Healthy Halloween School Snacks - Juice Box Ghost

In recent years, school policies regarding the kind of treats that parents send in for parties have required they either be healthy snacks or not food at all. I am fully on board with this, because the first couple of years of having a kid in school were spent incredulous at the sheer volume of treat bags my kid brought home.

Since Halloween is basically synonymous with candy, it felt important to do something good enough to distract the kids from the fact they're not getting any candy at their class's Halloween party.

I spent a lot of time at my place of worship on Pinterest, rolling my eyes at the complex, time consuming, super cute and crafty ideas from moms who either have far more time on their hands or, like me, sometimes forget to take their meds.

But I still wanted to do something for my son's preschool class, and the Mommy Who's Psycho Notably Enthusiastic About Halloween needs to deliver.

So I looked poked around the pantry and came up with this half-assed adorable idea for juice box ghosts that you can throw together in minutes. Enjoy!

Supplies
Juice Boxes
Coffee Filters
Sharpie
Glue Gun
Small Child (optional)
Coffee (optional... Who are we kidding. This should be the first item on every project supply list.)

He was super helpful. Super. Helpful.

Assembly

Step 1 - Draw The Ghost Faces
Ask the small child to help because he wants to help and drawing ghost faces on coffee filters seems pretty harmless. Immediately realize putting a Sharpie in the hands of said small child was a mistake.

Bonus Round: Realize after you've already done half of them that the Sharpie is seeping through the coffee filters and your countertop now features a series of little ghost faces.


Step 2 - Glue The Ghosts On
Plug in the glue gun to heat up. Sip coffee. Leap into action every time the small child tries to touch the hot glue gun.

Put a dollop of glue on two edges of the sides of the each box.

Bucket List Item: do a glue gun project and not burn my fingers

Important: Don't use too much glue, or the poor teacher will be cursing your name while 17 small humans ask her for help getting the coffee filters off so they can then ask for help putting the straws in.

More or less center the ghost face on the front of the box and lightly press the coffee filter into the glue. Burn your fingers and drop the juice box. Repeat as necessary.


I knocked out enough of these for a preschool classroom in about 10 minutes, managed to drop it off at school just in time for the class's Halloween celebration, and the teacher gushed like it was the coolest thing she'd ever seen.

Next time you're scrambling for a tribute to maintain your spot in the Cool Mommy Brigade, give this a shot.

Do you have any ideas for your own super simple Halloween themed healthy classroom snacks? I'm all ears!

Cutest ever army of the undead

Socials
I pinned this post to my Halloween Party Foods board.
I tweeted this post because I can't help myself. The Twitter, it's shiny.

Halloween Burlap Bubble Wreath

As I mentioned already, I ended up hosting a wreath making party.

You can see the obsessively planned and agonized over burlap and ribbon wrapped Halloween themed wreath I made that day in this other post.

What I hadn't planned on, though in hindsight I should have expected, was that just like after any party where guests bring things... people left their leftovers.

Since wreath making supplies can get expensive they didn't leave the big stuff. But, I was left with a good bit of mismatched floral flotsam.

Cut to the week or so before said estrogen drenched gathering... I was helping my good friend and neighbor (and instigator of said wreath gathering) do her yard for Halloween. There was a little styrofoam skull and hands that had fallen off something else; she said I could take it or throw it away. I knew it was perfect for... some project I hadn't yet conceived.

Needless to say, I had my peanut butter meets chocolate moment and... voila! Between a square frame I'd found on clearance but didn't know what to do with, a random sampling of wreath party leavings, a little freaky fabric I pulled from my stash, and the rescued body parts, I ended up with one of my most favorite wreaths I've made.

Moral of the story... hoard other people's trash and you can make pretty things! Wait, no.... that can't be right. Anyway. Poing being: WREATH! Skulls! Halloween! HAPPEE!


Socials
I pinned this post to my Halloween wreath board and my crafts board.

Halloween Themed Burlap & Ribbon Wrapped Wreath

So I ended up hosting a wreath making party. (I know, you're totally shocked!).

