Sweet Halloween Treats

I was inspired by So Yummy's Halloween treat video (which I caught a few weeks ago on Facebook). Have you seen the video I'm referring to? It's mesmerizing. I actually find all of their food videos to be very compelling. And because I need very little reason to justify an opportunity to make some sweet treats, I thought we should organize a Halloween party for the girls and a few of their friends!

2020: I've updated the links in this post to facilitate online ordering of the more hard-to-find supplies for those who are skipping/limiting in-person visits to public places. Affiliate links generate *huge* (LOL) earnings on my end. ;)

I decided to dive in with the girls to see how successful we might be at recreating some of the cute ideas. Plus, it turned out to be a great way to celebrate a random Monday off from school. Knowing how much sugar I would be sending them home with (and they would be consuming along the way), I threw in some fruit, veggies, and some (not-so-healthy) chips & dip. Because, balance.

In case you missed it, here's a link to our video inspiration: 7 Sweet & Easy Treats to Make for Halloween by So Yummy. We didn't take on all seven --but we did tackle FIVE! Most of the ingredients were easy to come by. Purple jimmies (sprinkles) were sold out everywhere so we went with a different shape. The black licorice laces had to be ordered online. Note: the tall jars that I used for the green melts, I just ended up throwing away because after much soaking and scrubbing, there was still so much mess left inside. :(  I will link the more obscure ingredients below for online shopping; however, I was able to find a lot of these ingredients at our local grocery store. I'd bet you could find them on the shelves at Target, Walmart, or Michael's too.

Before you get started, make a "landing station" for each kid (big blank boards pictured above). We worked on one treat at at time and when we were finished with each creation, they transferred their treat to their boards --knowing this would be a sturdy surface they could take home. Pro Tip: Ask your guests to bring a cookie sheet from home that they can load and leave with at the end of your party. Before you begin, remember to show the kids the 7 Sweet & Easy Treats video so they have an idea of what they'll be creating.

[Printable Shopping List]

Peanut Butter Cup Bats

Reese's peanut butter cups

Oreo cookies

small candy eyes

icing for adhering the wings

The trickiest part of this treat was breaking the Oreos into the right shape. But the best part of this treat was eating the rejects. Use the scraped filling from the cookie to adhere the wings to the peanut butter cup. (Cookies will break if you spread too firmly --so consider having a little extra frosting on hand for this step.) We discovered that placing the "wings" either way (up or down) resulted in an adorable bat.

You can see that I had six kids (5th and 6th graders) working side by side. I made two sets of topping/supplies that I placed at either end of the counter/table and everyone shared. Line each individual "station" with wax paper, paper towels, spreading utensil, etc. and divvy up the bigger ingredients (Reese's cups, Oreos for this treat) to each kid. Work one treat at a time.

Frankenstein Monster HoHos

HoHos

green candy melts

purple or grey sprinkles

candy corn

small candy eyes
white sprinkle for the mouth

These Frankenstein Monster HoHos turned out to be a little tricky. We found that when we dipped the HoHo into the melted candy, the heat from the candy pulled the chocolate from the HoHo. Not cute. There must be a secret ingredient to those candy melts in the video --maybe oil? In the So Yummy video, the green candy melts were definitely more smooth and workable than the melted candy we were working with. Instead of dipping, the girls improvised and began spreading the candy onto the HoHos with plastic knives. Their sweet Frankenstein Monsters still turned out super cute!

Chocolate Cupcake Spiders

chocolate cupcakes

chocolate frosting

chocolate sprinkles

black licorice laces

Red Hot candies

I baked the cupcakes the day before and kept them in tupperware overnight. If you can only find the black licorice wheels (best price online so linked above), you'll need to unwind and pull them apart so they are the right shape --or just go with the thicker "legs" for your spiders. This was a very easy treat to create. If you're planning to do a Halloween party for younger kids, I recommend this as a sweet activity for your party-goers! You'll have them entertained and working to create their own desserts. Win-win. Not pictured below, but an excellent and less-messy way to get a thick coating of sprinkles is to frost the top and then turn it upside-down into a shallow dish of sprinkles. The sprinkles will cling to the frosting and you'll have way fewer dotting your countertops and floor! Also, put your sprinkle dish in a rimmed baking sheet on the counter, that way when stray sprinkles make their escape, they land in an enclosed area --much quicker for cleanup!

