Halloween party

Most of the decorations came from a dollar tree and/or target. Food was simple but Halloween themed. Took one day for set up and turned out AMAZING!! 

R2d2 was pointing since he had to stop bobbing for apples for the picture ;)

Strawberry Ghost

Strawberries with melted white chocolate and ghost faces....using different color icing. 

Halloween Rice Crispy Treats. 

You can make your rice crispy treats, but for the sake of time I used the boxed per made ones, dipped in icing, then dipped in sprinkles. Easy and fast and kids favorite!! 

Mummy Hotdogs

I used Boar Heads hotdogs and pillsbury crescent rolls. Slice crescent dough with pizza cutter into strips then wrap around hot dog leaving space for eyes. Bake for 18 minutes at 350 degrees then use mustard for eyes. 

Jello Worm Cups

Using jello in these cups and just adding some gummy worms made these another kid favorite. 

Candy Corn Pudding

I used butterscotch pudding for bottom layer, vanilla with yellow food dye for second layer, then banana for top layer. 

Guacamole Throw Up

Make your favorite guacamole dip, carve a small baking pumpkin into a jack o lantern then add to pumpkins mouth and running over onto platter. My recipe is only mashing 4 avocados, 1 tomato, garlic, salt and pepper, jalepeno, and lime altogether. 

Ranch Pumpkin Head Dip

Mix your favorite veggie dip and add to cleaned out small pumpkin. Add cut up veggies or chips. 

Games:

We played a lot of games. For adults we pinned scary movie characters to their backs for the to ask YES or NO questions to figure out. We also incorporated Minute To Win It games and a couple scary movie trivia worksheets. 

For the kiddos, we bobbed for apples, wrapped each other up as mummies, pinned the hat on the witch, some Halloween crafts, and some karaoke. 

Additional fun things was voting area for best family themed costume with a prize basket to win. Thank You gifts for families which was cookie in a mason jar gift and for kids it was homemade orange play dough. 

For some adult drinks I made candy apple Jell-O shots and a Vampire mix drink. For the Vampire drink I used: 

1 part pineapple juice

1 part cranberry juice

1 part raspberry Smirnoff

1/2 shot of grandadine

Mix in ice. Drain in martini glass

For Carmel apple Jell-O shots I used:

1 cup of apple cider

1 Knox packet

Heat and stir untill dissolved. Remove from heat and completely cool. Then add:

1/2 cup of apple pucker

3 drops of green food dye

Pour into cups and refrigerate over night. Next day add:

A

Carmel ice cream topper 

Overall this was a huge success. The perfect amount of structured game time, Halloween themed but easy food and drinks and everyone enjoys a costume party!! Any questions continue to email me!! Happy Halloween!! 

Cookie in a jar recipe: 

http://tinyurl.com/nspcfch

Play dough recipe: 

http://tinyurl.com/cyeymvx

Protein Pumpkin Pie--Yummy Yummy!!

Super low calories!! High protein!! Low sugar!! Great replacement for training during fall holidays!! 

Mixed ingredients in large bowl and baked for 45 minutes or until dry toothpick comes out in the middle at 375 degrees. 

Enjoy! 

Jerry's homemade Baklava-minus the walnuts

So this household is a nut free home due to my kiddos food allergies (see my other blog on food allergies) but my husband loves baklava. While making some homemade pop tarts (also on other blog) I had left over phyllo dough to try my hands at baklava. So Simple!!

Ingredients: organic maple syrup, melted butter, phyllo dough, brown sugar, and oil spray.

Instructions: 

Layer phyllo dough: dough, melted butter, & sprinkled brown sugar. Do this 15 times then cut into triangles while in pan. Separate each triangle right in middle and add a tablespoon of brown sugar then put top back on. Then press close. I did brown sugar in half and strawberry jam in others. Baked at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Once cooled, I mixed tablespoon of maple syrup and tablespoon of sugar. Dripped on top. Let set for about 20 minutes. TaDa! 

Halloween Bucket List

Dr Seuss retreat

This years retreat was dr Seuss. He is so inspiring and what's great is how you feel (silly) when you are planning it and how the office felt (childlike) when participating. A great experience where staff was able to get a break from being social workers and from dealing with daily client needs and crisis. It was a huge success!!  

So, myself and my coworker, retreat partner in crime, were Thing One and Thing Two. Simple costumes: wear all red matching clothing (ours were red shirts and skinny red pants with red ballet style flats all from old navy for total of $21 per costume with a printed sticker that my husband made on our bellies).

The center pieces were "truffala trees". I made these with car board rolled into a trunk, wrapped with tape, and tissue paper cut outs on top. Taped together and put into a jar vase. I found at office store some dr Seuss cut outs that I glued to the vase. 

