Halloween Frankenpops From PBS Parent.

I love Halloween!  And I love the opportunity to share anything Halloween related with all of you, so I thought these Halloween Frankenpops would be perfect.  I am definitely going to try these for my daughter's birthday party this weekend--they're so cute!

Here's a cute video with step-by-step instructions to make these adorably spooky Halloween treats!  Check out the recipe below, courtesy of The Kitchen Explorers from PBS Parent.

Recipe: Frankenpops

• Prep Time: 15 min(s)
• Cook Time: 15 min(s)
• Total Time: 30 min(s)
• Servings: 36

A quick and easy marshmallow treat recipe for Halloween. Made with chocolate candy coated marshmallows, making these treats make for a great Halloween activity.

Ingredients

• 1 – 16 ounces dark green candy coating
• 2 tablespoons white candy coating
• 2 tablespoons black candy coating
• 1/4 cup purple candy coating
• 1 bag large marshmallows
• special equipment: 36 lollipop sticks

Instructions

• Melt the dark green candy coatings in the microwave in thirty second intervals, stirring after each time until the chocolate is smooth.
• Dip a lollipop stick ¼” in and then into a marshmallow ¾ of the way through.
• Dip marshmallows into the melted coating, turning the marshmallow as it coats.
• Tilt the marshmallow over a cup and gently tap the stick until excess coating drips off.
• Allow the pops to dry by sticking the end of the stick into a foam block.
• As the pops dry, make the eyes by piping small 1/8-1/4-inch circles of melted white coating.  Finish the eyes by adding a small speck of melted black coating to the center of the white "eye balls."  Allow the eyes to harden before using.
• Once the green coated pops are hard, dip only the top of each marshmallow in the melted purple coating.  Using a toothpick, add texture to each pop's hair.  Allow the hair to dry before adding facial features.
• Add a little dot of chocolate where the eyeballs will be placed.  Using the melted coating as glue, add two eyeballs to every pop.
• Using an edible black ink marker or melted black coating which is in a piping bag with a tiny opening, pipe a decorate scar and mouth on each pop.
• Allow the pops to harden before eating.

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Wordless Wednesday: It’s a {Halloween}Party!

This past weekend my husband and I decided to throw an adult Halloween costume party, we had an absolute blast and we have the pictures to prove it!  Happy Wordless Wednesday!

Robyn (da Hood) thinkin bout kicking some zombie butt!

Like father, like zombie?

Laughs are always good!

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Kidz Bop Halloween Hits {Win It!}

We're entering into my favorite season…Fall!  In addition to the gorgeous changing of the leaves in Southern Ohio and the fall carnivals and fairs that occupy so much of this month and next, I can’t wait for my favorite holiday…Halloween!



Ever since I was a little girl I’ve loved Halloween; I’m not sure if it was the telltale winter chill in the air or the costumes and scary stories that made me love it so much (alright, it may have had something to do with the candy), but Halloween has always been the best day of the year as far as I’m concerned.

Once I became an adult enjoying Halloween seemed to be harder and harder, until I became a mom.  What’s better than getting to relive your childhood?  Reliving your childhood and being able to eat all of the candy you want without doing much work (you know, because moms and dads are the candy inspectors)—oh stop, I know I’m not the only one.  If there’s one childhood memory that I can still enjoy guilt free it’s listening to my favorite Halloween classics—enter Kidz Bop Halloween Hits!
If you’re a fan of Kidz Bop then you’ll love their new Halloween Hits edition.  With songs like Thriller and Monster Mash, you’ll be able to relive your childhood while giving your own child a taste of Halloweens past—it’s totally a win-win!

Kidz Bop Halloween Hits Track List



We received Kidz Bop Halloween Hits to review and it was an instant hit with all of my kiddos from the oldest to youngest and I must admit, some of the songs (The Addams Family comes to mind) are totally catchy!  If you’re looking for a CD to help get you into the Halloween spirit and have a little fun…Kidz Bop Halloween Hits is the one!

Want to pick up a copy of Kidz Bop Halloween Hits?  Find out how via the Kidz Bop website. 

Good news fellow Halloween lovers—3 Misadventures in Baby Raising readers are going to win a Kidz Bop Halloween Hits CD!  Check out the official rules and enter the giveaway below via the Rafflecopter widget.


a Rafflecopter giveaway
 
Disclosure:  I received the product mentioned above to facilitate to review…all opinions are 100% my own!

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Great Costume Ideas for Couples For 2011!

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, I’ve said that before huh, anyway I love it and I know that I’m not alone!  One of my favorite parts of the month of October and Halloween is costume parties; yeah I know we all pretend to hate looking for and ultimately dressing up in costumes, but we all know that we secretly LOVE it! 

 

And since there might be a costume party in your immediate future I thought I’d share with y’all a few of my picks for the best costumes for couples! 

 

I must admit, I love sexy costumes and even though I am always super self-conscious about wearing them I always have fun with them…some of my favorite sexy couple costumes are:

 

Alice and the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland!

 

 

Or there’s always Fiona and the Gingerbread Man from Shrek!

