day 144: halloween cheeseburgers

wishing everyone a very happy and safe halloween 

i love home-made burgers, especially with a halloween twist

after such an exciting day yesterday enjoying all that halloween has to offer i wanted to give the kids one final 'taste' of halloween today given it is hallow's eve!  i thought halloween cheeseburgers would be a perfect way to end our halloweening this year.  

i was completely inspired by these jack'o'lantern burgers created by vicki schlechter and showcased on all recipes and loved the idea of family making their own halloween hamburger ... nothing is better to the peeps than personalising their food :)

we set to work with our smoky cheese slices (i never buy these so the peeps thought it was special anyway!) and some paring knives to cut out our own cheese for the burgers. 

granny hard at work creating a masterpiece
jack'o'lantern with her cheese!

a couple of the jack'o'lanterns pre-burger!

the grilling halloween cheeseburgers

the finished product with the hidden halloween lantern
... these were so good, especially after a game of netball!

outcome:  i love home-made burgers (probably my favourite meal) but these were especially fun because everyone felt ownership of their burger and passionate about the design they created.  my sweet husband couldn't just do a cheese face though ... no he had to go the extra mile and attach onion ring glasses to his! it was definitely a fun way for us to finish off our halloween festivities for 2011 :)

 special thanks to vicki schlechter for posting such a great idea on all recipes, they really were a great way to finish off a fun month.

day 143: its halloween party time :)

party at our place ... a pinterest halloween :)

day 143 brings us our much anticipated halloween party .. we are all SO excited for today and the weather has played its part!  i could easily call this my pinterest halloween party because almost everything at the party whether it was decorations, beverages, food, or games it was inspired by the great finds on pinterest. today, for example, i made:

 chocolate covered strawberry ghosts inspired by the ones from taste of home

these were a huge hit with everybody :)

the mummy game from all free crafts

this was HILARIOUS!

the popping pumpkin was a huge success with the kids and was inspired from martha stewart's website

thank you to my sweet husband who huge this game up :)

as were the felt pumpkin canvases with the littlest peeps i made yesterday :)

finished canvas to be proud of!

i had lots of little allergens at this party so pinterest was incredibly awesome for finding gluten free, nut free, and egg free recipes, such as:

egg free chocolate cupcakes from simply recipes, egg free vanilla cupcakes from sweet rosie, and egg free double chocolate chip cookies from art of dessert

the food at the party was a HUGE hit!

outcome:  i LOVED the party and so did my family.  the food was amazing for being egg free, the games were fun, and the people were exceptional. it was wonderful bringing families together and sharing heaps of fun with our kids who thought it was better than a birthday party (and i'm no slouch with their birthdays!) which was the best compliment i could have been given today.  hopefully everybody who was their also had a great time.  below are a couple of photos that i wanted to share :)

its a shoot out at 275 :0

my little pollyanna or casper's girlfriend as we like to
call her ;)

chillin between games :)

the start of the eyeball race!

polly in the scarecrow game :)

some of the weirdest scarecrows i have EVER seen!

i'm off to sit and relax with a cuppa and my newest treat, a mug rug given to me by one of the sweetest people i know AND its a halloween one ... thank you dee i LOVE it :)

day 142: felt pumpkin party game

maybe what it will look like when it's finished!

day 129 and i am inspired to make a game for the littlest peeps coming to the party.  we have 4 little peeps under 4 coming to our halloween party and i wanted to make sure i had a range of games that everyone from the grandies to the littlies could participate in.  i also wanted a couple of age specific games that the peeps could participate in and the rest of us could stand and cheer them along.  today's creation is for the 4 littlest only.

i was inspired for this "game" from the felt pumpkins i saw on kim's blog life of a modern mom.  she is a very talented crafter and has made MANY things i have pinned to my boards, especially crafty halloween stuff!  i pinned the felt pumpkins to my holiday goodness board on pinterest knowing i would use this cool idea in some way!

i grabbed 4 12 x 12" canvases for a local store when they were half price. these canvases the little peeps will attach their pumpkin faces to and i am going to put their names on them so them can bring them out as wall art for future halloweens ... love memory keeping!  unfortunately my little country appears to be going through an orange felt crisis - their is none :(  so for the actual pumpkins i used foam and attached them to the canvases with their names as the peeps starting point for the game.  then i cut out four lots of noses, eyes, and mouths from black sticky back felt.  i plan to put these at one end of the lawn along with some green "hair" (also from sticky back felt) that the peeps will race to get and then come back to their starting point canvas to create a halloween pumpkin face.

