10.27.2011

falloween party! (and pinspiration)

today is the fall festival and halloween party at the kids' preschool. the teachers asked volunteers to come in and work each class's booth in the gym where games and candy were being offered for all of the classes. since i work, i knew i couldn't be there in person, so i volunteered to send in goodies for judah's class party.

enter pinterest. i had most of these ideas already on my holiday board from previous pin-browsing sessions so it was just a matter of pulling them up and making them happen. can we talk about what a cool resource pinterest is in situations like this?!?!

check out the fall bounty i created from these pins:

cocoa krispie spider treats, nutter butter chocolate acorns, cookie witch hats and owl cupcakes.

the hands-on time for all 4 of these projects was maybe 1 hour. i did all of them except for the spiders yesterday during the kids' naps. the spiders were the most time consuming and tricky.

a few notes if you want to tackle these for your halloween party:

the owls:

1. buy real oreos. since you need the icing to come off clean on one side, it's worth the extra 50 cents. i used walmart brand and had to slide a knife between each one to make sure the cream came off in one piece. and even then i had to piece the cream back into a circle a few times. i know from experience that brand name oreos do this cleaner and dont leave cookie specks behind which make your owls seem to have chocolate cataracts

2. since the cute little faces (seriously, how cute are they?) are the focal point, you want it to not slide off. when my cupcakes came out of the over they had risen and were really rounded and domed on top. so as soon as i took them out i put a sheet pan on top of them and stuck my heavy (and dirty) pyrex on top to smush it down as they cooled.

cupcakes getting regulated on up under in there

a much better playing field to make owl faces on. (notice i didnt use the requisite black liners. i already had balloon ones and it just wasnt worth it)

the acorns:

totally cute and so simple since the nutter butters come with the adhesive already applied (the PB) and the acorn-like texture on top. the annoying part is unwrapping all the kisses. carpal tunnel, much? the little circle nutter butters (as opposed to the peanut shaped ones) come in the boxes of individually wrapped snack packs (that you might throw in a kids lunch box)


i got regular chocolate chips instead of the more expensive mini chips that they called for and it threw off the proportions a bit, but still will look like an acorn to a 2 year old, thankyouverymuch.

i used a little glob of cupcake icing on a toothpick to adhere the chips to the cookies.

really, nutter butter inc.? yall are putting out a ridiculous percentage of inside out cookies! this was annoying because i needed the peanut-patterned side to NOT have peanut butter on it since it was the acorn top. but there were still plenty in my 4 snack packs to give me my 30 or so acorns.

the spiders:

these were the most labor intensive. confession: i have never made rice krispie treats before.

i didnt even know mallow could melt like this! bonkers.

the instructions said to push the cereal down into the pan to get it compact and level for the cookie cutter. but it just kept sticking to my hands and being awful. enter my trusty pyrex again:

i sprayed the bottom of the pyrex with pam and just ran it over the top like a steam roller. nonstick, compressed perfection!

putting the pretzle stick legs on these guys was annoying and tricky since you had to push so hard to make the holes that you could snap the pretzels. also since i made mine before hand, lots of the sticks slowly sagged and then fell out of the mallow in the 2 days that they sat in their tupperware. lame...but kind of cool and creepy for halloween.

i didnt have a 2-inch circular cookie cutter so i used some circular jagged saw-drill attachment from jesse's toolkit with menacing teeth. i honestly didnt need a cutter at all since these treats are basically modelling clay and you can just use your hands to shape them just as well.

i made my spiders' pupils with dots of nutella instead of the icing pen they suggested

the witch hats:

so easy. i just used a glob of the chocolate icing that i already had for the cupcakes and the acorns and plopped it on the bottom of the kiss and then squished it down. they recommended some special colored icing but i couldnt do it just for an orange rim around the hat.

some of the icing came through the hole in the cookies, but who cares? it's halloween! let them get covered in sugar and chocolate and damn the consequences....this one day a year.

now onto the real treats...the kids. for their school parties, we kind of phoned it in. we have set the bar pretty high with the home-made, group costumes since becoming a family (see: volley fam and sushi fam for proof) and plan to continue this tradition as long as it embarrasses us more than the kids. but that isnt until halloween.

for the kids' parties i just dug through all the hand me down costumes and clearance ones i have snagged up in the last few years. the results were underwhelming and didnt leave a lot of choice.

