween from Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox

Babe the Blue Ox and Paul Bunyan

Happy Halloween! Tim and I managed to pull our costumes together in time for our friends’ annual Pole Barn Halloween Bash on Saturday. Here’s what we did (and a few things we’ll do differently if we wear these costumes again):

  • For Paul Bunyan, Tim wore a flannel jacket, jeans, and his Elmer Fudd hat. He had Important Meetings during the week and didn’t want to have too much beard scruff going on, but he did have some nice stubble the day of the party. He made an ax out of wood scraps, gray spray paint, and black electrical tape. To give himself the “giant” effect, he glued plastic farm toys onto plywood pieces covered with green felt. He tied the two scenes onto his hiking boots with pipe cleaners. Which worked, except it was really hard for him to walk!
  • If we were to do this again, I think we’d use an old pair of boots and attach the plywood directly to the bottom of the boots. (With nails? Glue gun?)
  • For Babe, I made horns out of blue Model Magic clay and ears out of foam that I stapled into cow-ear shapes. I hot-glued everything onto a blue headband, stuck on some fake eyelashes, and wore the bluest hoodie and yoga pants I could find. If I’d been feeling better last week, I would have shopped around more for a proper cow nose. Instead, I found a nose online, printed it out, colored it blue, and glued it to a popsicle stick. For the tail, I sprayed some rope blue and frayed the end a bit. (Can you see my little witch holding it up for the photo?) I also wore a cowbell around my neck, but I took it off so I could play along with our friends’ amazing band.
  • For next time: I would use brown foam sheets to make hooves to wear over my hands and feet. And I would probably wear a blue wig or spray my hair blue.

Are you dressing up for Halloween? I always love to see the clever costumes people come up with.

Lots of fun things happening around here today: the kids have classroom parties, followed by the annual Halloween Parade. After that we’ll enjoy our traditional dinner of chili and cornbread and wait impatiently for Tim to get home from work so we can head out trick-or-treating.

I hope you all have a fun and safe Halloween!

DIY Halloween Wreath and Fun Links

I’m sick. It’s just a cold, but it (and the fact that Tim’s been out of town all week) has made everything a little more challenging around here. I’m sure you know the feeling. I just want to crawl back into bed, but there’s so much to do. Like finishing up our Halloween costumes.

Are you dressing up for Halloween? Tim and I are going as Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox. Andrew’s not dressing up this year, but Lexie will be Annabeth Chase from The Lightning Thief, Will is going as a phantom with glowing eyes, and Lily will be your classic witch. My cold needs to scoot, pronto, because our friends are hosting their annual Halloween party tomorrow, complete with horseback riding, giant pumpkins, a band (new this year!), and a haunted hay ride. I can’t miss it, even if I end up just sitting by the bonfire, nursing a cup of hot tea.

The Halloween wreath in the photo is something my mom made with the kids last year. First they wrapped a styrofoam floral wreath with orange crepe streamers. Then Mom drew some little bat wings for the kids to cut out, they glued black pom-poms together to make the bat bodies and heads, and then glued on some googly eyes. They glued the bats onto the wreath, glued on an orange pipe cleaner onto the back as a hanger and, voila! Instant Halloween wreath. Here’s a close-up of one of the bats:

Here are some fun links for the weekend. Hope to see you back on Monday!

  • Video on how to peel an entire head of garlic in less than 10 seconds. Amazing!
  • This may be the cutest play mat I’ve ever seen.
  • Liz Stanley pulled together 15 favorite Halloween crafts. I think my favorite is the bat sock puppet.
  • Free Halloween dress-up printables.
  • And while you’re there, check out these adorable kids’ rooms and play areas.
  • Ghost cake.
  • I like a good old-fashioned jack-o-lantern, but check this out if you want to do something different with your pumpkins this year.
  • Halloween breakfast ideas, including cute DIY mummy cups here.

Mummy Juice Boxes

This little guy cracks me up—it’s amazing how a pair of googly eyes can create personality, isn’t it? The Mummy Juice Boxes are super easy to make: you just need some juice boxes, white electrical tape (I found some at Office Max), and googly eyes. Wrap the juice boxes in the white electrical tape and stick or glue on a pair of googly eyes and you’ve got yourself a mummy. Just be sure to leave the straw opening uncovered!

We had fun shopping Grandma’s craft sale yesterday and then made a stop at the Mall of America so Will could pick out his birthday present at the Lego store. He chose a really cool Volkswagen camper and is happy as a clam putting it together right now. (He’s humming as he works.) Andrew picked up a copy of Jurassic Park at Barnes and Noble, so we won’t see him for a while. The girls are busy with their American Girl dolls, as usual.

Meanwhile, I’m putting together some (simple) experiments for Will’s Mad Scientist party tomorrow. I’ll share the details and let you know how it went next week.

Have a great weekend!