ABC Halloween Countdown

Okay so today is the last day before my favorite month! Yeah I am so excited for October to come. Halloween has been my favorite holiday off all times and I wanted to help make my girls excited too. So I made an ABC Halloween countdown. Remember that vase that I stuffed my extra screen scraps into well I was taking a walk around my neighborhood and found a dead tree in one of the empty lots. SCORE I cut off a couple branches and put them in my vase. Then I found these cute little bags at the dollar store and wrote a letter on each of them and the number of days left till Halloween. Inside of the bag is just a little piece of paper with a word relating to the letter of the day. I have a sheet explaining what we are going to do for the day for each letter. Most of them are decorating crafts so that by the time Halloween comes I will have lots of cute little homemade decorations from my girls.

These are the bags with the letter of the day and how many more days until Halloween. I then hole punch at the top so I could just put them on a branch easily

This is our ABC Halloween countdown tree















I will also post a picture everyday of our activities in case they don't fully make sense in my description.


Here is my Halloween alphabet that I came up with

A-     Apples

B-      Bat

C-      Cats 

D-     Donuts

E-      Eyeball

F-      Frankenstein

G-     Ghost   

H-     Haunted House

I-        Icky

J-       Jack-o-lantern

K-      Knight

L-       Lantern

M-   Mummies

N-     Night

O-     Owl

P-      Pumpkins

Q-     Quivering Queen

R-      Raven

S-      Spider

T-      Tombstones

U-     Ugly Face

V-     Vampire

W-   Witch

X-      X-ray

Y-      Yucky Yummies

Z-      Zombie

27- Halloween wreath

28-Flying purple people eater

29- corn maze

30-MOVIE

31- Halloween breakfast

And here is the explanations

A-     Apples Stain glass apples*, apples faces, pull and peel for hair and mouth and m&ms for eyes and nose stick together with peanut butter

B-      Bats Stain glass bats* and bat cups but use children’s hands for the wings bat puppet http://www.craftjr.com/halloween-crafts-finger-puppets/ http://www.thebestkidsbooksite.com/craftdetails2.cfm?CName=1758

C-      Cats and costume Stain glass cats* Cat finger puppet http://www.craftjr.com/halloween-crafts-finger-puppets/

D-     Donuts play the donut on a string game

E-      Eyeballs edible eyeballs http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/edible-eyeball-treats-685115/

F-      Frankenstein  Frankenstein Paper plate http://www.dltk-holidays.com/halloween/mplatefrankenstein.htm

G-     Ghost Ghost Foot print trace foot and cut out two hot glue them together but leave enough space to stuff with cottonballs then seal it up and hang  and ghost suckers

H-     haunted house Build a ginger bread haunted house

I-        Icky Icky game. Blind fold children and have these things in a plastic bag and have the kids guess what “body parts ” they are touching  Hot dog chucks: nose, Peeled grapes:eyes, Cooked spaghetti: guts Pistachio shells: finger nails,  

J-       Jack-o-Lantern Jack-o-Lantern egg carton http://www.allfreecrafts.com/halloween/egg-carton-pumpkins.shtml Felt jack-o-lanters Make a pumkin and small shapes out of felt. Let the kids put the shapes on the pumkin to make a jack o lantern, Jack o lantern puppet http://www.craftjr.com/halloween-crafts-finger-puppets/

K-      Knights Make Knight customes out if paper bags from the grocery store and a shield from cardboard and helment from an empty gallon milk jug

L-       Lanterns Make black and orange paper Lanterns

M-   Mummies Glue two googly eyes on a toilet paper roll(if you don’t have white toilet paper rolls paint them white first.) wrap in white streamers fill with some yummy mummy treats. Make hotdog mummies http://familyfun.go.com/halloween/halloween-recipes/halloween-dinners/hot-dog-mummies-715031/

N-     Night paint empty milk jugs black poke some small holes all over the jug if you are going to put these outside, put some dirt in the jug. Place a tea candle or the little fake tea candle lights inside of the jug.

O-     Owl Build an owl out of shape http://www.dltk-kids.com/animals/mshapesowl.htm

P-      Pumpkins Stain glass Pumkins* and visit a pumkin patch make pumkin snacks http://familyfun.go.com/halloween/halloween-recipes/halloween-dinners/pumpkin-roll-ups-684822/

a.       Gumdrop pumkins-  get two orange sliced-shaped gummies and trim the semi straight side on both gummies to make straight sides so that you can put the two together to make a full circle. Now get a green gumdrop and trim the bottom off and press it on top of the candy pumpkin.