 

 

         

 

My personal favorite is Cinderella and Prince Charming, but only because I spent the first 8 years of my life trying to be her (minus the mice)!

 

 

This is one that my husband and I might definitely have to check into—my son would go apeshit (what, he so would) if Jamie and I walked into the living room dressed as Sassy Thor and Thor!

 

 

 

And who wouldn’t want to go as these lovebirds better known as Jessie and Woody from Toy Story!

 

 

And if you and your honey have a sense of humor ALL of these are awesome!

 

Sexy Shooter and Tequila Dude!

 

 

 

 

Ketchup and Mustard (always a popular choice)

 

 

 

Wenda and Where’s Waldo?

 

 

 

Are you and your honey attending a costume party this Halloween?  Who are you going as?  And just a quick tip…the last three costumes can be made easily at home with a little creativity and a lot of patience!  The Wenda and Where’s Waldo costumes are nothing more than jeans, red and white stripped sweaters, glasses, a funny fuzzy hat, and viola you have your own homemade Halloween costumes for next to nothing! 

 

*All of these costumes can be found online at partycity.com with the exception of the Fiona and gingerbread man costumes they can be found at costumekingdom.com and nope no one paid me for this or gave me free costumes (which would have been nice come to think about it) I just LOVED these costume ideas and wanted to share them with all of you*

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Tips Trick-or-Treat with toddlers!

Halloween is my favorite holiday and even long after I have graduated from going door to door begging for candy I have loved Trick-or-Treat! 

 

 

There’s just something about a crisp Autumn night, witches and goblins, the threat of ghosts and ghouls in the air, and entire towns coming together to pass out candy to Super Heroes and rock stars that makes me feel like a kid all over again! 

 

Of course, I’m far from a kid anymore and now I have my own little ghosts and goblins running around preparing for Trick-or-Treat!  And since I’ve been taking kiddos trick-or-treating for the past 12 years I’ve learned a few tricks that will be your Halloween night a definite treat!

 

• *Choose a costume that is comfortable!  The number one no-no when it comes to taking little ones trick-or-treating is taking them in a costume that is too big, too small, too hot, not warm enough, too long, and just too darn uncomfortable!  So definitely go with a costume that’s cute, but that your child won’t have a meltdown over in Mrs. Smith’s front yard!

 

*  Dress for the weather!  I know it’s a pain in the you know what to spend major bucks on a Halloween costume only to have the temperature be in the 30’s Trick-or-Treat night (something that is a definite maybe here in Ohio) forcing you to cover up Little Timmy’s costume with a jacket.   Layering is the key!  Most store bought costumes are made of thin fabric that make cool fall breezes downright frigid, but buying your child’s costume a little roomy and then having them wear pants and a long sleeved shirt underneath will keep your kiddos from calling it a night as soon as the sun goes down—unless of course that’s your plan!

 

*  Be visible!  Let’s face it, trick-or-treating is like a war zone and big kids with their minds on candy and candy on their minds (you liked the Snoop Dogg reference—admit it) are the enemy!  When you’re taking a toddler trick-or-treating getting separated is a real possibility.  In the event that were to happen you want it to be as easy as possible to locate them quickly…so light them up!  Whether you buy a couple of glow sticks or clothing as an easy way to see your child making sure that they are easily visible is a necessity!  One of my favorite tricks in using glow-in-the-dark tape to clearly mark an area of your child’s costume, on both the front and back, you can easily work it into the various patterns and lines in your child’s costume so that the costume looks the same, but your child is visible to you at all times!

 

*  Take snacks!  Yes, I am aware of the premise of trick-or-treat, but most parents won’t let their children eat the candy before they have examined it (myself included) so taking a baggie of animal crackers or Gold Fish for your child to snack on if they become grumpy will make your night so much better! 

 

*  Practice Manners!  I know that this is a given, but I use every single opportunity that I can to teach my children about manners and Trick-or-Treat is the perfect time to do it!  I make sure that all of my children say, “Thank You!” to everyone that they accept candy from and then I make sure to tell them how very polite they are.  In my experience, if I praise my children for being “very polite” or telling them what nice manners they have then they have used please and thank you more often—anything to get them to say please and thank you! 

 

*  Have FUN!  If you’re not having a good time, chances are pretty good that your kiddos won’t be having the best time either!  I know that it can be a pain to walk for hours in the cool air with candy sick kids looking for their next fix, but take comfort in the fact that you get to go home, examine your kiddos candy, and put all of the Milky Way in a big old pile under the guise that they “look suspicious”—that’s more than enough reason to smile as your taking Susie from house to house!

 

Happy Trick-or-Treating!

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Wholesale Halloween Costumes (Review)

It’s starting to get cooler at night and that can only mean one thing—fall is right around the corner! 

 

 

I can’t tell you how excited I am about cooler weather, changing leaves, and my favorite holiday, Halloween!  I adored Halloween as a kid, but I enjoy it even more know that I can see my own children have so much fun enjoying all of the fall festivities.  Their favorite fall activity is Halloween and nothing says Halloween more than a cool new costume!  Of course, it doesn’t have to be Halloween for your kiddo to have fun dressing up in costumes!

