Pastry Scrap Cookies

I remember my mother making pies in large batches when I was little. All kinds of fruit pies and it seemed like all day.  I can't remember what my mom used to call the scraps of pie dough she let us have to sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar and bake, but they were such a treat.  For something different than sugar cookies. 

For a couple of dollars each kid gets a ready made round of dough :) Cheating short cut I know.

Halloween recap - FBI Special Agent

Halloween recap - Robin Hood

Hickory Dickory...Halloween decor is starting

So my children have been so excited to get out the Halloween decorations, we realized we were a little "preschool" and less "cool".  We are adding a couple things...after a lot of cutting here is our first addition...

Kind of creepy, kind of cute...but mostly creepy. Thank you Martha for the idea. Thank you Mom for the idea to cut the mice from felt instead of paper, they are sturdier and reusable.  I hot-glued some paper on the back so we could stick the felt to the stairs with painters tape).  Surprisingly enough I've had several people (kids) touch them, "Wow, they even feel like mice!!"

Too much candy? Try some science..

Last year we had so much fun doing experiments with some of our Halloween candy, here's a recap. Honestly it's worth buying candy just for the experiments, if you don't have any left.

Floating Letters 

Colours and Dye

SweetTarts

LoraLee is the master of candy science, for more check out her blog.

2010 Halloween Highlights

We had a great Halloweekend and way to much candy. I hope yours was also excellent.

Finally some Halloween highlights. Meet the Ninja and the Sea Monster.  Does the above picture look familiar? - Connor seems to choose costumes where he can be a black blur in the pictures, although I managed to catch him standing still a couple of times.

Happy Halloween

Mummy I'm hungry

Are you looking for lunch in all the wrong places? If so you probably already made this.  The hot dog mummy = processed meats wrapped in processed "dough".  Not healthy but easy and super fun to celebrate with..
 

Jack-o-Lantern of All Trades

You guessed it, tonight was the night we gutted and carved us up some Jack-o-lanterns.  I love that the boys are old enough to clean out their own pumpkin slime. I don't mind doing it (I still sort the seeds for roasting) but I love the facial expressions that go with the activity.

 

 

 

The boys designed the faces and I got to carve them up.  I'm not sure why this is fun, but I really love it.  I kinda wished I had gotten my own pumpkin too!

 

And no, I'm not dressed in costume as a fuddy-duddy librarian wait, yeah that's it Halloween costume... 



Oh and tonight we read  a fun book: 

Too Many Pumpkins by Linda White

Some Ghosts of Costumes Past.

I'm madly behind this Halloween, but I've been sewing like crazy, among other random, unrelated things, hopefully I'll have something post-worthy by week's end.  In the meantime here is a glimpse into the costumes of Halloweens past...

 

Year 1: Cutest, chubbiest cowboys.

Some felt for chaps (pinned on with safety pins and decorated with silver brads and puffy paint)

A wooden oval (written on with puffy paint then spray-painted the entire thing silver)

I think I love the "boots" most - I decorated socks with puffy paint.

Year 2: Pirates

Two sashes of shiny material for a comfy hat and belt (no sewing, just knots) The boys picked the colours, I picked the socks. Black sweat pants and a white button-up shirt, untucked. A little mascara goes a long way for a beard and we practised our pirate growl "ARRGGH1".  Pirates were chosen because we loved (still do) the book, "How I Became a Pirate" and the boys loved to dress-up in my bandannas.

Year 3: Super E and Super C

A simple applique sewn on that included their special power. C's was hot lava (aka fire and if the C looks familiar to all you hockey fans, yes definitely inspired by the Calgary Flames). E's was lightning and the power to control the weather.   Oh yes and even superheros need jackets sometimes.

Year 4: Knights in Shining Armour

A store-bought knight with gray sweats and a sash to hold the sword - recognize the sash from Year 2?

 Year 5: A Burglar and an Alien

Last Halloween: The Bat and the Spider.  

E's arms are stuffed tights (with black garbage bags so you couldn't see white through the stockings). I took apart the sides of the shirt to sew in the tights. The tights are connected with thread, so when he moved his arms all his arms move. A toque with googly eyes glued on capped off the costume.  The bat details are here.

How are your costumes going? handmade? I've got a ninja and a sea monster in progress...wish me luck...

An old Halloween craft, but a good one...

Think back to your first Halloween craft. It just might have gone something like this...

A String of Eye Balls - Something every soccer mom zombie needs...

When I "eyed" these eyeballs I had to have some.

Instead of felt I used puff paint, let it dry then coloured the pupil with permanent felt pen.

No one messes with a mom zombie with a beautiful necklace of eyeballs. (2010 costume)