the base plate

the attachments :)

outcome: we shall see tomorrow!

my thanks to kim from the blog life of a modern mom for the inspiring idea to have kids making their own pumpkin faces with felt ... much safer than trying to get little peeps to carve out pumpkins!

day 141: lollipop spiders

this is one cute spider :)

day 141 and we are back to food again today, lollipop spiders to be precise.  i found these on pinterest and thought they would look so cute all over the food tables walking inbetween the platters of food so pinned them to my holiday goodness board.

these little spiders were made by philippa of house of baby piranha for her kids as a treat for their learning about spiders and they are also a perfect treat (or table decoration!) for halloween.  philippa has heaps of halloween ideas that are really cute, simple, and kid friendly for halloween and you can take a glimpse of these here :)

you need lollipops, 2 googly eyes, glue (i used the hot glue gun), and 2 pipe cleaners for each spider ... it always amazes me how really useful and adaptable pipe cleaners are!  once you have every thing you simply cut the pipe cleaners in half and wrap each pipe cleaner around the lolly stick so its even on each side and then bend at some point to create a knee joint.  repeat for each of the 4 pipe cleaner halves and then hot glue the eyes onto the black pipe cleaner body you have just created ... photographic description below :)

cut two pipe cleaners in half

wrap the pipe cleaner half around the stick
of the lollipop and bend some knees :)

do the same thing with all four half pipe cleaners

they babies need some eyes!

attach eyes and you have a posse/heard/flock/school
of very cute looking spiders :) 

outcome: so cool, easy, FUN to make and because the legs are so different on each spider they all take on their own personality ... the one at the very front of the picture looks very much like he takes after clumsy the smurf!  any way these were a delight to make and i will definitely be making them again for next year's halloween :)


my sincere thanks to philippa of house of baby piranha these were really fun to make and would actually make a fun craft for the kids ... shame i was having so much fun making them i didn't ask the kids to get involved ;)

day 140: halloween games

filling of the balloons for pop goes the pumpkin game

day 140 and we are giving halloween food a rest for today!  instead i put together a treasure hunt and a pumpkin balloon game for the party on sunday.  both of today's games are pinned to my holiday goodness board on pinterest.

the treasure hunt is an idea i got from the website party game ideas.  this website has games for EVERY occasion and its a site i have never visited before i found them on pinterest.  they have the most fantastic ideas and what i love most about this website is that all their ideas are age appropriate and categorised.  if you need games for a party look no further than party game ideas.

for my halloween treasure hunt i have given each child a list of things they need to find and each child's list is a little different according to their age.  if i had been having children that were all the same age to the party i would have done away with the list and just given everybody a certain number of things to find.  as the age range of sunday's party is from 2 to 10 i wanted to make sure the littlest peeps didn't miss out on anything. i figured if everybody had their own list then i could hide the littlest peeps stuff more openly than the older kids which i can hide far more discretely!

the goodies and treasure hunt cards

each child will be given their own treasure to find

the other game i found on pinterest for halloween (which i have had pinned for ages and was desperate to make) was the pop goes the pumpkin game from martha stewart.  you put prizes in each of the orange balloons then blow them up and attach to a wall in the shape of a pumpkin.  the kids then pop the balloons to win the different prizes .. how cool is that, it's like a balloon piñata! as we have an open home before the party i couldn't blow the balloons up and attach them to the wall today but i did insert prizes into all the balloons ready to go for sunday.

filling of 42 orange balloons!

outcome:  totally pending for now, results with be pictured and blogged about on sunday evening!  i am very hopeful though, that both these games will go well as they look like so much fun!

thanks to party game ideas for providing the ultimate in party games websites where there are so many games its hard to choose!  and also thanks to martha stewart's team for providing another awesome idea for halloween fun :)

day 139: halloween kebabs

halloween kebabs

day 139 and we are serving up yet more food today and while yesterdays was in the healthy food basket today's definitely isn't.  halloween sweet kebabs are inspired by the ones found on the flickr site of your home based mom. hers looked so festive i couldn't help myself for not trying these out and immediately pinned them to my holiday goodness board when i saw them on pinterest!