4T alligator
2T giraffe
6-9 mo hotdog (with no leg holes)
4T GI Joe man
12-18 mo buzz lightyear

judah went with buzz despite highwaters out the wazoo and crotch-snaps that bust open every time he sits down. i was laughing so hard snapping him up because he doesnt know how to suck in his belly and that thing was pushing so hard against me as i tried to get him in there.

i laughed again when i realized that he wore the exact same thing last year to halloween at school:
note how the booties fit on his feet and the pants reach the floor. i seriously cant believe he was that small a year ago when i see him in the costume now.

i had to cut open the little booties and just stick them over the tips of his sneakers as his "boots."

we did all this last night right before bed. i felt kind of bad that i would be sending him to school in an ill-fitting cheapo repeat costume. but whatever. he is 2 and i am NOT buying nice costumes. then he gave me an opportunity to make it better: he started asking for and eventually demanding wings.

got a piece of cardboard, some paints, and 2 pieces of elastic out, and one episode of wild kratts later, i had some totally rocking buzz wings.

let's just ignore the capri-pants on the spacesuit. he looks awesome!


and then he stood like this for 45 seconds no matter what we said to him. it was funny. i think he was trying to pout but then it turned into secret laughter.

naturally with NO intentional planning, judahs best buddy logan shows up as a cowboy to go with judah's spaceman. they are hive mind.

you've got a friend in me (pay no attention to the boy peeking threateningly over judah's wing. that's arsh and judah LOVES him too, he just wasnt on theme for this pic)

and then there's layla. relegated to the only thing that would fit her (though i TOTALLY should have just cut legs in the hot dog...damn that would have been funny), the 2T giraffe.

this girl could literally not be funnier. a montage:

trying to lift a 4 lb pumpkin. jesse tries to help her as she drops it a few times.

"BACK OFF! nobody help me. i GOT this!"

"told ya"

to the victor go the spoils: a mouthful of hearty pumpkin stem.

i thought this was maybe gross since who knows how many hands picked up that pumpkin by it's handle before we bought it? and plus, ew, stem!

so i got up and went over to take it back from her.

she saw me coming:

seriously.

watching that little fugitive giraffe mane and tail with those chubby pale legs scurry away with a gourde weighing 1/6th of her body weight nearly ended me. this lady is sassy, and i LOVE it!

happy falloween, homeslices!

5 comments:

  1. Keight,
    I LOVE those Halloween treats! Seems so easy to make too!

    A little note about the spiders...
    1. Spray your hands with pam so they won't be sticky when dealing with pushing them in the pan. Butter would work too. I usually keep cheap gloves (exam gloves that docs and nurses use) and when making RCTreats I spray them and then throw them away when I am done ;)

    2. I wonder if you placed them on wax paper and went ahead and stuck in the pretzels before they cooled if it wouldn't be easier?

    TOTALLY adorable. Can't wait to try them myself

    BTW, I was at your old stomping grounds Wed night as I went to watch Sandy Creek win state semi-finals in volleyball at Woodward! I had never been to a vb game before, although I knew the rules from playing in school. It was very exciting! So fast paced! I was not prepared for the fans to switch sides between each game. That was definitely interesting!

    anyway, sorry this was so long. I love reading your blog and seeing the antics of your munchkins :) Mine are a little older so it is fun to reminisce.

    Marilyn

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  2. Nate & I were in the kitchen last night cracking up at your fugitive giraffe!!! SO funny! Go girl on the snacks-too cute. Rice crispie treats are a pain, but my bff & me made them in hs a lot for class parties & you eventually get a groove going...looks like you came up with good ideas anyway baking sheet= flat cupcakes) my favorite, the owls... Adorable!
    Ps: my phone won't let me go back & edit, hence the random symbol after cupcakes :)

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  3. You are definitely up for mom of the year with treats like that! Awesome!

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  4. Now that I know my comments aren't getting through, I'm trying to track down why...I'll email this too. The buzz wings are the best!!! They're seriously perfect! Do you remember the costumes Donna gave you for Layla? Do have it or do I?

    Crazy about the treats, esp. the owl!!! Adorable little creature! You're amazing!

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  5. These are some of my favorite pictures of Layla yet. And that's saying something! The pantsless giraffe is cracking me up!

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