The food table was decorated with dr Seuss books, small truffala trees, dr Seuss named foods, and ikea frames with food cards. 

The table decorations really made the room look like a dr. Seuss book!! We had the trufala tees on each table as center piece, packs of dr. Seuss crayons for activities, yellow and blue folders with cat in the hat hat on them filled with some agency information, some fish candies in yellow bowls, some dr. Seuss cut outs, some play dough (best dr. Seuss character made out of play dough won a prize), and tons of Dr. Seuss books sitting up opened. Each person had a name tag (see below) with seating arrangements.

 

Some of the foods (not shown because they were gone before the pics were able to be taken) included:

1.       Green eggs and & ham: bowled died eggs with ham on tray

2.       Wump of Gump: oatmeal in Crockpot

3.       Duck Dog Donuts: donuts

4.       Buster Beagles Bugle Bagel: Bagels

5.       Fiffer Feffer Fluffy Fruit: Fruit tray

6.       Yolandas Yogurts: Yogurts on a tray

7.       Grinch-Ola: Variety of granola bars

 

The sign in table included a Fish Bowl to vote for best dressed Dr. Seuss Character, sign in sheet decorated with Dr. Seuss Characters and The doors were covered with orange table clothes and decorated as the lorax.

 

I had some yard signs printed, 10 of them for $25 with dr.seuss quotes for some inspiration and as decorations. 

The goal of this retreat was to assist in avoiding burn out in social work field. Of course we did this by playing some fun and silly games.

 

The first one was an activity called: Cindy Lou Woo Vs. The Grinch. This game consisted of a piece of cardstock cut in half, one side a picture of Cindy Lou Woo and the other side a picture of The Grinch, holes punched with string going through so it can hang as a necklace. The staff wrote down 5 things that they are really good at on Cindy Lou Woo side and 5 things that they struggle with on The Grinch side. Then they put the necklace on with Cindy Lou Woo and strengths list showing and were directed to find someone who had a strength listed on their cards that could help them with a need they had listed on The Grinch side. An opportunity to get to know others, mingle, and find supports for their day to day working lives. This was a huge hit!!

 

The last game of the day was “Help destroy the Trufella Seeds”,  really just to leave on a silly and positive note. The staff blew up a balloon and tied them with yarn on their ankles. Simple game: last one left with a balloon won a prize!!  This got really fun. There were a lot of laughing and silly hiding going on here. Staff’s reviews made this their favorite and there were about 85 staff there ranging in ages of 21-65 years old!! 

Games looked like this:

My office day before retreat! 

Mason Jar Herb Garden

This weekend was so beautiful out and it really got me in the mood to start my garden...but, I don't have a garden...I don't have a flat area in my yard at all due to the fact that we are building our home right now. So, instead, me and the boys went to the local free store and found some mason jars. We put some organic potting mix in them, some seeds, and started growing some herbs!  The boys loved this and they used some of their "kiddie" garden tools from the family dollar store. This kept them busy for about 1.5 hours which included some educational talks about growing a garden, thinking outside the box for gardens, using clean organic ingredients, and we just put them in our kitchen window...awaiting for them to grow!  I also picked up some herb kits from target in the dollar aisles. I am not sure how they will turn out, but we did start these as well! The other ingredients for this project was only $9 total and we planted 6 mason jars. Below are some additional inspirations for starting a "Mason Jar Garden" with your little ones! Enjoy!!

 (Dollar Herb Kits from Target)

My bucket list for my children before they leave the nest....at least part of it!

1. Visit Europe!
2. Disney land
3. Hoover damn
4. Mt Rushmore
5. California beach
6. Learn a second language
7. Grow an organic garden
8. Rv trip
9. Yellowstone
10. Yosemite
11. Grand Canyon
12. Washington, D.C.
13. Verde Arizona ranch
14. Snorkeling
15. Hawaii
16. Catch a cab
17. Bring up a butterfly
18. Visit a waterfall
19. Get buried in the sand
20. Ride on a train
21. Volunteer at a hospital
22. Fly in an airplane
23. Build a tree house
24. Make mudd pies
25. Have a pen pal from another country
26. Memphis
27. New York City
28. Sleep under the stars
29. Build a home for a pet
30. See a play
31. See a live concert
32. Volunteer at a homeless shelter
33. Go to pro baseball game
34. Swim with dolphins
35. Make their own photo album
36. Read an entire book series

We will continue to add to this and we are currently working on our summer 2013 bucket list. I've included some that we have used in the past. What is your bucket list? What is your bucket list for your children? Have fun, make it a fun activity to gather ideas as a family!! The boys really loved seeing all the pictures online as we explored!!