Two More Sleeps Till Mom's Everywhere Are Raiding Their Kids Loot

We’re only two days out from Halloween, but the fun doesn’t have to wait! Sure, the costumes & candy may not commence till the 31st, but let’s get the festivities kicked off early & keep the fun rolling right up to the big night! I mean, seriously, it’s not like we couldn’t all use a little more happy in our day. Sure, the crafts may be for the kids, but even us adults could benefit from taking a break from work, putting our phones down, & suprising the little ones with our undivided attention & a spooky craft. Maybe spooning out pumpkin guts isn’t your thing so you’ve skipped out on the pregame festivities, but there’s plenty of other fun ways to bond with the family & get in the spirit. So, if pumpkin carving spooks you out, put the knife down & opt for carving out some craft time instead. Your little monsters will love creating these projects, you’ll be thrilled to get some budget friendly holiday decor, & you’ll all build some memories sweeter than a candy apple laughing & talking together over a kitchen table covered in construction paper & glue. Chances are you’ll already have most materials laying around the house, & if not a quick trip to Michaels will have you all set. So, give these 10 DIY crafts & fun activities a try to get you in the spirit & enjoying some good old fashioned family fun. Answer the email later, fold the laundry later, their hands won’t be this little forever! Their faces won’t light up like this over showing off their completed work forever. Pretty soon you’ll be competing for heir time between ball practice, boyfriends or girlfriends, & studying for exams. Don’t let the urgent things get in the way of the important things momma. There is nothing better than sweet giggles over toes in paint & tiny hands creating works of art to be pulled out year after year. So start building a new tradition & the kids anticipation for trick or treat night.

 First up documenting that their feet were ever this small & adorable. Not too far off & they are going to have huge, smelly, gross feet that you won’t even want on your couch let alone near your mouth, but not today. Nope, today those precious little toesies are so cute you can’t help but tickle & kiss all over them, so let’s stamp them on a canvas in the shape of pumpkins so we can remember them forever. What kid doesn't love dipping their fingers, hands or feet in some paint? There's a reason hand & footprint crafts are so popular! I don’t think you need a tutorial for this one, because the picture is pretty clear. I grabbed a slightly wider canvas from Micheals, since I planned to do both kiddos on one, but feel free to go as big or small as you want, just make sure two feet fit. I used stencils, because my handwriting looks like a 3rd grade boy, but if you’re blessed, go ahead & freestyle it. Even using stencils, mine still looks like junk, beacuse the baby was at my feet pouting & saying “Up. Up, peas” over & over, while my toddler gave me an angry earful on manners, because I had taken the paint away from her. Thus, my brain was in overdrive & I’m a terrible multitasker, so I ended up writing “Momo” rather than “Mommy.” So, my best advice here is to wait to do this until naptime so you can focus & not screw it up like I did. I told myself I would hit it with some white out, but here I am 3wks later & it still looks like garbage on the shelf. Oh well, I did a craft with them & now I’m writing a blog about it so I’m showing myself some grace.

Because these ones are so fun, let’s do another! This might be my favorite homemade craft to display that I’ve ever done for any holiday. I loved it so much after I made one, I picked up more canvases & made one for both sets of grandparents too. You can use construction paper & laminate, but I prefer canvas. The downside to canvas is that you do have to paint them first. I didn’t enlist my daughter for this task since I wanted to get it done quickly & with minimal cleanup. Once your base is dry, just copy what I did from my pics or come up with your own design! The goal is to have fun & get art you can decorate your home with forever.

How many paint crafts can you really have though? Enter-the tried & true salt dough print. Mix 1/2 cup all purpose flour, 1/2 cup salt & 1/4 cup water, & knead together until soft & can easily be made into a ball. Lay on wax paper & press hand in middle. Then use a knife to create the shape of a pumpkin around handprint, make a big hole in palm of print. Don’t forget to make two holes on top for string. Pop it in the oven at 200 degrees for 3 hours (or just until dry depending on your thickness) & let cool before painting. Cut a circle into an acrylic sheet & hot glue around the edge of hole before placing it on. Then hot glue around edge of picture (make picture larger than hole & glue around edge so it won’t show) & place behind acrylic sheet.

This next one is for the bigger kids, but my daughter was able to do it with my assistance. I actually only attempted this one with her since I was watching my friends two elementary aged kids, & this would be fun for them too. It’s pretty straight forward..just glue a bunch of popsicle sticks vertically to two or three you laid horizontally. Then paint, or color with markers, if you want less of a mess, & draw on some faces. I recommend, amping it up with some googly eyes, gems, or whatever else you have laying around the house. This is the perfect design for cleaning out the bottom of the craft box with all the random things that haven’t made it out. Mismatched googly eyes? Can only find one eye? Sounds spooky to me, boom monster face.