 

Costumes are an every day thing at our house, my two youngest children love dressing up and they have a pretty big collection of mostly boys Halloween costumes, with a couple of girls costumes thrown in for good measure.  I recently had the chance to work with one of my favorite places to get great costumes at even better prices—Wholesale Halloween Costumes! 

 

Wholesale Halloween Costumes is the only website that sells Halloween costumes at wholesale prices with no membership or fees required.  You’ll find a huge selection of costumes for kids and every other member of the family, even the family pet!  They even offer same day Flat Rate shipping for $5.90 Standard and $6.90 Expedited  no matter how big your order is—that totally saves a bundle when you have lots of little ones to buy Halloween costumes. 

 

Since Lil Man’s birthday was earlier this month and since he has a major obsession with comic book hero’s he decided that he wanted an Iron Man birthday party and since his party was Iron Man themed I decided that Iron Man’s  War Machine Costume For Boys would be the perfect choice for our review.  I can’t tell you how excited Lil Man was to receive his costume, he ran to the door every day for a week whenever he would hear the UPS Truck and when it finally came he was over the moon excited!  As soon as the costume arrived Lil Man couldn’t wait to tear it from the package and try it on and when he did his smile was priceless!  Aside from the mask, which he left on for about half a minute, Lil Man has wore his costume flying round the house pretending to be Iron Man almost daily.  (I have photos of Lil Man wearing his costume, but my camera is having issues at the moment, so I will definitely update this post once I figure out what’s going on with the camera).

 

 

Do you have a little Iron Man fan?  Are you looking for the perfect costume for Halloween or just looking for another dress up costume to add to your child’s collection?  Then you should definitely check out Wholesale Halloween Costumes and get quality costumes for prices that can’t be beat!

 

Buy it!

 

You can purchase the War Machine Iron Man costume online at wholesalehalloweencostumes.com for $24.50!

 

*I received the product above to facilitate my review, all opinions are 100% my own!*

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10 Things You Didn’t Know About Halloween!

10 Things you Didn’t Know About Halloween!

1. The traditional colors of Halloween are Orange and Black. Orange represents the fall harvest and Black is the color or darkness and death!
2. More than 93% of children, under the age of 12 will go Trick-or-Treating!
3. Halloween is the 2nd most commercialized Holiday, Christmas is the most commercialized.
4. In the US candy sales average about $2 Billion dollars on Halloween…that’s a lot of Snickers (Snickers is the most popular chocolate Halloween candy).
5. 90% of parents admit to sneaking a treak (or five) from their children’s Halloween bags.
6. Samhainophobia is the fear of Halloween. Ailurophobia is the fear of cats. Wiccaphobia is the fear of witches. Phasmophobia is the fear of ghosts (I definitely have this one…lol). Arachnophobia is of course the fear of spiders, remember the movie of the same name…I was terrified. And last but not least coimetrophobia is the fear of cemeteries.
7. Many of today’s Halloween traditions come from the Celtic pagan festival Samhain.
8. In 1921, Anoka, Minn., held the first official, citywide observance of Halloween in the U.S.
9. Jack-o-lanterns are an Irish tradition. In Ireland, oversized rutabagas, turnips and potatoes were hollowed-out, carved into faces and illuminated with candles to be used as lanterns during Halloween celebrations.
10. You won’t see a full moon on Halloween until October 31, 2020.

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Homemade Halloween Costumes!

With Halloween right around the corner and everyone clamoring to find the perfect costume I thought it might be fun (and a nice change from all of the reviews) to share with you guys some of my favorite websites for Halloween costume inspiration. Now I will have to admit that I’ve NEVER bought my children a Halloween costume from the store, I prefer to make them myself or put something fun and funky together from stuff we have around the house. Doing a homemade Halloween costume is actually so much easier than most people think!

Family Fun

The Family Fun website is one of my favorite places online to find almost everything you ever wanted to know about doing things with your family, from fun craft and recipe ideas to great tips for every holiday, they are my go-to website when I need to find something crafty and family friendly!

They also have a great assortment of Homemade Halloween costumes from classic costumes to funny and even viewer submitted ideas. Some of my favorites from the Family Fun website are the Pick of the Litter,Mouse in the Cheese…super cute for babies, and the Ham and Cheese Sandwich! And they also have a ton of Halloween recipes, crafts, and printable for you to enjoy!

Everything Halloween

Everything Halloween is one of the best websites to find just about anything Halloween related! Party ideas, Haunted House Finder (both IRL and virtual HH), and costume ideas (both homemade and ideas for costumes that can be purchased), if you need it and it’s Halloween related…they have it!

Coolest-Homemade-Costumes

This website has TONS of pictures and very detailed instructions! In my opinion it’s one of the best websites to find unique, fun, and amazing Halloween Costumes!

I know there a lots of other great websites to find homemade Halloween costumes, but these are my favorite (and in my opinion THE BEST). I hope you find something you like! If you know of any great websites for Halloween please leave the URL in your comment as I would love to check them out!

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