Creepy Monster Pretzel Fingers

pretzel rods

green candy melts (linked above)

sliced almonds

We found it much easier to work with the green melted candy when we used the sturdy pretzel sticks! This was another of the easier/simpler treats that would be excellent Halloween treat/activity for younger kids too. The tall jar was key in getting the melted candy up the pretzel far enough --of course, you could spread it along with a knife again too.

Purple Oreo Cyclops

Oreo cookies (double-stuffed are strongly recommended)

blue candy melts or purple candy melts

purple sprinkles

large candy eyes

lollipop sticks

Apparently, I didn't capture any pictures of the girls making these. They were certainly the trickiest and I had my hands full helping --which is probably why I didn't take any pictures. ;)  According to the video, you insert the lollipop stick and then dip the Oreo into the melted candy. Again, our melted candy was not nearly as smooth or workable as the candy in the video. When they tried to dip, the Oreos fell off the sticks or broke. Using their knives, the girls just frosted one side instead. Still cute!

After they were finished making their Halloween treats, we enjoyed some Halloween Punch that my friend, Trisha, made (including dry ice smoke and frozen hands). It turned out a beautiful purple-red color and was delicious. The floating hands of ice made it especially festive! Her recipe is below. She filled rubber gloves with water and froze for the spooky ice cubes.

Halloween Punch

Equal parts:

100% juice orange juice

grape juice

7-Up

Each guest left with a tray full of spooky treats to enjoy (with our without siblings) during this spooky Halloween season! 

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Getting Crafty | A Birthday Terrarium for Daddy

The little Jonesies decided that for his birthday, they wanted to make their dad a terrarium for his office. Terrariums are all the rage these days so I thought it would be no problem gathering the supplies we needed to put something together. In fact, I assumed I could find an easy kit that contained all the essential "ingredients." HA!

After finding the BEST online tutorials (there are 7 in this thorough series), I knew what we needed; the trick was in finding all the necessary elements. I had a little driving around to do. The gravel and charcoal were acquired from the pet store (fish department). The jar, pebbles, and rocks came from Michaels craft store. The moisture loving, compatible micro-plants came from the nursery. I found (way too much of) the horticultural fabric at Home Depot. And to avoid having to purchase a huge bag, the small amount of potting soil needed was gifted from our gardener neighbor, Miss Amy.

 I'm not going to go through all the steps because I know I won't do a better job than you can find over at the tutorials. But here is our process in pictures. The girls were very involved and we had a lot of fun getting our hands dirty for daddy.

He LOVED it!

We were sad to see it leave the kitchen table and have immediate plans to make another (with all our leftover supplies) to keep at home.

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Fun With the Girls | Reindeer Cookies

I saw the sweetest idea on Pinterest and thought it would be really fun to execute with the girls--and it WAS. I would like to link back to the original person who came up with the idea--but all of the pins are a dead-end. Anyhoo… I cannot take credit for the idea of these cookies. ;)

The original cookies had brown M&M's for the eyes and red M&M's for the nose. We wanted to make a lot of the cookies to share with the staff at the girls' school and with our neighborhood friends--so I subbed chocolate chips for the eyes and found a bag of "Christmas" M&M's (just red and green) for the noses. I let the girls eat the green ones and they were quite pleased with that, as you can imagine.

The rest was easy enough: Nutter Butter cookies, small pretzels, and white cookie frosting.

By the way, this is the best frosting. I found it at both our grocery store and Michael's.

We packaged a few up in little white bags and attached some note cards with gold and white kitchen twine.

Super sweet. Super easy. Great craft for the kids. AND delicious too!

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