Note To Self #3

Note to Self:  Hide the Halloween candy better.

As I was cleaning the house this morning, I heard Leah stirring around upstairs.  I finished stocking the bathroom with t.p. and diapers then started working on the bedrooms.  From the other room, I offered to make her breakfast, but she said she was already eating.  When I went to check on her, I saw that she did indeed have breakfast in front of her:

He's Crafty

Last year, the kids and I worked through a bunch of Halloween craft ideas we'd found.  I have a lot of Halloween crafts to do this year courtesy of Pinterest, the local library, and Chad (thanks dude).  SPOILER ALERT:  Shameless Plug on the way!

Rather than post them here, I'll be featuring them on my educational website, www.free-math-handwriting-and-reading-worksheets.com.  I'll be posting Halloween coloring pages, activities, crafts, and more.  You can check out all the Halloween Craft Ideas here.

With that said, I'd still like to post one simple idea that I tried yesterday:  Monster Drinks.

No, not those monster drinks.  Energy in a can is the last thing my kids need.  These monster drinks:

A little Sunny D and Kiwi juice, construction paper, and craftiness goes a long way. But what did the kids think?

I think she liked it.

The boy is usually a tough sell though.

Usually.

Trunk or Treat

The only way to Trick-or-Treat is to Trunk or Treat.  You make one stop, unload the kids, and load up your bags with sugar, chocolate and bibles.  Bibles?  Yes, bibles.  Most of the trunk or treating events are put on by churches, so you get to enjoy some Proverbs with your Pixy Stix.

Matthew and Mark just can't compete with Mike and Ike.

In our area there are roughly ten to twelve various Trunk or Treats put on by local churches.  So, how do you decide which one to go to?  You don't.  You go to all of them and stock up on candy for the week.  But, for those of you with time constraints or little gas money, you have a hard choice to make.

Lucky for you, I dragged the children along to 3 different events in order to better understand which denomination puts on the best show and gives the best candy.  The Parenting Dad is all about making you an outstanding Dad (or Mom) and let's face it, if you're reading this blog, you need help.  Giving your kids the best possible Halloween experience is one way to show them how awesome of a parent you are.

First Baptist

Our first stop was the local Baptist church.  I wasn't sure what to expect, because most of the crazy religious things I've heard have come from the mouths of Baptists.  But, like any religious group, there are a small percentage of fanatics that make the news and then there are the normal people who practice peacefully.  We were blessed with the latter...and candy.  Plenty of candy.  For our first stop, I was pretty happy with our haul.  67 goodies (including three bibles) were collected in a matter of about five minutes and although I was pleased with our sugary handouts, it would end up being the smallest score of the night.

Baptist Trunks Look Like This:




I liked how easy it was to get through the line. The parking lot was small and the candy came quick. No chit-chatting, no preaching, just get your Tootsie Pops and roll out of there.  Points lost for no food and handing out toothbrushes/paste.

Assembly of God

Next we hit up the Assembly of God church.  These dudes know how to party.  We brought home 71 different goodies in our bag, including another 3 bibles, and the kids got to bounce around in two separate bounce houses and play games.  The candy was on par with what we had received earlier in the night, but the atmosphere was drastically changed.  Loud music, long lines, and kids running around everywhere.  For people dressed as the undead, things sure seemed alive.

United Methodist

If you're looking for quantity, hit up your local Methodist church, that's where we got the most candy (and the least bibles), 76 pieces in all.  You can also find free food (chili and hot dogs), but unfortunately, no games or bounce house.  When we first pulled up we were treated to some loud reggae music and people dancing.  Apparently, we had just missed the start of the flash mob.

Methodists have the best decorated trunks too.I have to say that because one of these trunks is my mom's.  Special bonus prize: Be the first to guess which trunk is hers and you can win a free New Testament/Proverbs/Psalms mini-bible.  3 styles to choose from!





I'd love to be able to tell you more about the Methodist church's Trunk or Treat.  I'd love to tell you how tasty the chili was and to be able to show you more pictures of trunks.  However, halfway through the candy line, Libby decided to give me her own Halloween treat.

