Halloween is Coming!

I love a reason to celebrate, dress up my house (and children, haha!), and make food! Halloween is always a fun holiday around our house.

Decorating

I prefer to just decorate with pumpkins, leaves, and fall colors-especially orange and white. I’ve been adding navy to the orange for the past few years since I have some navy rooms and accessories. But the week before Halloween… I pull out the black ribbons, spiders and web, Carter puts out skeletons (and we have a funny creepy computer that is motion-activated and talks to kids)! I do NOT like scary, but a few of the things are tolerable.

I love that we have a GREAT neighborhood to trick-or-treat in (big neighborhood/lots of houses, only one entrance, great treats, and it’s only walkable..the traffic is horrible!). I LOVE that everyone has to walk, and I get to see so many friends and kids’ friends..it’s a total social evening! I also love that friends know they can stop in to use the restroom or grab a drink for their littles. I also love the traffic since no one can leave…is that bad? It’s always an eventful evening with my kids and family-they come and go bringing treats, sometimes regifting them by the handful (they don’t trick or treat for the candy!), and they chat and tell me who is coming down the street soon. I’m in love.

I get to keep the house dark and romantic (to me), burn alllll the candles I like, and all my big kids come home to keep a fire pit burning out front in the circle drive with their friends and hand out (and eat) candy. I encourage all the big kids to dress up (and go trick-or-treating if they’d like)-don’t they grow up too fast? I really don’t mind giving candy to kids bigger than me. Heck, I have adults come to trick-or-treat sometimes!

I put out Mary Claire’s old dollhouse on the porch and use and put little candles or twinkle lights on every floor. It kinda looks like a smaller version of our house now that we’ve painted our house. But everything looks spookier on Halloween.

Costumes

And the costumes. I usually hand-make them. That’s mostly because my kids don’t “shop” for a costume..they dream them up! Mary Claire was cotton candy last year, and Carter has been a computer, red bell pepper, red crayon … and sometimes he’s two to three things for each Halloween! We’ve been mummies (together!), characters from The Wizard of Oz, Star Wars characters, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Carter has been Batman, and I was “his Bat Girl”. I’ve been the Tooth Fairy, Minnie Mouse …the characters don’t end. We always have a few back-up costumes in case we have un-dressed-up friends show. There’s always the ghost, shadow, Darth Vader, and a blow up T-Rex for them!

This year Carter first chose Optimus Prime (a Transformer). I pinned so many cardboard box buildable costumes, and I showed him all of them! He then said he wanted to buy a costume, and he chose an Air Force Pilot. He thought I’d be disappointed…but I was excited (like whew, that saved me 20 hours). He ended up choosing a Top Gun costume. We got it this weekend, he had some perfect RayBan sunglasses, and he’s good to go (yay!). Mary Claire is still working on a cowgirl costume, and she says she doesn’t need my help this year. I bought some black pleather pants and a super bright pink sweater on Saturday. I may just be 80s Barbie, haha!

Food

I love all the pumpkin foods (I overbuy and always end up with an extra 4 or 5 cans of pumpkin after Christmas!). We love pumpkin bread, pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, pumpkin pie, caramel pecan pumpkin bread pudding, pumpkin cheesecake, ANY thing pumpkin (except I’m not a super fan of pumpkin spice lattes). (Pumpkin pecan waffles is my FAVORITE BBW scent, just FYI!!)

But I love a good beef stew or chili on Halloween evening for dinner. I have to find something that I can make early, that can stay warm for kids and friends coming and going, and it is hearty (so they don’t eat too much candy!). Here is how I make an easy beef stew:

Beef Stew Recipe: (After making a big beef pot roast and 2 lb baby carrots in the crock pot, I cut up the leftover beef and carrots and put in a storage container to make soup later in the week.) In a large pot or dutch oven, make 7 cups of beef broth (7 cubes of beef bouillon cubes and 7 cups of water). Add 2 peeled & diced (about 3/4” cubes) russet potatoes. Bring to boil, and let simmer for 10-12 minutes until potatoes are soft and can almost be smashed against the side of the pot. (Add the leftover beef and carrots from crock pot now!), a 15 oz.can of diced tomatoes, then frozen mixed veggies until you’ve taken up most of the liquid. Add a little garlic powder, Italian seasoning if you like, and salt & pepper to taste. Yum! It is ready to eat when the frozen veggies are all cooked (5-6 minutes of simmering). I leave this on low all evening or transfer to a crock pot on warm or low. Serve with cheese and crackers.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffin Recipe: These family-favorite muffins are super easy to make! I keep the ingredients on hand to make for company (or just when we need a pumpkin/chocolate fix!). Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix one 15 oz. can of pumpkin with a spice cake mix. Then add a 10 oz. bag of mini chocolate chips. That’s it! Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls into mini muffin tins. Bake for 10-13 minutes. let cool, and remove with a plastic spoon or knife. Makes about 42. Bonus: they have great fiber for your college kids who need to go.

We made a wonderful charcuterie board last year for snacking (and for an AOII competition!). We did seriously snack on it though…but it’s hard to clean up or save any of it..so I’d suggest only putting out what you think your guests will eat (does anyone tell you this? It’s true!). No one wants to eat the leftovers that other people might have touched, haha! (except maybe hungry college kids..)

Friends, go enjoy Halloween with your loves! And if you don’t have anyone home this year, come by my house and sit by the fire or have some beef stew! : )

If your kiddos are far away, you can send them a Halloween gift box too, I’m trying those out this month! Hope they are the perfect packed-up box of fun, sweets, and love!

love, mom