I bought the printed ribbon you see above quite some time before. I fell instantly in love with it and I'm pretty sure the world would have ended if I didn't take it home.

I agonized over this project because I wanted to make sure I was absolutely certain how to deploy my special ribbon. I knew it wouldn't survive my incompetent fumbling and having to be redone several times like my much sturdier first wreath project with burlap and felt rosettes.

I got so busy hostessing at the wreath party, plus ended up sharing my glue gun with basically everyone, that I didn't manage to finish it until after everyone left. Which was probably for the best, because my frustration levels with the natural tendency of wrapped wreaths to come out unevenly is not really suitable for public consumption.

But finish it I did, and I am so so so happy with how it turned out! 

It's deceptively simple. This project is really about patience. I should probably get some of that before I attempt another wreath like this. But, totally worth it. Because it's. so. pretty!! Morticia Adams would be proud.

Oh, and I totally made another Halloween wreath with the party leftovers. Because of course I did.


Socials
I pinned this post to my Halloween wreath board and my crafts board.

Kid Friendly Upcycled Paper Bag Easter Basket Craft

When the stores fill with plastic eggs, chocolate bunnies and overpriced baskets emblazoned with the latest Disney characters, I cringe and imagine what a pastel nightmare next month's landfill layer is going to look like. I just can't bring myself to buy single use items like that.

I'm always looking for hands-on crafty stuff to do with the kids, and I compulsively hoard sturdy paper shopping bags with handles. It occurred to me therein lies the two birds / one stone solution to the Easter basket problem. I'm sharing it with y'all, because I can't be the only one who would happily slip a forgotten Easter basket into the recycling bin after hiding in the garage to eat the last of the Jelly Bellies.

Kid Friendly Upcycled Paper Bag Easter Basket Craft

1) Rummage around in the back of your pantry for some paper bags. Hopefully ones that don't smell like old Chinese takeout.

2) Prep the kids to paint. Take autism break to allow plenty of time for crucial paint bottle arranging.

3) Have the kids cut top of the bags off at the crease. Save upper sections for the handle step.

4) Nope, still not quite right...

5) Distract boychild from lack of access to paint with a cookie while explaining that his brother is autistic just like he is, and we will wait for little brother to arrange the paint bottles because it makes him happy, just like we wait for big brother arrange the kitchen stools because it makes him happy.

6) Finally start painting... *sigh* That's ok little Dude, the Easter Bunny doesn't really care if your basket is painted. You do you.

7) Try not to cry as you think about how far your sweet little guy has come and how much hard work and occupational therapy and social coaching it took for him to get to a point where he spontaneously painted a picture of his family next to a house.

8) Let the painted bags dry, preferable overnight. Try not to forget that you sat them on top of the fridge and drop another pile of stuff you needed out of the way on the wet paint.

9) Cut the handle sections so the width is just slightly smaller than the interior width of the painted bag.

10) Cut the height of the handle section so it's just shorter than the depth of the painted bag.

11) Glue time! AKA stealth squeezy sensory break time!

12) Glue the crap out of 'em so they'll hopefully hold the weight of the Easter stuff. I set the glue covered pieces in place for the kids because I'd rather not be scraping dried glue off my counter through Memorial Day. Then I have them press it all over to get good contact. I recommend letting it dry on its side overnight so they don't slide around.

13) Voila! Adorable, guilt free, customized Easter baskets! If you're feeling ambitious and looking for another sensory activity, instead of buying Easter grass you can have the kids make their own.  I always have scraps of construction paper in the craft bin and the little one loves to play with scissors. (Fine motor skills!)  You could also have them crumple or tear up tissue paper.

Any Size
The great thing is that this craft can be done with any size paper bag that suits your family's Easter traditions. A standard brown paper lunch bag is the perfect size for a reasonable amount of candy. For bags without built in handles, simply hole punch and use ribbon or yarn to create the handle. They'll still achieve a basket look, though probably won't be sturdy enough to carry it once filled.