This next one is my favorite. I enjoy crafting, & I love food, so decorating an edible haunted house…count me in fo sho! I wouldn’t throw this on here unless the kit was legit. This one came from Trader Joes, & you better believe I’ll be headed back there for my gingerbread house in a couple months. I’ve mentioned I’m a little OCD, & when I build things up in my head a certain way & reality doesn’t meet my expectations, I tend to get a little wonky. Like the three years in a row we attempted three different gingerbread house kits. I distinctly remember having a full blown meltdown in my kitchen & pulling out the glue gun to hold my crumbling walls together with my husband looking at my like I was some kind of freak. I don’t know about ya’ll, but I tried Walmarts, Targets, & Sam Club’s, & they were all nearly impossible to keep together. In all honesty, I didn’t even really want to pull this one out of the box, but I’m glad I did. This could not have been easier. I don’t know what the heck they put in that paste, but it can’t be safe to eat, because it held like gorilla glue. Does it really matter though, let’s be real, the gingerbread’s usually gross on these things anyway & all our kids are going to eat is the jank candy it comes with, so hold is really all we care about here anyway. My 16 month old was a shockingly delicate & precise decorator (wonder where he gets that ;)) while my daughter nearly brought the thing to pieces every time she smashed a candy bat into it (she’s her father’s kid). The point is we all had fun doing something together & getting excited about the holiday. We cranked some toddler Halloween tunes (monster smash is our favorite, obviously), & have all occasionally picked a flavorless piece of candy off as we walked by since.

Ok ,this one is more of a quick craft for you, but will keep your kid entertained for, well basically as long as you want. You draw however many pumpkins you want, whatever size you want, & on as many pieces of paper as you want. I did five on one sheet.Then you draw the matching amount on an orange piece of paper & cut them out. Be sure to number them to make this an educational activity. Hide them around the house, give the white sheet to your kiddo & tell them to go pumpkin hunting! Once found, they have to match the numbers & tell you what number they found. Dangle a prize in their face for completion, hide them really good, & depending on how legit your prize is, you may not have to interact with them much all day. The first couple times, we did this in just one room, but when I had to get ready for a wine tasting the other day, I hid them all over the house. This way it took her longer. I got my hair & makeup done, she had fun doing something stimulating & educational, & best of all, she left me alone haha.

Let’s run it back to crafting for this next one. Any craft that can be spread out to a few hours is great in my book. As much as I love being home with my babies, sometimes the hours seriously seem to drag. I find myself counting down the minutes till my husband walks through the door to give me a break or just some much needed adult interaction, other than arguing with insurance companies like I do for work between diaper changes & barbie play (Gosh, do I ever hate playing barbies, but I’ll save that for another post). Point is, anything that eats away at the day & doesn’t involve electronics is gold in sahm world. So, give your kid a basket & tell them to find only the prettiest leaves in the yard, or park, or wherever, & watch them have fun hunting. It’s wild how excited my daughter gets with a task, & I love watching her meticulously looking leaves over for her stash. When you’ve killed an hour or so outside, head back in for the crafting. All you need is paper plate & Elmers glue. Cut the inside of the paper plate out to form the base for your wreath & glue the leaves on it. Pretty simple. We spruced ours up with a few jack-o-lantern stickers & I hot glued a ribbon on to hang it, but you can hole punch too.

Wreath making brings us to our next activity…BOOing your neighbors! If you’ve never been mystery BOOed around Halloween, let me explain how simple it is.

#1 – Make a Halloween themed treat or goodie bag. We were given Halloween napkins & a variety of candy. We then BOOed two other houses, one was an older couple so I gave them a Scout & Cellar’s Dove Hunt Cabernet Sauvignon (get it here), Halloween wine glass markers, & one of Kylie’s leaf wreaths. The other home had kids, so I did a bunch of different Halloween candies, homemade Halloween rice crispy treats, & more Halloween napkins.

#2 – Print off two little ghosts or anything else that you can write “we’ve been BOOed” on & directions to boo someone else & attach them to your treat.

#3 – Pick a family you want to give the treats to

#4 – Have your kids doorbell ditch the Halloween treat on your unsuspecting friend/neighbor!

Your kids will love being a mystery treat dropper just as much as they love trying to figure out who mystery treat dropped them! So if you haven’t been booed yet, even if it’s going on in your hood, still go out today & BOO someone. There’s no rule you can’t have two different ones going on at once. Only rule there is…don’t suck & not keep the fun going. If someone boos you, make sure you keep it up by participating.

Last up, decorate the house! You would be surprised how much kids enjoy doing this! Make a big deal out of asking their opinion on where things should go & praising them for having such great ideas. Not only is it fun, but seeing the festive décor will bring everyone smiles each time they walk in the room. I don’t go that big Halloween, so I just grabbed some super cheap items from the dollar store & Walmart. Here are some ideas to inspire you.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN FRIENDS!!!