Happy Halloween

Lola asked to be a "Fancy Lady" for Halloween. 

I figured whose more "fancy" than Holly Golightly...

This last picture was taken at preschool.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween

Halloween Parade

 

Tonight we are going to the Halloween Parade in Toms River, NJ.

It is one of the largest Halloween Parades in the country, a tradition since 1919.

These are some pictures from previous Toms River Halloween Parades.

All images are from TomsRiverHalloweenParade.Com.

 

Trick or Treat

We bought Lola's duck costume, it came with the striped tights, but did not have
any feet. So, I made her some. It was super easy, and would work for just about any
costume with only a few tweaks needed for customization.

 I traced about an inch and a half around the outside of the shoes Lola
was going to wear, adding duck toes at the front, and cut out the two pieces.

Then I folded the foot pieces in half and made cuts in a star-burst pattern
for Lola's foot to fit through.

Next, I had Lola slip her foot through the star-burst cuts and then I put her shoe on to
make sure that the duck foot would fit perfectly. I folded the back of the felt foot over so that the edge of the foot would be parallel with the bottom of her shoe.

I made a small dot so that I would know where to tack down the felt.

I also made one on the inside so that I could easily and quickly match the dots,
and know that my folds were in the right place.

I sewed a few small stitches where the dots met, and at the corner where the
material folded over on the inside of the foot. I also tacked down the top of the fold. 

You can see the stitches in the photo above. 

This is what the finished foot will look like.

The feet took about 20 minutes to make (including the time that it took
me to figure out how i was going to do it) and totally completed the costume. 

If you have an older kid who would be running to doors to trick-or-treat you could always attach a small piece of elastic to each side of the duck foot near the front, so that it would
go under the shoe, and keep the foot from flapping up.

Miss Autumn

 

Instead of a traditional Jack-O-Lantern we decided to do something that
Lola could participate in, we came up with this gourd-adorned pumpkin.
We are calling her Autumn (after one of my puppy nieces).

Lola was great at collecting leaves the leaves for the hair.

To attach the gourds to the pumpkin, we used chopsticks that came with our dinner.

Simply poke the chopstick through the pumpkin where you want the nose, then push
the gourd you chose to be the nose onto the stick and but the gourd up to the pumpkin careful to not push the stick all the way through to the other side, don't worry about trimming the stick it will just be inside the pumpkin.

For the eyelashes, I took the leaves that Lola collected and fanned them to the shape
of the eye and dabbed some hot glue near the stems.

I sliced a gourd to make the eyes.

Then decide where the eyes will go, and push a chopstick into the pumpkin.

Push the eyelashes onto the chopstick, then push the eyes over the eyelashes.

You may want to add a bit of hot glue to secure the eyes as they may be heavy.

I also hot glued the seeds, so they wouldn't fall out as the gourd dried.

For the mouth, I used two small twigs, and the seeds from the gourd as teeth.

Lola's leaves are the hair, and the silly hat is made from the bag the gourds came in, and

a gourd that I halved.

All in all, it turned out pretty cute.

Healthy Halloween

Halloween is loved as much (maybe even more) for candy as it is for gore and
costumes, but we really don't want to expose Lola to sweets for as long as possible. We do however, want her to be able to participate in the festivities. I have some tasty yet gross looking healthy treats to serve at a Halloween party that even big kids will love.

I made these Zombie Eyes from fresh mozzarella, plum tomatoes, and balsamic vinegar.

Variations:

Float  mozzarella eyes in tomato soup

Fresh Mozzarella, olives, and drizzle with tomato juice

Longans with blueberries and drizzle with pomegranate juice

Hard-boiled eggs, with green olives, and drizzle with Tabasco sauce

Here are some other fun and healthy Halloween treats I found on the web
that are great alternatives to candy.

Stuffed Roaches from Divine Dinner Party

1/3 C. cream cheese, softened
1/4 C. walnuts, chopped semi-fine
20-30 dates, pitted

Instructions:
1. In a small bowl, combine cream cheese and nuts til well mixed.

2. Gently fill dates with cream cheese/nut mixture (you may have to split the dates slightly). 

Serve scattered on a fruit and cheese platter. 

 How deliciously disgusting!

 (recipe and image from divinedinnerparty.com)

Melon Brain from Instructables

Seedless watermelon

Peeler

Paring Knife

Large Knife

1. Cut bottom off watermelon so it won't roll

2. Peel green skin off melon

3. Score brain folds in white flesh

4. With a sharp paring knife, carve channels out of melon to resemble cortical folds 

 (recipe and image from instructables.com)

Shrunken Head Cider from Martha Stewart

2 cups lemon juice

2 tablespoons coarse salt

8 large Granny Smith Apples

32 whole cloves

2 gallons apple cider

2 (12 ounce) cans frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed

and for the moms and dads cider

2 cups spiced rum (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper: set aside. In a medium bowl, mix together lemon juice and salt; set aside.

2. Peel apples and cut each in half through the stem; remove the seeds and core. Using a sharp paring knife, carve a face, as desired, on the rounded side of each apple half. Place apples in lemon mixture for one minute; transfer to paper towels to drain.

3. Place apples, face-side up on the prepared baking sheet and transfer to oven. Let bake until apples are dry and begin to brown around the edges, about 90 minutes. Remove apples from baking sheets and press cloves into the "eye" sockets.

4. Combine cider, lemonade, and rum (if using) in a large punchbowl;
float shrunken heads on top.

(recipe and image from marthastewart.com)

Haunted House

Halloween is so much fun because it is a time of year to be a kid again.
A chance to call upon our creativity and delve into the world of make believe, spooktacular mysteries, and ...legos? Yup, you read that right, artist Mike Doyle created these amazing haunted house sculptures entirely out of legos. The house above is 5' x 3' x 2', consists of
50 - 60 thousand (seriously SIXTY THOUSAND) pieces, and took him 450 hours to build.

Below are a few close-up images, as well as two other spooky lego structures. They
are absolutely amazing, totally unique, and completely put my flat roofed square adobe
style lego architectural achievements to shame!
Information on his process here.

 

All photos from mikedoylesnap.blogspot