Happy Halloween

Halloween, the night when people become someone or something else.  When candy is handed out among neighbors and children are on the loose grinning with excitement and maybe a little sugar high. And neighborhoods are illuminated with the glow of jack o'lanterns.

For our jack o'lanterns, we begin at the pumpkin patch.  However, choosing the perfect pumpkins is last on the list of things to do.  There are so many activities to be had that the kids typically start in the corn pit.  Thats right, a big pit full of corn.  Who knew corn could be so fun!

Next stop, the corn maze.  There are always clues you need to find along the way.
This year we were on a mission to find a total of 9.

They also jumped on a huge inflatable "pillow", rode a train ride, climbed on a rope spider web, raced pedal cars and did some potato flinging. Then, they picked out the perfect pumpkins, which, in all the excitement I failed to take pictures of.

The next day, it was gutting and carving time.  The kids mostly gut their own pumpkins.  There was a little assistance needed with Action and Smiley.  And, I must note, this is the first year Action did not gag while gutting :)  Then, the kids draw out their desired designs on paper, transfer it to their pumpkin and hubby and I do the actual carving (Sassy did do some of her own this year).  For Smiley's pumpkin, she knew she wanted it to be a princess.  We first drew a tiara, then I drew out different options for eyes, nose and mouth and let her pick which ones she wanted.  Lucky for me she chose the easiest ones to cut out!

~ Voila ~

Masterpieces Completed

Happy Halloween!

We made it

Ahh.... Halloween is over.

We made it.

Hubby and I made it through a couple of adult parties

We made it to the corn maze (where Smiley thought we were hunting for pheasants) 

where besides the maze itself there is:

A Corn Pit

Pedal Car Racing

Pumpkin shaped bounce house

Cut outs

Potato Slinging

And also where we nabbed the perfect pumpkins.

To carve 

(Action has never liked the feel of "pumpkin guts", Smiley wasn't so sure at first, but by the end,
I couldn't get her out of the "guts" bowl!)

And enjoy

We made it through a spooky dinner consisting of:

Menu:

We made it through a night of

Princesses, gypsies, and "scary guys"

And enjoyed a little self induced sugar coma.

Did you all make it?

Friday Funny

Have you carved your pumpkins yet?

You can go here to practice :)

Not really funny, but it is fun ☺!

Jar Jack O'lanterns

I was surfing one day (um, the internet) and came across instructions to make these cute little guys, girls, ghosts, monsters or whatever suits you:

Aren't they cute?

Click here to link to the actual instructions and to check out some much better pictures of these little guys.

They are quite easy to make.

All you need:

clean jars (a good reason to clean out the fridge)

orange tissue paper

Mod Podge (decoupage glue)

a paint brush (to apply the glue and to paint the tops)

black construction paper

green acrylic paint

candles (reg. or battery operated) or a string of lights

Ready?
Cut or tear your orange tissue paper into strips. Measure them against the jar and trim to the desired length.

Working in sections paint your clean jar with Mod Podge and cover with orange tissue paper.

(Yes, this is a little thick and needs to be spread out a bit.)

Until the whole jar is covered.

(look at all the concentration going on here)

Then go over the entire jar (covered in tissue paper) with Mod Podge.

Let dry.

In the mean time you can create the faces you want on your jars using the black construction paper.

As you can see, Sassy got creative and made a spider as well as some faces.

When the jars are dry, glue (we did Mod Podge again) your faces (or spiders) onto the jars. Go over the face with Mod Podge again to seal it.

Paint the tops of the jars green to finish them off and let the whole thing dry (your suppose to wait 24 hours, but I, myself the kids wanted to see them all lit up as soon as they were dry to the touch)

We used battery operated tea lights (great deal at Home Goods) to light them up.

I think they are pretty cute!