I use fairly big bags because our Easter bunny doesn't bring much candy. He doesn't need to - we've still got at least a bag or two still left over from Halloween. What he does bring is a moderate size toy, maybe a DVD, with some token "bunny beans" (adorably dubbed so by Dude last Easter, and not an error we're keen to correct) and a Reese's egg (because I'm only human).

The things is, spring is when work starts going nuts for me after the typically quiet winter. So I go from a near total focus on the kids to spending tons of time in the office. Easter has become an opportunity to assuage some of the Working Mommy Guilt associated with my seasonal disappearance, so until I'm able to level up in my career I'll probably continue using the big bags.

I wasn't kidding about the Working Mommy guilt. Wonderful Husband has requested that I ask the Easter Bunny to take his enthusiasm down a notch next year...

***

2015 Paper Bag Easter Baskets

We really enjoy this project, and made them again!

 

***

2016 Paper Bag Easter Baskets

And again!  This year was extra fun, Dude really got into it. He had a whole story about how the Easter eggs he painted were secretly bombs. 

I also enjoyed seeing the evolution of Bear's bunny. It's great to compare things like this year to year when your kids are developmentally delayed, it helps me visualize the progress all the hard work and therapy has helped them make.

Socials
This paper bag Easter Basket craft is pinned to my crafting board.

Halloween Burlap Wreath

I have a minor wreath obsession. I finally decided I need to do more than just collect pictures of them and indulged in making one myself. 

This isn't a tutorial. There are lots of those. This is more of a Hey, lookie what I did! And I only had to buy totally different sets of supplies twice and change my plans for it three four five a dozen times and tear it apart to start over once! Wheeeee!

And yes, I totally pinned it to my Halloween Wreath board!

Pastafarian Pirate Fish Craft Pumpkin

I had this foam pumpkin on the shelf for years.  I was paralyzed by the momentousness of the decision of what to carve on it.  Because a craft pumpkin is forever, y'all.

And then, at last... one fine autumn eve... I was touched by his noodly appendage and granted inspiration.

Presenting... the Pastafarian Pirate Fish jack o' lantern.

R'amen.

Despicable Me Halloween Candy Bags

When we decided to do a Despicable Me family costume this year, I assumed it would be easy to find coordinated candy bags since the licensed Gru and minion costumes are all over the place.  (Not so with Lucy, you have to piece that together yourself.)

No luck with the candy bags, so I decided since I was making minion costumes for the boys I might as well made candy bags, too.

We already limit the number of houses to 10 or so, a number Bear can manage without getting (too insanely) overstimulated.  Plus, the boys are only 5 and 1 and just don't need that much candy.  Since most candy bags are big enough to hold all the candy I buy to secretly eat all October for over 100 trick or treaters, I figured it was just as well to downsize.

Project Supplies
Tote bag(s)
Black felt
White felt
Craft glue

Basic copy & paste and Word skills, plus access to a printer are also important.

Difficulty Level
Parental Scale: one cocktail, optional
Parent-Child Togetherness Scale:  your kid is old enough to use scissors but young enough to not yet be sniffing glue

I found these 8" x 8" tote bags at the dollar store.  I'd have preferred black, but the color selection was limited and at 2 for $1 I wasn't going to be picky.  I went with radioactive minion yellow.

I found this Gru logo and pasted it into Word for sizing, then printed it on paper to use as a template. 

This is the logo printed onto plain paper and laid out on a standard piece of white felt (you can find sheets of felt in the craft aisle at Walmart for about 33 cents each).  The craft bags are 8 inches square, so I did roughly a 6" logo.  You can adjust the size using the ruler in Word.

Cut a black circle for the background and a white circle for the G.

Carefully cut the G out of the template and trace it onto the white felt circle.

Notes:
 1) Technically you can skip cutting the white circle, I just found it easier to do that way.

2) Trial and error taught me you'll get a cleaner look if you trace the G backwards (not shown here).  That way there are no stray pen marks on the finished side after you cut it out.

If you're using something like Elmer's glue or a glue gun, have at it. 

