Our Halloween Fun!

Our kids have all decided they are too old for dressing up and trick-or-treating. I guess I get it for the two older ones, they are 22 and 15, after all. But, I’m a little bummed that our 12-yr-old daughter, L., has decided not to costume-up and hit the road. This isn’t the first year, either. She hasn’t wanted to dress up and trick-or-treat for the last two years. Instead, we have opted to get pizzas from Papa Murphy’s, make some Halloween themed snack foods and have a big bowl of candy to eat while watching scary movies at home. Not a bad way to spent an evening as a family, all in all.

Actually, my 15-yr-old son, C., surprised me this year by asking me to take him shopping for a Halloween costume. He is in marching band at school (Trumpets Rule! Trombones Drool!) and one of the other kids has a Halloween costume party every year to which he was invited. Hey, I’ll take a memory where I can get one! We hit Target and he chose a gorilla costume. He’d kill me if he knew I was posting his picture online, so mum’s the word, ok?

He had a GREAT time at the party. It was his first boy-girl party and I’m very glad he enjoyed himself.

This year I found a fun Graveyard Cake Mix at Target, which is where I bought all of the snacks and candy that are featured in this post.

The finished product turned out pretty cute. I added some sugar skull cake topper candies that I had leftover from my daughter’s birthday cupcakes a couple of weeks ago. I wish I’d had the foresight to buy two of the cake mixes and some other things to put on top, like some gravestone candies, or something. But, it turned out all right, anyway.

Next, we popped some popcorn and watched a movie while I worked on decorating the Halloween treat bags to hold all the kids’ goodies. I love a good psychological thriller, don’t you?

I searched online to find some fun Halloween clip art or pictures that I would use for the treat bags. I printed them, cut the sections I wanted to show on the treat bags and then taped them to the bags.

I used a very nice large set of Bic Mark-It markers that I received for free in a Smiley360.com mission that I participated in earlier this year. It was fun. I haven’t colored anything in a long time. :0)

Hmm…seems someone has been digging into (and not putting back) my markers. Boo!

Here are the finished goodie bags:

Inside the goodie bags are a few yummy treats for the kids to enjoy. All treats were purchased at Target, with the exception of the booklets of Frosty coupons, which of course came from Wendy’s fast food restaurant.

To separate the Creepy Eyeball gum balls for the kids, I first cut the tops off of three Ziploc bags. After dividing the gum balls among the bags, I tied them shut with some black Jute twine that I picked up on clearance somewhere a long time ago. They turned out really cute!

Any candy that I couldn’t evenly divide went into a separate bowl (I call it Momma & Daddy candy tax!).

With the UK Wildcat football team playing this evening (vs. Tennessee Volunteers), I thought some chips and dip would be a good call. These items were also purchased from Target.

All I needed to add to the dip was 1/2 cup mayo, 1/2 cup sour cream and 8 oz of cream cheese. I opted to just make the dip option because we were getting ready to head out the door to dinner and I didn’t have time to mess with forming a cheese ball (the other option for this mix). Aren’t the orange pumpkin, black bat and white ghost chips neat?

My in-laws live right next door (with woods between creating perfect privacy). Mamaw always makes the grandkids special treats for every holiday. This year she made red velvet cupcakes with homemade cream cheese icing. I went to visit with her yesterday and show her all the fun Halloween items I’d purchased for the kids’ goodie bags and the yarn I chose to make new Christmas stockings for each of them this year. (I’ll do another post on those). Over coffee and coffee cake she frosted the cupcakes and I decorated them with Halloween rings, pumpkin picks, and colored sugar.

Well, there you have it. Our Halloween fun. What did you do to celebrate the holiday this year?

Disclaimer: This post is not sponsored by any company or individual. I personally purchased and paid for all items shown in this post with the exception of the cupcakes (which were donated by my mother-in-law). I am not advocating the purchase of any item pictured, just simply sharing our Halloween experience.

Save