Halloween Party Food

Halloween Food Ideas for a Fun Kids Party.

Once again we had an awesome party, lots of fun, lots of goodies and the kids enjoyed them self. But my party planning, hosting, entertaining, cooking, photographing, decorating, and Dress up roles were an overload. Unfortunately, as usual the photographer role missed the action. I did get many random snap shots of the kids playing but not many of anything blog worthy.

 



Labels;
Labelling things is a easy way to colour coordinate and make things suit your theme. You can come up with funny or creepy names, or simply put guests names on things.
I labelled some water bottles as Swamp Water, Blood, Toxic and so on to suit our theme, I put a very small dash of colour in each.

Frankenstein Muffins;
These little Frankenstein heads were take home treats. They are vanilla flavoured muffins with some green in the cake mix and green icing. The Black hair is crushed Oreo biscuit and they have chocolate eyes and smarty noses with an icing mouth. Cute and Yummy!

Googly Eye Jars:
I glued a pair of googly eyes to the glass bowls to make them into Bowl monsters.

The Treat Jars:
We had 6 different jars, like a lollies buffet, each with their own themed label.
Bat Poo - Licorice and mixed chocolate coated snacks
Creepy Crawlies - Sour worms and grub lollies
Bits of bones - A BBQ cracker mix
Witch fingers - Chocolate fingers with an Almond flake nail (melted on with chocolate)
Ghost Teeth - Popcorn
Candy Corn - candy corn of course
Treats - small chocolates.

Zombie Snot Dip:
This was just a dip platter, the dip was a gherkin dip with some green food colour and a label of course. Celery, carrot, cheese, crackers, cabonosi and gherkins to dip with.

Jack o lantern Faces:
Slices of Orange with black faces draw on the skin. Simple and Healthy.

Ghosts:
Strawberries dipped in White chocolate with little chocolate iced ghost faces.

Eyes in Slime:
These were cups with Green jelly, once almost set you insert a spooky eye ball lolly treat in the top.
(look above in left corner)

Pumpkin Heads:
These were also Just jelly cups. Orange Jelly with a Pumpkin face drawn in black on the outside of the cup.  Dimples is enjoying this one below (with his fingers i might add)

Monster Toes:
I wish i got a picture of these. They were little Frankfurt's, with a toe nail shape cut out, then they were cooked, and wrapped in stripes of pastry so that the toe is hanging out. They look like a bandaged up monster toe and I labelled the Tomato Sauce bowl as blood.
You can find the inspiration for these on my Pinterest Halloween Board as well as many other ideas.

Jack o Lantern Bites:
(top photo on left)
These were small mini Quiches made with egg, milk, cheese, spinach, zucchini and bacon. (I did add some Orange food dye so that it looked orange in colour)
On top I put a roof of pastry in the shape of a pumpkin and also stuck pumpkin tooth picks in them.

Happy Halloween

Halloween Party Decorations

Halloween Spooktacular Party Decorations

For our Halloween Party I put together some DIY decorations. On the table above, Dimples and I made the spiderweb place mats with glue (you add whatever colour paint to your glue bottle) on non-stick baking paper. We Did the web on the paper, he sprinkled a generous amount of glitter and we let it dry. Once it was dry we peeled it off as a cool table decoration.

This broom Stick is handmade from a Bamboo stake and some rough looking twigs strapped on at the bottom with some cane twine. The Table centre piece on this table was a fog water machine. We added red food dye and some eye balls to make it look like an eery cauldron.

 

These table decorations were made a couple weeks back. Check out Our salt Dough Decorations Post

 

Decorate your House, or a Cubby with a Wicked Witch that has been flattened, check out the post here .

 

 

Add a Gelatin Zombie Brain for play, or for decoration Check out our Tactile Sensory Tubs Here.

 

Add some eyes here and there, some plastic bats and rats. Drape old materials scarfs over tables and colour coordinate balloons in black and orange. We used Laundry buckets in Orange with drawn on Jack o Lantern faces to put the drinks and ice in, they also double as a great Goal to shoot balloons into.



Make some Bats to sit around on Windows and decorate with, they can also be used for bowling.
Here are the directions for our Bat Bowling Activity

Home made Ghosts in the yard.  These DIY decorations are simply a post in the ground, a Helmet on top and a small cross post for the arms.  Draw a ghost face on an old white sheet and there you have it.

This DIY Decoration also doubled as a play Doll house, the back is open and the children can play with figurines in the back. It is bright and colourful and really suits the theme as well haunted-halloween-cardboard-house Post

If your looking for more Halloween Ideas Check out last years Party Halloween Ideas for the little ones
Check out our  Spider Cave that was a cool Decoration & fun game

Don't forget to check out our Halloween Linky Party for More Awesome Ideas that have been Shared.

