"Frightening" Friday: Your Go-To Guide for Halloween Fun!

Frightening Friday: Halloween Go-To Guide 2012

Right off the bat, I want to say to my readers who do not celebrate Halloween, I am truly sorry doing a post totally center around Halloween, but, the majority of families DO, in some way, celebrate.  Whether it be trick-or-treating, costume parties, decorating, volunteering for their child's "Fall Fest" or Halloween parties at school or all of the above!  But I do, however, respect the fact not all families celebrate the same thing and I am working on a special "Fall Festival" edition, totally centered around Autumn crafts, foods, fashion and activities to do as a family outdoors.  Please be patient and keep checking for new updates almost daily!  I do hope that you will continue to read my blog and hope that this one particular post will not deter readers, but, completely understand if it does.

BOO!  Halloween is just a few short weeks away so today's Fun Friday has been renamed in honor of this spooky day.  Enjoy first annual edition of FRIGHTENING FRIDAY!!

Katie's Kids Korner:  Tricks and Treats

Treats: Seasonal Cupcake-Cake
Almost every year, moms all over feel the pressure to out-do the previous year when it comes to a creative yet yummy treat for the school party.  Are you out of ideas when it comes to what to take?  Don't be scared coming up with a party treat for your child's class.  Here's a no-fail, quick, easy and fun idea that the kids will love and you won't have to spend but more than an hour on!
All you need is a box of cake mix and the ingredients needed for cupcakes.  Bake as directed on box, cool.  Here's where it gets interesting!  Arrange the cupcakes in a seasonal shape (a bat, a pumpkin, etc.), then icing the cupcakes as one, like a cake!  Now, your gonna use a ton of icing to ensure they all get covered and the spots are all filled in, but it looks AWESOME!  Then decorate the large iced shape accordingly.  It's an inexpensive way to turn played-out and tired, old cupcakes into something new, fresh and fun!  

Here is a Pumpkin Cupcake-Cake!  Decorate w/your child!

OR, if your really brave and have an extra-cool teacher, take the cupcakes into school without icing and decorations and let each child decorate their own individual cupcake!  Either way, the kids are going to love it and yes, all the other mothers will be jealous and talking behind your back - haha, let them, this treat is definitely worth it!

Tricks: Halloween/Fall-themed Scavenger Hunt
Turn the regular scavenger hunt into a "monster"ous task!  Prepare by making a list of items that you might see around the school, park, neighborhood (this works for all parties and events) - pumpkins, skeletons, witches, black cat, scarecrows, Indian corn, etc.  For extra "wow" or for little ones who can't yet read, use stickers or small pictures of the items you list.  Play the scavenger hunt like the traditional version.  Winning person/team gets a Halloween-themed prize!  
If you plan on doing this activity at school for your child's party, ask the teacher in advance for a few things around the school that the children could "find", have her ask other teachers, get the whole school involved, maybe see if you could do it outdoors on the playground.  The possibilities are pretty much endless on this one.  Be creative and have fun!

Your Home: Decorating for the Holidays
I love decorating for the holidays but besides the obvious choice (Christmas), Halloween is my favorite!  Part Autumn, part spooky, my home is always decorated by myself and my assistant, Ben.  He loves helping put up decorations and really gets into it!   

Minnie wishes you all a Happy HOWL-oween!!

Here are a few tips to use and points to remember when decorating the in/outside of your home for the Autumn/Halloween season:  

1.)  Use the same color scheme from the months of September through November - that way instead of constantly buying and displaying new things, just add conversational pieces and holiday-themed items during that specific "holiday" i.e., turkeys out in November, along w/the place mats from September and pumpkins, squash and Indian corn from October.  You just keep adding things and removing things from the rotation!

2.)  Items like scarecrows, pumpkins, squashes, Indian corn, sunflowers, apples and leaves can all be used from September 1 all the way through November.  I decorate w/the majority of those items and then, like above, just add or subtract from the "core" items.  I use fall-colors and plaids for dish towels and place mats so they can be used for all three months of Autumn

3.)  Window Clings are the perfect decoration for a child's bedroom window!  They can arrange and rearrange until their heart's content, plus, they don't break!  They do occasionally rip, but can be attached to the window/fish tank/stove/fridge to make it look like 1 complete piece.  They also don't make or leave behind a mess!  Perfect for my kid (We should have stock in window clings, for real)!

4.)  When decorating indoors, use grouping (2 candles and a picture frame, 3 pictures grouped together w/a decorative vase filled w/seashells & a book), BUT, always group in odd numbers!!  Even numbers of objects tends to look to uniform and with odd, they can be placed to look minimal, distinguished and classy.  Every interior decorator will tell you the same thing.  I redecorated a few months ago & stuck to that rule and wow!  Looks great!

5.)  Finally, less is more when it comes to decorating, or sweets, or a lot of things, now that I think about it......hmmmm...OK, less is more, period.

The Perfect Costume: A Preview
I will have an entire upcoming post with pics and ideas for costumes for kids, pets and adults alike.  I'm having a bit of technical difficulty and can't really do what I want w/the costume portion of this post so I'm gonna head back to the drawing board.  I want to get it posted ASAP, so y'all have time to create and come up with some new ideas too!  Thanks for being patience with all this.  It's still new to me and I am still learning how to do some stuff on here as far as importing and linking and whatnot!  
Send ideas or pics of outstanding costumes/ideas to my email, comment below or follow me on Twitter (there are 2 accounts for me on there - one is for @mizzkaties and the avatar is a black and white pic of me w/a beehive - that is NOT my current account!  My avatar for my current account is the same avatar for this page and my google+ account.  If the pics don't match, it's not me!  @MIZZKATIE_S IS MY ONLY CURRENT TWITTER ACCOUNT), or follow my adventures in pictures on Instagram!

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!  Get outdoors, go for a walk, pick apples, watch leaves change color - whatever you do, be safe and include the entire family!  Make your weekend an Adventure!!

Peace, Love and Light,
Katie