If you're addicted to the convenience of spray adhesive like I am, retire to a well ventilated area and place felt pieces on a disposable surface. I go out in the garage or on the back patio and use old newspaper or a chunk of cardboard from the recycle bin. 

Make sure you are applying the glue to the back side of the felt G, then carefully place it on the corresponding black circle. Seriously, if you are anything like me, double check the whole forwards/backwards thing.  Spatial relationship skillz! I do not have them.

Decide it's silly to wait for the glue dry on the logo before adhering it to the bag.

Spend several minutes trying to turn the still fragile logo over while the spray glue residue on your hands makes it stick to your fingers and fall apart.

Debate letting the logo dry and then sewing it to the bag so your kids can't peel it off like a giant sticker.  Ignore the voice of reason, forge ahead with glue plan.

Carefully measure Estimate the spacing Slap that sucker on the bag and think about making a cocktail as a reward for being such an awesome freaking mom that you just fabricated custom made Halloween candy bags.  Realize you're high from the glue because you forgot to open the garage door and head off in search of the adhesive remover, because you can't take your contacts out with felt glued to your fingers.

Pro tip: These cute little bags may be the perfect size for limiting your child's Halloween intake, but the flip side is they don't provide enough overflow that you can allocate a stash of your own.  The solution to this problem is buying extra for the trick or treaters and "forgetting" to get that bag out of the Top Secret Candy Hiding Place on Halloween night.


This is my Despicable Me Halloween costume Pinterest board. 
This is my pin of this Despicable Me Halloween candy bags post.

Laminated Painting Bookmark Craft

Last year for Mother's Day my son brought home from preschool the most perfect gift a writer and mom could ever receive: a bookmark made from a picture of him.  I loved it so much I've been actively looking for a way to do something similar ever since.

It was the first thing I thought of this spring when I was looking for an art project for the boys that was more springy, and less, well, Eastery.

I still had bookmarks in mind and I remembered pinning this celery paint stamp concept I'd seen in an issue of Martha Stewart and... voila!  Combination inspiration.

Just about any painting, drawing or photograph that can be recognizably represented within a 4" x 2" rectangle will work for this project.

MATERIALS
Paint supplies
Sturdy paper
Cut end from a bunch of celery
Ruler
Paper cutter (optional)
Laminator
Laminating pouches
Hole punch (optional)
Ribbon (optional)
Round corner punch (optional)

Time required: allow 24 hours so the painting can dry overnight


I got the counter all set up for Bear to do the painting phase of the project.  Which is to say, our resident artist Dude saw me get the painting stuff out and had to get in on the action.

Put this color here, Mommy!

 
We let him have at it until his interest waned.  Then I make the mistake of pulling out the celery for Bear, which Dude promptly stole. And tried to eat.
 

Bear was not amused that Dude was eating his art project

Daddy whisked the Dude away for his second favorite activity - playing in the bathtub - so Bear could get down to business.

Celery paint stamp test

We used neutral construction paper.  If we do this project again, I'll get some white card stock.

Bear is very linear and literal.  It took a lot of coaxing to get him to break away from from straight lines and let some of the flowers be partial along the edges.

Tip: We learned that you get a much cleaner, more recognizable flower impression if you coat the celery with a paint brush rather than dipping.

My favorite part was the lovely mixed color flowers that started to develop, but as you can see from the late afternoon light I didn't have time to explore that.  We set the finished painting aside to dry overnight.

We were able to cut 12 equal bookmarks from the finished painting (this is where the ruler comes in).  You don't have to have a paper cutter for this project, but it certainly makes this step fast and easy.

Because the whole point of this project was to make gifts for friends and family, Bear signed each one.  (He's still learning to write numbers, so I added the year myself.)

Tip: Depending on your kiddo and the number of bookmarks, you may need to break the signing step into multiple sessions.  Last year Bear would have needed at least three sessions, this year he really impressed me by getting through it in one.

I used a standard 4 3/8 x 6 1/2 laminating pouch for each bookmark.  You could also fit several into a standard letter size pouch, but I'm a klutz and didn't want to mess with trying to keep multiple items straight at once.

