Creepy Spider Halloween Party

When my daughter begged me to have a Halloween party for her friends, and then I was accepted to host a House Party, I thought, “Do I have the time and extra money to pull this off?  And do the kids really need another party two days before Halloween?” 

Somehow, I squeezed in the time, and believe it or not, I was able to put this party together on a budget.  B-U-D-G-E-T.  Using the gift pack from House Party, keeping the foods simple, and utilizing things I already had allowed me to keep this party affordable.

  

Instead of traditional cupcakes, I made healthier pumpkin muffins using this recipe from Skinny Taste.  I used my own cream cheese frosting recipe, and love the look of the messy icing on only a portion of the muffins.

I am *in love* with the giant spider cake ball.  The idea came from Hungry Happenings (a site totally worth checking out if you’re looking for fun food ideas).

I didn’t want too much candy, so I filled candy jars with only black licorice, Halloween Jujube’s and Peeps on sticks.  I had the small white bags already, so I filled them with popcorn and made chocolate spider webs to place on top.  The stickers on the bags came from Target.

Spider Cider, EEK! straw flags, and adorable Martha Stewart jack-o-lantern stickers on the drink table.

  

For lunch I served bean soup (not shown), Sunbutter sandwiches, cheese and cracker bites, veggies, orange and black Halloween chips, salsa, and mandarin oranges.  (All foods were completely vegetarian and peanut free.)

 

Kim made these fabulously cute spider cake pops (well, I’m guessing they were fabulous by how fast they were gobbled up – I didn’t even get to try one!)

 

These Rice Krispie Treats were provided in my House Party pack.  I used a paper punch to make the jack-o-lantern wraps for them.  My daughter made the chalkboard sign.

 

  

For fun we had Monster Mash wii dancing, a makeshift photobooth, face painting, tattoos from House Party, and crafts.

 

Goodie/trick-or-treat bags, tattoos and Halloween flash lights provided by House Party.  Naturally we had to throw some spiders in the mix, and every good Halloween party needs a set or two of vampire teeth.

EEK! Putting together this party was so much fun!

If you would like to use the Halloween Spider printables I made for this party, I have provided them for free HERE. 

If you have any questions about anything, post a comment and we’ll be happy to answer them! 

Happy Halloween, D.I.Y.’ers!

~julee~

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Happy Halloween!

Have a safe and silly Halloween!

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D.I.Y. Ghostbuster Costume

My four year old is crazy about Ghostbusters.  He sings the song all day long and has even decided he wants his next birthday to be Ghostbusters themed.  Since about May he has been asking to be a Ghostbuster for Halloween and has never wavered from that idea.  I could of course handle the sewing part of this endeavor but I had to enlist dad for the proton pack.  My husband is an Electrical Engineer and major lover of Halloween so of course the pack needed to be a close replica and work.  Yes, I said work.  It lights up just like the real one and plays the Ghostbusters theme song.  I figured the best way to show you guys was with a video, so check it out.

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A Day At The Farm

Saturday my family and I traveled to Spencer County where we got to spend the day at my husband's cousin's farm for a little family reunion.  The day was perfect, sunny and just the right fall temperature.  A big pot of Kale Stew was cooking outside and we got to meet family we didn't know and spend time with some of our favorite loved ones.

The above 4 photos came from my SIL's phone

The kids ran wild and rode horses. They skipped rocks in the creek and chased chickens.  They climbed into haylofts and went on long hayrides under warm blankets.  It was the most perfect of ways to spend a fall Saturday.

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Local Feature: Roberts Family Farm

So, this year my family was looking for an alternative to our usual pumpkin patch experience (I'm not naming names) since in the past few years it has become way too overcrowded for us.  I just can't have fun when I'm constantly worried I'm going to lose a kid in the crowd.  After hearing good things from some family members we decided to give Roberts Family Farm a chance.  Located in Guston, Ky,  it took about 45 minutes to get there from our house in the Southend of Louisville, but it wasn't a bad drive at all.

 As soon as we got there we could tell that the crowd was a lot smaller, yeah!  We had no trouble parking and there were no long lines to wait in.

The kids rode on a pumpkin train, petted and fed baby goats, rode the hay ride, picked their own pumpkins, played in corn and a tunnel slide, ate lots of popcorn and generally had a great time.

They are open limited hours Mon.-Fri. 5:30 till dark and Saturday and Sunday 1:00 till dark.  Admission is free but some activities do cost a small fee.  They offer an assortment of concessions and have a cookout on the weekends, which offers yummy fare such as bean soup and cornbread . You can ride the hayride to pick your own pumpkins, which sell by the pound or pick from an assortment of already picked pumpkins and gourds for sell at the shop.

The shop also has canned goods and dried flowers for sale.  It's a perfect outing for the family!

I also had to share this picture of my cousin, Spider and my dad.  Spider designed and made that awesome Jack O' Lantern creature, which along with another graces the entrance to Roberts Family Farm.  He is an amazing artist!

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What We Wore

These are my Toms. 

Love.

My Toms were a birthday gift from my husband this year.  I love them, but having them makes me feel somewhat indulgent considering our typically penny-pinching lifestyle.  Plus, I’ve worn them very little because I never know quite what to pair them with.  Indulgent and guilty is not a good combo, so I’m trying to wear them more.

This is a run-of-the-mill bumming-around-town-going-thrifting outfit.  Nothing special about it, but I wore my Toms, which I love. 

T-Shirt: Thrifted, Old Navy

Cardigan: Target

Belt: Thrifted

Jeans: Target

Shoes: Toms

Sunglasses:  Beach Gift Shop

Many, many, many Leaves: Courtesy of Mother Nature

Did I mention the Toms love?

We’re linking up to fun this week over at The Pleated Poppy.

May all of your outfits this week be worn with shoes you love.

~julee~

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Halloween Window Clings Tutorial

I've probably mentioned before that my husband is pretty crafty too.  Well, his craftiness seems to coincide with Halloween big time.  This year he has spent countless hours crafting my sons Proton Pack (more to come later) and he's been working pretty solidly for the past week on his current project: custom window clings.  Where this idea came from I have no idea but I know he's been talking about doing it since last Halloween. This year he finally went to the hardware store and bought a roll of window blackout, which is just a roll of black film to cover your windows in.  Part of his plan involved one of his favorite artists Ed Emberley.  He has loved his simple, quirky Halloween designs ever since he was a kid.  I have to say I'm not a huge fan of window clings in general but these do look really great and he has done a fantastic job putting them together.  I took some pictures while he was working so that you can see the how to.

Gather your supplies.  You will need a roll of window film, a large copy of the image you want to use, a razor blade or exacto knife and a cutting mat.

My husband let our daughter get in on the action with some drawings of her own.

You are going to set your drawing over the window film and cut through.  You want to be cutting out all of the white areas.  The black area of the drawing will be what becomes your window cling. Warning: this can be some tedious work if you use an image with a lot of fine lines and details.

Once you have your image cut out you will need to clean your window and then wet it very lightly with a paper towel that is wet and has a dab of liquid soap on it.  They also sell a product at the Hardware store that is supposed to help the film stick.  Carefully remove the backing from your cling and apply it to the window.  Start at one corner of the design and work your way across to avoid air bubbles.

This is the whole bay window.  It is near impossible to get a good picture of these things.

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