Outdoor Play - The Spider Cave Maze

Creepy Crawly Spider Cave Fun

  Try not to get caught in the web!

Spiders hanging from all around.

This Outdoor activity was a great physical fun way to get active, get moving, have some imaginary pretend play and build on those all important gross motor skills. Dimples mastered the way he moved his body to trick the hanging spiders, creep, crawl, duck down low and climb around the web without getting caught. He had to stretch his legs and balance as he climbed through and move in all different directions as the spiders danced around above his head trying to get him.

 

Over the past fortnight, as Dimples has been enjoying some Spring time outdoor play, I have been carefully spinning an intrinsic Web. I initially started with 2 posts, a large hoop and some wool. I strung the hoop in the centre and weaved the web around it, locking it on and securing it with wool up to the 2 posts that i had firmly whacked deep into the ground.

Then I randomly added some connecting bits of wool so it resembled a web.

I hung a very large, prickly spider down through the hoop and Dimples made a fun game of jumping through the hoop without getting touched by the Spider.

This went on for many afternoons and he enjoyed it so much that I decided to belt another post into the ground so that there were 2 connected walls (in the shape of a right angle). 

With the second one, I used a small hoop that he can through balls through and i left a open space on the bottom so that he can crawl under.

Dimples chilling out under a spiders web

 Dimples spent lots of time playing in his web, trying to jump through the hoop and crawl under the web without getting caught by the spiders. It was a great imaginary game he had going on.

I would rest the large spider up in the web, and just as he went through I would tap the post so that the spider swung down, launching itself towards Dimples. He thought it was hilarious and wanted more. The way the spider quickly swung down after him must have been so realistic from his view and he would excitedly squeal that he had tricked it, and that he was too quick for it, and "You missed me! ha ha!"

It didn't end there!

 

A large Hoop is on one side of the structure, with a very large hairy spider covering it.

I added one more side so that there were now 3 web walls and one open side. With this web, i just used wool, making sure a majority of the web was down the bottom and some was up the top, i then strung the connecting centre pieces of web (wool)  so that there was a large gap pulled open. Large enough that Dimples could climb through.

With the left over wool I strung it up over the top, zig zaging and connecting all areas like a web roof. Some pieces were up higher to a near by Shade Umbrella.

I dangled 30-60 cm pieces of wool randomly through out the roof of the web and near the openings and hung plastic and rubber spiders and scorpions.

 

Jumping through the hoop without getting touched by a spider can be tricky.

We made a few games up with the maze, one where Dimples had to use it as an obstacle course, climb through the hoop duck under the other side, through a ball through the small hoop and carefully climb through the other web opening without touching the web all the time staying clear of the spiders.
Another where I would shake the top of the web so that all the spiders shook around like crazy and he was a distressed fly, trying to find his way out of the web with out getting eaten by the spiders.
Then he got some stuffed toys to join in and he would try and throw them through the large hoop without hitting the spider that dangled over the centre.
Dimples loved the Spider Maze so much that we left it up for the Halloween Party we had over the weekend and all the kids enjoyed jumping through it and tangling things in the web.
They kept busy and active manoeuvring around so that the spiders couldn't get them.

Room to crawl under the webs... WATCH OUT!

 

I couldnt capture the entire web in one photograph so this is the design of the 3 sides with the back wall completely open.

 

 

Happy Outdoor Adventures :)

Halloween Sensory Tubs

Sensory tubs are the perfect activity for Halloween!
Lots of cool textures, gross feeling slimy things and bright colours. 
This is a Halloween Themed One we had at our Halloween Party.

The Basics:
A sensory tub includes objects that encourage children to explore using their senses.  It is an easy way to teach children about how they experience the world and to enhance their visual, tactile, and Auditory awareness.
Sensory tubs encourage exploration, experimentation and messy play. You can include things that have different textures; smooth, rough, slimy, crunchy, slippery, cold/warm, lumpy with everyday things such as rice, unpoped corn, cooked spaghetti, dry split lentils, beans, shaving cream, water beads, jelly or gelatine.
Here are some great ones that were linked up to our recent BOO! Halloween Link Party
1. Halloween Sensory Bin by blogmemom
2. Halloween Sensory box by Dirt & Boogers
3. Witches Brew Pretend cooking by me, Adventures at home with Mum
4. and here is a great general one for kids of all ages including younger kids who still mouth objects rice-bubble-sensory-tub by Paint on the Ceiling

All you need to do is add some materials that are tactile, they might feel different, have different textures or temperatures, they could have different smells, and put some objects in the bin that children can sift through and find, or bury with some tools to explore with; measuring cups, tongs, spoons, small spades, play safe microscope or just encourage the use of their fingers.
Not only is this type of messy play great in enhances the sensory learning for little ones but it gives a good opportunity for vocalisation, turn taking and of course imagination.

