Happy Halloween!

The week leading up to Halloween I try to make some fun spooky dinners to get my kids excited for Halloween. This creepy spider I made one night was really easy and lots of fun. It's just 2 of those jumbo refrigerated biscuits flatted out and I put a slice of ham and cheese on it and seal the edges. Then the legs are a tube of refrigerated bread sticks cut in half both in length and width and twisted into place. The only trick part is placing a ball of foil under the legs before you bake them so the legs stay up. Then brush with egg and sprinkle with poppy seeds. The eyes are olives and a dot of ketchup in the middle after their done baking. My kids look forward to these meals each night. I have so much fun making them, I sometimes forget to take pictures. We also had a Yummy Mummy which is just a pizza calzone basically with the dough braided over the toppings and a head attached. A sliced olive is cut in half for it's eyes closed. That one is my kids favorite year after year. I did post a picture and recipe for that one last year if you want to look back at my previous posts and get it. We also did pigs in a blanket with refrigerated rolls wrapped around the hot dog and mustard dots for the eyes to make them look like Mummies. Sorry no pictures but they were cute and yummy! This is the kids having fun carving their pumpkins for the FHE activity the week before Halloween. They all did such a good job.

The night of Halloween I try to make my spookiest dinner. We always have a fun dinner by the light of candles and our Jack-O-Lanterns. The kids always look forward to this before Trick or Treating each year. This year we had Pumpkin Gut Stew made from the eyes, nose, and mouth pieces cut out of their Jack-o-lanterns. I just cubed them and save them in the fridge a few days before Halloween. It also has lots of tender steak pieces and carrots and celery. It was quite tasty. This is really cute served in a pumpkin, but forgot to get an extra one to do this so on Halloween I sent Ron to the store to get one and there was only huge ones left. So I had to settle for this treat bucket lined with foil.

Lady fingers bread sticks were really fast and easy too. Just refrigerated dough again shaped into fingers and then a slivered almond for the nail that I painted with red food coloring. Then put melted butter over them and garlic powder and baked them. Jordan said he thought these were the creepiest food that night.

I have to disagree with Jordan. These little Blood Worms gave me the Heebbie Jeebies just making them. I couldn't even gag these down because of the texture. They were just so realistic it grossed me out. I had to smash mine up to look like jello in order to eat it. I couldn't handle them slithering down my throat. Courtney on the other had absolutely loved them and ate a ton. These were actually really good tasting. They had raspberry jello, Knox gelatin, heavy cream,and green food coloring. Then you stretch out a bunch of bendy straws and rubber band them together and put them in a tall container preferably as tall as the straws and pour the warm liquid into them. The next day they are ready to squeeze out of the straw and onto the plate. My kids got a kick out of these. The grosser the food, the better. I always leave it a surprise and don't let them see me making anything so it's a big presentation on Halloween Night to see what is on the menu.

Eyeballs anyone? These were made from using the bottom half of the plastic Easter eggs and putting them in an egg carton. You stick a black jelly bean in the center of a gummy Life Saver candy and push down on the Life saver so it suctions to the egg. That way when you poor the vanilla pudding on the top, it doesn't leak down underneath the Life Saver. Then you freeze them over night. These must be eaten right away or the eyeballs start melting all over the plate. So perfect for dinner, but not for a party where they would sit out for awhile.

These eyeballs I like to take to a Party. They are really good and can sit out for a long time. They are just crunchy peanut butter, powdered sugar and butter rolled into balls and frozen. Then dipped into white almond bark. I use this recipe for Christmas too just dipped in dark chocolate. My husband especially likes these. If you are in my ward, I put the recipe in the ward cookbook. They are called Peanut Butter Bon Bon's.

We always have to have some kind of drink with dry ice in it to set the mood of the table. It's really fun to eat in the dark with the sound of it bubbling and fog moving across the table.

This year I told the kids I wasn't going to buy any new costumes. They had to use what we had or get creative and come up with their own. Tyler was Darth Maul last year and I made him this costume. This year he used it again and went as a Sith.

This year we reached a new milestone in our family. Every year both Ron and I have always taken all of our kids Trick or Treating. This year, now that Tyler is in Junior High, he got invited to his best friends Halloween Party so he went to that instead of Trick or Treating. I still can't believe he is in Junior High!

Jordan came up with this Pirate costume all by himself with things he found around the house. I thought he looked great! This year was a first for him too. He went Trick or Treating with a group of friends instead of us! This is his friend Cooper the Rock Star. They had a really good time together. I can't believe he's old enough not to want to go with us too!

Courtney dressed up as Super Girl and I made her wear her coat underneath her costume. She was so mad that I made her do that. She kept telling me "Super Girl is not fat, and I look fat with my coat underneath" I told her she looked strong like she had muscles like Superman. She was not happy as you can see in this picture. But I told her she had to wear it or stay home.

Austin really wanted a new costume this year but we finally came up with this Indiana Jones that he was happy with, without spending any money. I just had to sew him a little pouch with some scrap fabric I already had, and a gun holder. He looked so cute. He also was not happy to put layer after layer of shirts on under his costume to keep warm. My kids like the authentic look and not altered in anyway. Sorry kids, but we live in Idaho not Florida.

These two were the only ones who we got to take around Trick-or-Treating. They absolutely loved it! Ron actually is the one who took them and I stayed home and passed out candy. That was a first for us too, since we have always both gone with our kids. We had a lot of Trick or Treater's and my kids came home with loads of candy. That's the only part I don't really like about Halloween. I just can't stop thinking about all that sugar on their teeth and them not brushing really well so I have to do it for them to get it all off. It wears me out just thinking about it because the candy lasts for days and I have to brush so many kids teeth so many times! Ahhh Halloween. You gotta love it!