It's all fun and games until the baby pees on somebody.

Results:

My life's work.

So which church has the best Trunk or Treat?  That depends.  If you want quantity and free food, go to the Methodists, they gave us the most candy.  For some serious fun, it's Assembly of God all the way.  I hear their morning services are quite interesting as well.  For quality, it's Baptists you want.  The money they saved by not providing food or a bounce house went into purchasing name-brand candy bars like Snickers, Crunch, Butterfinger and more.  Of all the loot we received, they had the least amount of off-brand candy.  These results are in no way meant to be conclusive.  More research is needed and I will gladly dedicate my life to perfecting these results.  These tasty, sugary results.

Batty For Hand Prints

Since the girl has Pre-K in the afternoon, I have to figure out some way to entertain her in the mornings.  Thankfully, there are plenty of easy Halloween crafts that are sure to keep a girl busy.  Especially when that girl loves getting her hands painted and playing with glitter.  Here's what we did this morning.

It amazes me how much this girl loves to get paint on her hands.  If it was up to her, she'd just leave handprints all over the paper, squeeze a bottle of glue over it, and dump glitter everywhere.   Whatever it takes to keep the kids busy, go with it.

Paint your kid's hands and slap 'em down on some paper.  Cut out a body/head for the bat and place it near the ends of the thumbs.  We finally remembered to pick up some Googly Eyes at Wal-Mart, but, if you don't have them you can use cotton balls, or pom-poms, or my daughter's favorite mixture of glue and glitter.

Use the glue/glitter mix for the smile and teeth.  Spread out some glue in the shape of a smile and drown it in glitter.  Let it dry and shake off the excess glitter before adding the teeth.  Make sure you spread a thin line of glue, otherwise your bat will look kinda whorish (see below).

You dirty, dirty bat.

Once you knock off the extra glitter, your bat should look less clown like.  Now add two v-shaped glue teeth and bedazzle it with glitter.  You could also cut some teeth out with construction paper and glue it on there, but let's be honest, glitter is way cooler.

Glue...

...and glitter.

Let the glue dry and shake off the extra.  Decorate with some Halloween stickers or, if you have a little artist on your hands, let them color a nice background.  If you've seen the other crafts we've done, you know there are no artists in our family, so stickers it is.

I thought we were done at this point, my daughter thought otherwise...

The great thing about this project is that, not only is it an easy Halloween craft, but it also doubles as a Seek 'n' Find.  Simply leave your 3-year old in the room with the project and stickers and go change your baby's diaper.  If you don't own a baby, you can borrow mine.  When you return, your toddler will have sorted through your entire stash of stickers and applied them liberally to your artwork.  Have fun!

Can you find:

A Pizza Box
R.I.P. Grave Marker
A Bo Staff
4 Puppy Dogs
Frankenstein
A Skull w/an Eyepatch
5 Pumpkins
4 Ninja Turtles
2 Spiders
A Bottle of Poison
Minnie Mouse
7 Bats
A Coffin
April O'Neil
A Sparkly Vampire

Have fun and Happy Halloween!



Update (10/26/12):  I thought it'd be fun to post pictures of other parents doing some crafts with their children.  Send a photo of your kid's artwork and I'll post it here or on the Facebook page.

Thanks Sarah for sending a photo of your daughter's bat!

Love those monkey vampires!

Tasty Zombies

It's time to turn the tables on the zombies.  No longer shall we live in fear of being eaten by a zombie, yes, let's rise up and beat them at their own game.  It's time we started to eat them.  And, when they're primarily made of sugar, it's easy to do.  Add some life (or in this case death) to your cupcakes by making some edible zombie parts.

You need:

Fondant
Green Paste Coloring
Toothpicks
Knife
Vegetable Shortening (maybe)
Baby Bottle Cap



Break off some fondant and place two or three drops of green coloring in the middle.  Work the coloring throughout the fondant until it's a nice shade of green.  If it gets too sticky, you can rub a small amount of vegetable shortening over it.

