Trick or Treat!

What a fun time we had this year for Halloween. We spread out the celebration, and managed to get more use out of the costumes than normal, too. Awesome! We kicked off the holiday this year by hosting a Halloween party at our house for the boys' friends.

Josh and I made a big pot of our Italian Chili and served it Cincinnati-style, over whole wheat spaghetti and topped with shredded cheddar cheese. I made some of my buttermilk cornbread and a pan of pumpkin crunch for dessert. Yum! For snacks, I offered some autumn mix (peanuts, golden raisins, candy corn and Reese's pieces) and corn chips with pumpkin salsa.

The spread on the table

Treat bags for the kids filled with the autumn trail mix

Corn chips and pumpkin salsa, autumn trail mix in front, and bowl of candy for guests

The kids all came in costume and played games organized by my friend, Amanda. She is awesome and came up with four fun games for the kids to play! They enjoyed some ghost bowling, a witch's hat ring toss, a pumpkin toss and skeleton limbo! Super fun!

The boys loved the ghost bowling!

Skeleton limbo was fun!

Ethan celebrated at his preschool on Tuesday. He got to wear his costume, they went Trick or Treating in the building, and they had a pizza party! I provided the drink boxes for the party. The only thing I don't like about his preschool is the fact that you can't make anything homemade to take in for parties, birthdays, etc. I love making special treats for the boys, so it's a real bummer that everything has to be store-bought and individually packaged, especially since I try to normally try to avoid buying these sorts of things! :( But, I made the best of it this time, and created mummy juice boxes! :)

Mummy juice boxes

They were super easy to make! And so adorable!! Ethan loved them and told me I was the best mom ever! Awww! To start on the juice boxes, I removed the straws. Take a piece of white tape (I used a couple rolls of 1 1/2" cloth tape from my athletic training days. I knew it would come in handy someday! Haha!) and punch a hole in it with a hole puncher. Place this tape on the top of the box with the hole lined up to the hole for the straw on the box. Place another piece of tape on the bottom of the box. Then cover the entire box with one layer of tape. Next, using a roll of tape that is split in half (into ~3/4"), add another layer with the strips crossing each other to give it a mummy-look. Once the box is covered entirely, add two adhesive googly eyes to the front. Place one more strip of tape on top, at an angle, over the eyes. Use one more strip of tape to affix the straw to the side of the juice box. Voilà! A wonderful way to make a store-bought item "hand-made"! :) Here is a great video tutorial from Parents magazine.

My idea for costumes this year started with Ethan's request to be Daisy, our 6-year-old boxer. Every time I asked him what he wanted to be this year, that was his response. So, doggy costume it was! I wasn't sure at first how I was going to accomplish a Daisy-look, but I eventually figured it out. For Noah, I thought an animal costume would be cute too, as he loves them so much. His favorite animal is currently a cow, so cow it was! I was stumped for weeks about a costume for Daisy and how to tie them all together (I love themes!), but it finally came to me! Hey Diddle, Diddle! So, with the cow and doggy taken care of, that left Daisy to be the cat! ;)

Hey diddle, diddle, the cat and the fiddle,

The cow jumped over the moon.

The little dog laughed to see such fun

And the dish ran away with the spoon!

Once the costumes were done, I made the fiddle for Daisy, and moon and dish "pillows" for Noah and Ethan, respectively, along with a wooden spoon for Ethan. Perfect! I'll post more later on how I made their no-sew costumes!

On Halloween, the boys helped me make whole wheat pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, from Tracey's Culinary Adventures, for a snack. They were super tasty, just as I hoped they would be! I doubled the recipe, but it ended up making 30 muffins instead of 24. I used 1 1/2 cups of chocolate chips, instead of 2 cups, but I think 1 cup would have been enough. I also recommend baking for just 18-20 minutes total.

Our neighbors invited us to their church's Trunk or Treat, held inside the church, so we took them up on their offer to participate in our first ever "Trunk or Treat". Unfortunately, we didn't know how popular it was and were not prepared for the 45 minute wait outside to get in! :( It was a bit chilly, but Daddy kept the boys warm. :)

As Ethan would say, "Oh my goodness!" Melted my heart!

They had a great time trick or treating and playing at the church carnival.

When we got home from the church, we got Daisy, bundled the boys up in the wagon and went to a few of the neighbors' houses before bed time. It was a fun night.

I hope you and your little ones had a great Halloween, too!