all you need is a huge amount of halloween looking sweets and some kebab sticks ... then start skewering them on with gusto :)

the requirements

a finished kebab

jars of kebabs

severed finger anyone?

outcome:  how yum do these look!  i think the peeps at the party will make a beeline for these beauties.  they look really festive and as a bonus will look awesome on the table with their added height!  nothing makes me happier than aesthetically pleasing looking food for a party.

my thanks to the photos your home based mom loaded onto her flickr site, they were very inspiration and something i am definitely pleased to have made :)

day 138: halloween mandarins!

the healthy party option!~

day 138 and it's time to make something healthy for the halloween party.  over the last several days i have been having the best time planning the menu for our halloween afternoon tea at the party.  i wanted to make sure there were plenty of sweet and savoury options, hot and cold dishes, lollies, and of course a couple of healthy options as well!  they may stay untouched by the kids but i figured if they were dressed up in halloween disguise they may get more traction with the little peeps ;)

my kids adore fruit so when i saw these fun looking halloween pumpkin mandarins i knew i wanted them to be one of the healthy options at the party.  the idea comes from the princess and the frog blog and are pinned to my holiday goodness board on pinterest.  this is a gorgeous blog and you should see the amazing halloween costumes her kids wear each year thanks to their grandma!

all you need is some sweet mandarins, a sharpie, and a steady hand.  then you can set to work making your own little halloween pumpkin mandarins :)

the undecorated mandarins

happiness is fruit with a personality!

some are happy, some are scary, some are just odd!

outcome: hopefully they will go down a treat with the party goers!  if the bowl is empty at the end of the party i know they will have been a success.  so until that time i guess the outcome is pending unless you count the very cute one i had while making them, he was delicious even if i did have to pull his face apart to get to the very sweet mandarin!

my thanks to the princess and the frog blog for this really cute idea that should get the kids far more interested in the healthy options for afternoon tea that will be available at the party!

day 137: witches broomsticks

witches broomsticks ... apologies for the poor camera work ... it was late in the day!

day 137 and its witches broomsticks today.  i am absolutely loving all the things that you can eat and make halloween icons out of so easily!  today's is no different.  today's inspiration comes from the make and takes website and is pinned to my holiday goodness board.  again its easy and only requires two ingredients!

you need the mini pretzel sticks and mini reeces peanut butter cups.  you simply use something sharp to create a hole in the bottom of the peanut butter cup then insert the pretzel into it.  and that is it, you are done!

the bits and bobs required

use something sharp to make a hole in the bottom of the
peanut butter cup

insert the broom handle ;)

broomsticks ready to fly!

outcome: they may be easy but don't they look so neat and perfect for halloween!  another short and sweet entry for pinterest 365 today, just like todays creation ;)

my thanks to the make and takes website for this awesome halloween idea. i imagine these would be perfect for giving out during trick or treating as well as providing sustenance for a halloween party that is getting really close! 

day 136: oreo spiders for halloween

my festive looking spiders!

day 136 and it's time to make some more food for the party ... if they last with such a full, hungry household!  these spiders were inspired by the ones made on halloween experts.  these guys really are the experts when it comes to making lots of COOL stuff for halloween!

the nice thing with these is its another assemble rather than a make, which is a good thing as we spend most of the day getting ready for the rugby!

the troops

nothing like cousins who love being together :)

my happy sis mo ... yes we all went goth
for a good cause, even the nails went black!

my adorable mum

they are!

ok back to pinteresting things!  today's creation requires oreos, black liquorice, m&m's, and some frosting.  then find a quiet place from the masses for 20 minutes and assemble :)

the requirements for assemblage!

start with the oreo and add legs ...

they add some yummy eyes ...

the quiet place was so full of people, they were even
snapping the pictures for me ;)

outcome: so neat! i am really happy with these.  such a great idea and the kids hanging around today loved them ... ok that's it i'm off to watch the game! short but sweet and successful :)


big shout out to halloween experts for this brilliant idea, love how easy they were to put together and they got plenty of ooh's and aahh's from the bystanders!  yes, it proved too hard to find a quiet spot today but that's not really what today was about ....

BRING IT ON ... KIA KAHA ALL BLACKS

ALLEZ LE NOIR (i think that's right!)