The Brain Box:
I made a Gross looking Spaghetti Brain. It was successful as well! On first attempt I made a cooked pasta brain and attempted to set it in glue in the hope to use it as a table decoration but that was a big fat FAIL of an idea. I came up with another great idea, this one was more practical.
I cooked some spaghetti, soaked it in green and yellow food dye (the yellow adds a bit of brightness to the green). Once the colour had stuck, I drained the spaghetti and then placed it in a bowl. But first I put a circular piece of baking paper in the bottom of my bowl so that the brain would slide out easily. Don't forget this crucial part otherwise you could be digging your brain out before the kids get to see it.

 

I mixed up some Red Gelatin. You could use jelly but Gelatine in much more rubbery, it sets firmer and withstands room temperature for longer than jelly. In play, I use gelatine over jelly for that reason, it lasts longer and is more pliable with a smooth rubbery feel.
After I packed and pressed the Spaghetti into the bowl I mixed up the gelatine and poured it in, I would have used a litre but you should use enough so that you can see it at the top of your spaghetti (so that all the spaghetti will be set in the gelatin and held together).  I set it in the fridge for a few days until the party.
And this was the result;

It worked pretty well, i used a butter knife just to separate the gelatine off the walls of the bowl and with a firm hand wiggled the brain around in the bowl until I felt it had all separated in one piece. Tipped it out upside down in the sensory tub and Voila. Brains to play with.
In this tub I surrounded it with water beads and plastic eye balls.
If your child Loves water beads like we do, check out my previous posts using Water beads...

The kids enjoyed it, poking at it initially. It wasn't long before there were some plastic rats hanging out of the brain and then there was some imaginary cooking and some digging.
This was the wet box, the water beads remain slippery and cold while the brain was slimy and smooth and warmed as it got broken apart. The water beads could be crushed and squished or bounced around or collected in a bucket. This was the hands on messy tub.

The Pumpkin Seed Box:

This one contained Orange Split lentils, dyed Purple Rice and Yellow unpopped corn. This sensory box was the dry one with lots of different textures. There were some measuring cups and some small pumpkin head buckets so that the children could scatter the 'pumpkin seeds', using hand eye coordination, tracking skills, visual attention and encouraging motor skills through scooping, pouring, measuring, burying, sifting and rattling the seeds around.

There were small Halloween plastic party favours in it as well that could be found under the grains or buried. For visual stimulation I kept the materials pale orange, yellow and light purple so that the bright green, Orange and black creepy crawlies and Halloween things stood out.

The Verdict:
By the end of the afternoon the 2 Sensory bins got mixed around, and there were some great pretend cooking games using the Halloween buckets. One of the 5 year old boys who attended the party mixed up a good brew with some brains, some water beads, bugs, rats, bats, eye balls, creepy crawlies and pumpkin seeds. A bit of everything! 
Dimples pretended to taste the devilish dinner saying "yum yum" and licking his lips.
Messy play is definitly always a hit with young children. The kids ranged in age from 1 to 9 yrs old, and each one inspected  and messed around in the tables at least once, but it was the 3 yr olds who stuck with it and enjoyed it the most :)

The Sensory trays at the end of the evening. All messed up :)

Happy Adventures

Family Tree: Our Land-mark

A Real Family Tree in the Outdoors

 

Dimples has decorated a few of the rainbow trees with his handprints. There is one blank tree that will be Purple very soon.

 

Once again, we have been in the outdoors painting trees on our property.

This time we did a family tree.  Something a little more meaningful and fun.

Painting the tree

 

Last year some time we Painted this tree, you can see it here: adventuresathomewithmum painting-tree it lasted the weather, lasted through Summer and didn't fade. It wasn't until autumn that the tree started to shed its top layer of bark and most of the painting came off with the bark.

 

Its tough work, we used exterior paint left over from our Backyard Balance stumps and we only needed one coat.

Here we are again, painting big trees, Beautiful rainbow trees.  This time with something more meaningful and bright.  Ofcourse it wont last but for a year or so it will make the property look bright and be a family reminder of the fun things we do together.  

 

Once it was dry we put Black handprints on it and I named and dated them. It didnt take long to dry in the sun.

We have even done a foot print Family tree.
 

Dimples has a funny very vocal cow 'cackle' who had to come see what we were doing (and lick the paint) 

 

Happy Outdoor Adventures  :)

If your after more outdoor activities, click on my outdoor tab under my header at the top of the page.

