My family and I love fall. It kicks off the holiday season with one of our favorite holidays, Halloween. It seems like the first 10 months of the year are so busy with the hustle and bustle of life. But once you see the pumpkin patches popping up around neighborhoods, you know that fall festivals, turkey trots, sleigh riding, and Christmas tree shopping is right around the corner. The holidays and the change in season gives families an opportunity for new, fresh ways to play and spend quality time with the family. You’ll interact in ways not usually available other times of the year.
Since my children and I love crafting and family friendly DYI projects, we decided to kick off fall with some Halloween crafts. And it all starts this weekend. We are going to decorate the yard with decorations we made as a family and of course, a family of pumpkins. Once all of our hard work is finished, we’re going to make some Halloween sweets to enjoy with warm apple cider to eat and drink while we take it all in.
With three kids, I have to play the role of “project manager” for all DIY projects. As a mom, project manager essentially means finding a way to assign tasks for all of us to work together without giving any one child something that is more fun, less fun, or too hard to do.
So I normally start with a planning meeting. The kids and I got together and we talked about how we wanted the yard to look. Did we want a scary look, harvest theme, or something different? Thankfully everyone agreed that scary was the way to go. With a theme in mind, we took to Pinterest and social media for ideas and found some really cool things that we would create together. Once we sorted out what we would do, everyone picked a craft that they would be in charge of and I assigned “assistant project managers.” Everyone had a chance to be in charge of their chose craft.
What did we come up with? Something fun for everyone and not too expensive either- score!
- Ghosts to hang on trees: My six year-old really liked the idea of making your classic ghosts out of tissue paper and hanging them from the front yard. You can’t go wrong with this classic Halloween craft. I found a slight twist to your standard tissue paper ghost and decided that I can implement the same theme inside the house with these ghost bouquets wrapped in cute ribbon. We can definitely handle this craft.
- Gravestones for the yard: My ten-year old has been asking for gravestones in the yard for a few years now and I think I’m going to give in. I didn’t want anything too gruesome or scary and definitely something easy for us to make. There were many ideas for this project that required a lot of tools, materials, etc., and since I like to keep it simple, we decided to go with a variation on this easy tombstone for the yard. Styrofoam, paint, and paint brush is all we’ll need. Definitely works for us!
- Halloween desserts: These indoor treats for all of our hard work looked like a lot of fun to make and eat. We found these gravestone lollipop covers that look fun and add a scary touch to something store bought. We can keep several around the house for friends that come over to play. And finally, these white chocolate ghost cookies look yummy and seem like something that can easily be recreated with the kids. My daughter and resident chef in training was excited about taking over this project.
Looks like we have a busy but fun weekend planned for the family and we can’t wait to get started! How do you like to kick off the holiday season with your family?