Once you've worked the color through the fondant, flatten it out with a rolling pin and cut out twelve small circles.  I had luck using a baby bottle cap.  It's also a great time to let your kids have some fun cutting out shapes and rolling them into balls.

Now the fun begins.  Press your thumb into one end of a ball to flatten it out.  Don't press too hard, you want to leave enough material to work with.  This will be the template for your hand.  Lengthen out the other end into an arm.

Use your knife to cut a section of the fondant for the thumb.  Pull the thumb section away from the rest of the "hand" and make three more cuts for the other fingers.

Separate the fingers and stretch them out to a tip.  From there you can start shaping them into fingers and bend them up into a claw-like shape.  Use a toothpick to create knuckle joints and lines on the palms.

You may find that it helps to let the hands sit out over night to toughen up a little.  When you're done, set a toothpick through the arm and then mount them to your cupcakes.

Those cupcakes are delicious by the way.  Learn how to make your own Graveyard Halloween Cupcakes here.

Freshly Dug Gravecakes

Easy Halloween recipes are all over the internet, but I'm not interested in easy.  I'm interested in disgusting, gross, and eye-popping treats.  Last week I made some Bloody Eye Halloween Cupcakes that were fairly easy to make (except for the eyebrows), but they didn't taste all that great.  This weekend, I made some graveyard cupcakes (thanks to Zombie Cupcakes by Zilly Rosen) that are probably the tastiest thing I ever pulled out of the oven (next to bacon).

<------------That's supposed to be a zombie hand coming up through a grave.  After my sixth or seventh attempt at fashioning edible zombie parts, I finally settled on this hand and decided 'to hell' with the remaining eleven zombies.  So, in the earth they remain.

While the zombie hands weren't all that easy to make, the cupcakes were simple enough.  And, like I said, the cupcakes alone make this recipe a keeper.  Here's what you need.

Oreo Cookies (10-15)
1 big-ass bag of semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
5 tbsp. butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tbsp. sour cream
2 tbsp. water
2 cups heavy cream

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a 12-hole muffin pan with cupcake liners.  Crush Oreos into 1/4 inch pieces.  Place 1 tbsp. into each liner.

Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt in one bowl.  Place butter and sugar in a large bowl and mix together (with an electric mixer) until it's fluffy.  Melt 1 3/4 oz. of the chocolate chips and blend it in with the butter and sugar.  Mix in the eggs, vanilla extract, and sour cream.  Add about half of the flour mixture to your wet ingredients and blend.  Add the water and remaining flour mixture.

Using half of the batter mix, divide it up among the twelve cupcakes, covering the Oreo cookies.  Cover the batter with 1 tsp. of chocolate chips.

Now cover the chips with the remaining batter and any cookie pieces you may have left over.  I opted to add the batter and just eat the remaining cookie pieces.  Your call.

Stick it in the oven for about 25 minutes and turn once halfway through.

While that's cooking, it's time to make some mud for your grave.  Remember that big-ass bag of chocolate chips?  If you haven't eaten them all yet, stick 2 3/4 cups of chips into a heatproof bowl.  Bring 2 cups of heavy cream to a boil in a saucepan.  As soon as it starts boiling, pour it into the bowl with the chocolate chips.  Whisk it together until it's smooth.  Add the butter and whisk again.  At this point you have two options.  The recipe I followed said to stick the mixture in the fridge and let it cool.  I opted to just leave it out and spread it on right away.

Once your cupcakes cool off, spread on the mud.  After realizing how time consuming it is to spread the mud on, just dip the cupcake upside down into your bowl of mud.  Crush up some more Oreo cookies into a bowl.  Dip the freshly mudded cupcakes into the cookies to give the appearance of dirt.

If you took the time to make a dozen fondant hands, congratulations, you're a better parent than I.  Shove a toothpick in the hand and mount the cupcakes.  Learn how to make some zombie hands.

Spread a small amount of piping gel on various areas of the hand and sprinkle with cookie crumbs for effect.

Mud comes in many different colors, so do cookies. Try crumbling chocolate chip cookies for dirt too.