Mixing prime colours

Colour Exploration Stage 2: Mixing Prime Colours.

Dimples has known his colours for a while now, his lights and darks and all the colours in between!
I guess the next thing is to learn how colours mix together.

This is a Clean and Easy Lesson in Colour mixing for children of all ages. All you need are your Prime colour in food colouring, shaving foam or hair Mouse and some seal locked sandwich bags.

    RED                              YELLOW                                BLUE  

I stuck a small Coloured sticker on the plastic bags to help the learning process so that after the mixing was complete Dimples could see which bags started with what colours. 


What you will need

We did our Secondary Colours; Red/Yellow,  Yellow/Blue,  Blue/Red & I did an unmarked one so that Dimples could mix his own colour, knowing that he would choose all 3 prime colours.

First squirt your shaving cream in down the centre, leave small gaps on either side so your colours can get right in.  Do not over fill it, you want to be able to seal shut your bag easily without getting shaving cream into the sealing lock grooves. If this happens you could end up with an explosion of food colour and shaving cream all over your child's face, then it will be neither a clean nor an easy lesson in colour mixing.



Dimples makes green as the Red and Blue bag waits.

That's it! Seal it closed and one by one let your child mix the colours together. It was a success, Dimples was so enthusiastic as he mixed and mushed the bag around saying "I can see a bit of ..... Green! It made green mama"



Our mixed colours, showing what Prime colour was added to begin with.

 

Not only did Dimples watch and learn colour theory but he got a work out mixing the shaving cream. This is a great activity to strengthen the muscles needed for writing with all the pushing, scrunching, grabbing, pinching, squeezing and moulding. The shaving cream in the bag feels great as well, like a fluffy pillow.


The experimental mixing bag turned out into a light baby poo brown. I didn't get a photo but mid way through mixing it looks delicious! Not kidding, it looked like a rainbow paddle pop . So from a rainbow paddle pop to baby poo brown Dimples learnt that some colours mix well and some not so well.





The rainbow paddlepop colour with all 3 colours.

That turned baby pop brown!?

It was an interesting experiment and he loved it. We had a great discussion about colour, how there is only 3 prime colours and we went through the house pointing out colours as Dimples thought about what colours would be used to make it.

Happy Adventures

Foam Pumpkin DIY Bath Puzzle

How to Make a Easy DIY Pumpkin Bath Puzzle

Make bath time a fun learning experience with this easy foam bath puzzle.
Did you know that when wet foam sticks to the wall tiles? so you can make any type of puzzle in any theme and at any level of difficulty depending on what colour foam pieces you have and the interests and skills of your child.



Finished Puzzle and one very Proud little boy.





I had an Orange foam piece so in the theme of Halloween I cut out a pumpkin shape head. Using permanent marker I drew on a happy jack-o-lantern face. Then cut it into a puzzle! Depending on the age and stage of your child you could do a puzzle with 4-5 horizontal pieces or cut it in to many smaller intricate pieces.




Step 1: Cut and draw your pumpkin, then cut your puzzle pieces.

I floated the pieces face up in an orange bath and Dimples had fun piecing the puzzle together. I added some food colour, and black pompoms in the bath to make it extra fun and Halloween themed.



Step 2: Pour your Halloween Bath and float the puzzle in it.

The Pumpkin was a challenge but Dimples managed it with a little bit of focus. I refrained from jumping in or offering too many hints, I waited for him to ask for help and because he accomplished it all by himself with only a little help from myself he was extremely proud of himself.



Step 4: Let them go and offer hints if needed.

Tips:

• Have distinguishable features so that your child can see an Easy start, for instance the grooves in the Pumpkin Head at the top or 'hair'.
• I did all the pieces with straight cuts but one different wavy smooth cut through the centre so that this was a definite win for Dimples or a start point and you should have a clue, like a corner of an eye or a smile.
• Have a bit of the drawing/texter on almost every piece to distinguish the front of the puzzle from the back, when there are too many blank pieces that look similar it gets difficult because the child has to decide which way the piece faces, back or front as well as in what direction.

If you were wondering, the Permanent marker hasn't come off the Pumpkin Face at all, it didn't smear or run at all and after use the foam pieces dry almost instantly. Dimples has done the puzzle 4 nights in a row so far at Bath time and the puzzle hasn't changed or faded at all.  Each time he is very pleased with himself and then tells me that the pumpkin has gotten old, and is crumbling away as he knocks it back into the bath. Knocking it all off after his success is just as fun as making it. Then we just stack the pieces up and put it up for next time.



 Thanks for visiting!

 

 Happy Adventures :)