The kids can help with this step, but laminators get hot so it's obviously a "with adult supervision" situation. 

Sidebar: Look! I finally got a laminator!  And I loooooves it!  I got it to do some things for work. And for making therapeutic items like visual schedules and PECS cards and all that spectrum jazz.  But I love having it around because it opens up a whole new world of crafting and organizing projects.

 

I broke out the paper cutter again to trim the excess plastic, but as before, it's not a requirement.  I did a couple of one-off bookmarks recently and it was no big deal trim with scissors.

Tips:
- Trimming with scissors can leave sharp edges that will scratch, use extra care if cutting this way
- If the bookmark is crooked in the pouch, be sure to trim along the angle of the bookmark
- Refer to laminator's instructions for how close you can trim to the item without breaking the seal
- If you want to hole punch for the ribbon through the plastic and not the painting, be sure to leave at least a half inch of extra space along one edge
- Unless your kids are too old for this type of project, they probably should not be helping with the paper cutter.

A hole punch, corner round punch and color coordinated ribbon (I used necklace string from the jewelry making section of my local craft store) are optional.  The corner rounder makes finishing the edges much faster and easier.  The hole punch and ribbon are a nice touch, but purely personal preference.

We tried it both ways and unanimously decided we preferred the hole punch through the plastic and not the painting.  That's why (and I realize it's hard to see in this photo) one edge of the bookmark has wider plastic than the others.  

The corners of the bookmark are genuinely sharp and scratchy, so I think rounding them is a necessity.  I tried rounding some manually with scissors - it was slow and the results were inconsistent.  For myself I don't care as much (who am I kidding? It drove me crazy), but these were for gifts and I wanted to do better.

That said, the laminate is quite thick and sturdy, and the corner punch I bought was clearly intended for paper.  It was quite a challenge to get it to work on the laminated bookmarks.  We also learned that the smaller radius setting was too small and cracked the laminate; the larger radius setting worked (with significant effort).

The last step in the project was for Bear to carefully review the finished products and tell me which one he wanted to give to each friend and relative.  I was surprised and touched at how much it mattered to him.  After the obligatory familial gifts were dispensed, we gave them to people who have supported us through some rough times with Bear.  It made me so happy to see he realized their importance in his life, and I made sure each one he chose made it to the right person.

I'm on Pinterest! No, seriously. I am.

I'm a total loser and haven't worked out how to embed Pin It button in posts yet.  If you're so inclined, here's a link to my original pin of this project for easy re-pinning.

Sensational Snowman - Part 2

This is the second half the Sensational Snowman indoor winter activity.

After the glue holding the 3 paper balls together dries, it's time to stand back and let the kids get creative.

Since I'm a craft store junkie, I've got a box full of stuff like felt scraps and puff balls and pipe cleaners.  I actually have a big bin labeled "rainy day" where I toss anything with project potential, but I know not everyone is that nuts.

If you don't happen to have a bunch of decorative items in a craft bin, let the kids design their snowman decorations on paper.  They can cut (or tear) their snowman embellishments out of construction paper, or color them on white paper before cutting them out.

The big bag of puff balls was one of the first things I got when he first started speech and OT through Early Intervention (because it was cheap and easy).

Obviously, we played with the bag o' puffy balls until he got it out of his system and he was ready to focus on decorating the snowman with them.

 Making a scarf for the snowman was another opportunity to practicing cutting on a line, and the felt offers extra resistance.

Making a ski cap type hat is just cutting a semi-circle, so it's a great one for a younger kiddo.  We also did a top hat, but that one required a lot more help.  (Bear was able to trace the circles but I had to cut them out.)

Gluing the goodies on is another chance for him to get squeezy input.

We also discovered it's another great chance for a tactile experience when the glue inevitably gets all over his hands.  The liquid glue didn't bother him much, but he was very curious and mildly uncomfortable with the way dried glue felt on his hands.

That's all there is to it!  I let him glue stuff to the snowman until he got bored and wandered away.

Bear loves that his snowmen are on display in the family room