Q-     Quivering Queen  Quivering Queen game. Have the kids dress up as queens or kings and fill a plastic teacup with jelly beans or other small candies and they have to quiver until their cup is empty. When they quiver they cannot have their feet leave the ground because that would be jumping and also they can’t move their arm they have to quiver with their bodies

R-      Raven Hand and foot Raven. Trace one foot and both hands on black paper. Use foot for boy and hands for wings glue googly eyes on and glue a yellow triangle on for beak

S-      Spiders  Trace two hands on black paper and overlap the thumbs for the spiders head and glue on googly eyes Egg carton spiders http://www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/insects/mspidercarton.htm spider finger puppet http://www.craftjr.com/halloween-crafts-finger-puppets/

T-      Tombstone Paint empty cereal box gray to make their own tombstones

U-     Ugly faces- Make a felt face with separate facial pieces that the kids get to put together to make ugly faces

V-     Vampire Vampire suckers http://familycrafts.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ/Ya&sdn=familycrafts&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.craftster.org%2Fforum%2Findex.php%3Ftopic%3D272046.0

W-   Witch Make witches brew (homemade root beer made in a cauldron) Make witch hats http://4crazykings.blogspot.com/2009/09/halloween-kids-craft-witches-hats.html

X-      X ray x ray gingerbread men http://familyfun.go.com/halloween/halloween-recipes/halloween-desserts-cakes/gingerbread-skeletons-929720/

Y-      Yucky yummies- Make Halloween treats to share and to save for movie day.

Z-      Zombies Make zombie silhouettes.  Get a large piece of cardboard and trace your childs body in a zombie position . cut out and paint it black. We will be sticky these in our window.

27-Hand print Halloween color wreath

28-Recite the Flying purple people eater poem then play game Draw a large one eye one horn flying purple people eater on cardboard and cut a big mouth out of it. Make circle bean bags out of white fabric or felt and let the kids draw faces on the bags. Now toss them into the purple people eaters mouth.

29- Go to a corn maze

30-MOVIE DAY! Watch Kid Halloween movies all day

31- Happy HALLOWEEN have a Halloween breakfast http://hoosierhomemade.com/halloween-breakfast-food/

*Instructions to make stain glass
Supplies
       -Jolley ranchers
       -Metal cookie cutter in the shape you need cats, pumpkins, etc
       -Aluminum foil
       -Canola or safflower oil
       -wooden skewer
Pre heat oven to 350* F

Line the bottom and interior sides of the cookie cutters with aluminum foil and brush lightly with oil, set on baking sheet.

Arrange the jolley ranchers in a single layer in the cookie cutter and bake until the candy is melted about 10 min.

Remove from oven, let cool for 1 min. then poke a hole in the top with the wooden skewer. Cool then pop out the stain glass shape and peel off the aluminum foil. Thread some thin ribbon through the hole, and hang where ever you would like.

Homemade Halloween decor

So Halloween is my all time favorite holiday and last year I did not decorate so this year I want to make up for it. Now since I don't have any money to spend on holiday decor I am going to be making all the decoration from stuff lying around my house. When James went on his business trip awhile back I was at Lowes and they had these HUGE screen sliding doors for 95% off they were only .78 cents! I had no Idea what to do with them I just knew I couldn't pass them up. Now I am glad I grabbed them. I bought like 4 of them and with one of them I took out the screen and put it on my front door. I then drew a spiderweb with chalk and cut it out. Then with another one I had my two girls and a neighbor girl lay down and I traced their bodies to make some shadow people, and topped it off with some of my cornstalks I dried from my garden. With the little black scraps of screen I put them in a vase and put it on my front entry table. So far I have liked the decor and I can't wait to make some more!

Easy Chicken cordon bleu bundle

Ok so I am all about easy quick dinners because sometimes we don't get home from work til 7 and need a quick easy to make dinner. One time on one of those late days I had stop for gas and decided to get an already made food from Maverik. I was craving Maverik hot dogs and was sad to find all the buns were gone so I grabbed a chicken cordon bleu bundle and it was AMAZING! So this is my take on the chicken cordon bleu bundle.

This is makes 4
Ingredients
refrigerated Big phillbury crescent rolls
precooked chicken (I cooked it before I went to work and just left it in the fridge no need to preheat)
ham slices
Swiss cheese

pre heat oven to 350
1-put 2 of the crescent roll dough together and pinch the seam to make a rectangle
                      layer the cheese, ham, then chicken
2-fold it all up and pinch the seams,
3- then flip it over seam side down. You will have a seam on the top side from pinching the two dough
                      together but it is a lot prettier seam.
Do not grease your tray
Bake for 17-20 Min.
In the picture from left to right is step 1 then 2 then 3

 I actually liked how when I cooked them the top split open and goosed cheese!