Last Minute Halloween Treat Ideas - Courtesy of The Bestie

I learned on Monday that The Bestie was making some Halloween treats and offered to share her photos with me to use as Halloween blog content....score!  She is quite possibly one of the busiest women I know.  Employed full time, the mom of a 7 year old and 4 year old twins, active in her community, fully engaged in her moms of multiples club....she never ceases to amaze me!  She is also one of the best moms I know - she'll do just about anything for her children.  Although, she did tell me at one time she wouldn't shave her head for them. 

She is the same mom who makes 3 birthday cakes in one weekend for her children since their birthdays are only 1 day apart.  You can read more about that here.

This week, she volunteered to make treats for various events....work, kids' activities - who knows. She said yes and as always, made it happen.  While we were on the phone together at 8 p.m. Monday night while she was shopping for missing items from her pantry, we talked about ways to streamline this and make it as easy as possible on herself.  She knocked these out in no time and even took pictures along the way.  Thanks, friend!

These cute cupcakes were decorated with simple orange frosting piped on from a pastry bag and she cut a chocolate bar to decorate. 

She also made these Pretzel Witches Fingers.  Using pretzel sticks, green Wilton candy melts, sliced almonds, and a toothpick she made another adorable Halloween treat.

 

The third and final treat is by far my favorite!  Remember those Waffle Dippers I posted in 2012?  She used the pan and filled with cake batter to make these super cool mummies!  You'll need the pan, it looks like this:

 

 

Next, get a box cake mix, pour the batter into each dipper, and bake.  Let cool, then get ready to decorate!  She used these cute large candy eyeballs from Wilton and used a #47 piping tip to add the bandages - aren't they awesome?  You'll want to make sure you have these on your serving platter before you start piping on the frosting - they aren't really moveable once decorated!

 



 

 

 

 

Have you volunteered to make Halloween treats.....and made it happen even though you really didn't have time to?



Halloween Creepy Crawlie Birthday Party

Over the weekend, we attended a Halloween Birthday party for a friend of our boys.  The birthday boy is turning 8 in early November but asked his mom if he could have a Halloween-themed birthday party - so she delivered just that this weekend. 

The kids and adults were all invited to dress up in costume - along with the kids, most of the adults came through!  Her decorations were, of course, all Halloween themed - they all looked awesome!  We enjoyed pizza for dinner and she had the buffet decorated with Halloween cookies and cupcakes. Her son was fully responsible for decorating the cupcakes - don't they look great?

Everyone was entertained by Jungle Jill who brought all of her "Creepy Crawlies" to show (and scare!) the party guests.  There were friendly ones too - like cool turtles and harmless snakes, but a few that stayed in their box like the scorpion and tarantula.

Yes, that gigantic snake on the right is a boa constrictor!

The birthday boy was able to hold a number of the critters - he did great!  He only panicked while holding the boa - he didn't hold it long enough for me to get a photo!

After the show, each child was able to choose one of the "safe" critters for a photo op.  My two boys opted against this!  But a friend of mine gave me the A-OK to include this adorable picture of her daughter holding "Teeny" the 1 year old turtle.

The party favors were perfect.  Cute jack-o-lantern takeout boxes filled with mini Halloween flashlights, spider rings, and goozing eyeballs candy - all from Oriental Trading Company.  Note that the flashlights were packaged and did not include a battery.  If you use this, I would recommend opening them and filling them with batteries before the party.  Our hostess saved the day with a large package of batteries and was able to quickly fill each flashlight with one as they were opened.

More great work from the {almost} 8 year old birthday boy - he was responsible for filling all of the goodie boxes.

It was clear that the adults and kids all had a great time at this party.  What a fun idea to make a birthday party into a Halloween party too!

Halloween Party

This year we headed over to the home of good friends for some pre-trick-or-treating fun, pictures, food, and drinks before we headed out into our neighborhood.  I can't take credit for any of the photos shown here - they are all the creative work of Gretchen Wakeman - but couldn't resist sharing the decorations, buffet table, and fun pictures Gretchen took! 

Our hosts did a great job choosing the perfect food for their guests!  We had two kinds of sandwich platters from Costco - one included deli pinwheels (you know, those yummy bites that have deli meat, cheese, etc wrapped in a tortilla and sliced?) and the other was deli croissant sandwiches - perfect, delicious, and filling!   Also on the buffet table were bowls of chips, salsa, a veggie platter, cookies, and of course....buckets of candy!  For the kids we had juice boxes and for the grown ups, cocktails and beer.....awesome. 

To top it off, the hostess and host were dressed as a shot girl and shot boy - it was perfect for them and made for some great photos!

How did you celebrate Halloween this year?

photo courtesy of Gretchen Wakeman

photo courtesy of Gretchen Wakeman

photo courtesy of Gretchen Wakeman