Hammer Your Pumpkin

We did a really fun post-Halloween activity with golf tees and a pumpkin - Hammer your pumpkin!

I added a bag of inexpensive golf tees to my grocery delivery order.

Grabbed the kid's tool set + a rubber mallet that we had.

And then told them to hammer their pumpkin!

Both of my boys - ages 9 & 5 - LOVED this activity!!

Hammering them in took a little longer.  Some team work was required.  They learned that it was hard to hammer into the stem, the sides were softer and then I gave them pliers at the end to remove all the golf tees.  They pretending like they were pulling teeth.  They also learned that pulling golf tees out was much easier than hammering them in.

If you still have pumpkins around, I bet your kids would love doing this activity!

I rinsed the golf tees and am saving them to do this again next year.

Have fun hammering your pumpkins!

Happy Halloween Recap

We had a really Happy Halloween!  The weather was perfect which isn't a guarantee in the Midwest and we all had fun with friends.  The kids got the cutest Halloween cards in the mail from family and we really enjoyed all the Halloween festivities.

Pumpkin in a pumpkin.

He's hoping he's too big for our Halloween tricks next year.

The kids barely needed our help to carve pumpkins this year.  Exciting and heartbreaking all at the same time.

Mr. Mittens got some bat wings.

Olive made plans with her best friends to do a matching costume and trick or treat in our neighborhood this year.  I found the cutest Burts Bees Halloween chapsticks for the girls when they arrived.  They LOVED them!  I hope they bring them out for other holidays.

We had a Fall carry in lunch at school.  This homemade apple pie was AMAZING.

Our crew!  We're not used to the bright sun and warm weather on Halloween most years.

Fletcher was beyond excited for his scary costume this year.  He was an alien astronaut.

Leo said he wanted to be a "Skel-a-kin" for months.  This costume had bones on the front and back that were glow in the dark.  He loved his costume!

Olive the green Care Bear.  Her friends worked together to get just the right items for their matching costumes.

We headed to a Halloween dinner party with our neighbors and then set out around the neighborhood.

The kids ran from house to house collecting so many Halloween goodies.

Olive stayed home to pass out Halloween candy, wait for her friends to arrive and then trick or treated a little later with her crew.

The girls arrived, their costumes were all so cute, our house was covered in feathers and they were ready for a fun night.  They all looked so pretty!  It was fun to see their hard work pay off with perfect matching costumes.

How many times can we make Pumpkin pose by a pumpkin?  I'll never get tired of that combo.

We were wiped out after a long night of trick or treating!  The boys could not wait to get home and see their candy haul.

I wore my cat ghost earrings in honor of Mr Mittens.

I barely bought any new Halloween decor, but since adding Mr. Mittens to the family, I can't quit on the black Halloween cats.  This darling basket was a fun boutique find in Wisconsin.

Leo made lots of pumpkin art.

The kids have sorted, traded and shared their candy all weekend long!

I'm always thankful when we have a happy, healthy holiday with our whole family!

Halloween House Tour

I intended to get out the pumpkin in September, but I ran out of time.  I put a pumpkin wreath on the door, baked some pumpkin treats and that was the extent of the Fall vibes at our house.  I think I skipped decorating for Halloween all together last year (hello going back to work full time!) so this year I'm proud to have the house decorated for Halloween.  

I put decorate for Halloween on our weekend to do list.  The kids helped.  Leo was the most eager to help.  You might notice some decor in interesting locations, but Leo was sure that was the best spot for everything.  He loved unpacking our totes of decorations and his favorite part is probably the basket of Halloween books in the family room.  He loves to read them all day long.

I didn't buy any new decor this year for inside.  We just used what we had and donated some things that I was tired of using.  Let's go on a Halloween house tour!

I love the kid art, the handmade decorations and everything is cheerful Halloween vibes.  I stamped a lot of hands, feet and framed lots of art that came home from school.

I bought this Hallween candy bucket from a local artist.  It's so darling!  I can't wait to pass out candy with it this year.

Our entryway table is one of my favorite spots to decorate for the holidays.

Leo painted me a beautiful Fall leaf.

Fall porch!

I collected these Pottery Barn Kids Halloween plates for years when the kids were little.  I love pulling them out every year for snacks, lunches and quick meals.

Happy October!

Halloween 2024 Recap

We had a happy Halloween!  The weather was kind of terrible all day and then it cleared up for a fun night of trick or treating.  The kids enjoyed their costumes, we had dinner with neighbors and we got to trick or treat with friends in the neighborhood.  Huge candy hauls were had by all.

Fletcher was a masked man.

Olive the penguin.

Leo the dragon.

Her BFF dressed up as a polar bear and they trick or treated together.

His original mask was light up and so fun.  It ended up being very difficult to see out of so he swapped it for this back up mask.  I was so happy that I thought to grab a back up mask just in case.

Leo the dragon.  He was the cutest little dragon.  He roared at everyone, smiled and grabbed candy as he ran from house to house with all the big kids this year.

Which made me very nostalgic for Halloween 2020 when we had Fletcher the dragon.  I don't feel super sentimental about their clothes anymore, but I'll be saving this dragon costume just in case their kid ever want to be the cutest green dragon.

One of our neighbors had THE COOLEST skeleton decoration.  It was HUGE and so fun.  I wouldn't want to store that skeleton all year, but the kids sure loved it.

Black and white buddies.

Epic post trick or treating candy hauls.  Fletcher's favorite was the house that gave out freeze dried candy.  He's been wanting to try it forever.

The full sized candy bars were Olive's favorite.  She trick or treated our neighborhood with a buddy and then went out one more time with her polar bear bestie.  She wore cute black cat ghost earrings and made sure to pick out a set of them so that we could match.

Perfect Halloween pumpkin cat and real cat.

We carved pupmkins - Leo, Fletcher & Olive.  They turned out so cute.  Leo was very specific about wanting an angry pumpkin face.

This was a yummy iced coffee treat!  The big kids and I both enjoyed it from Walmart.  It was about $2 with a coupon clipped and SO much cheaper than swinging through Starbucks for a coffee treat.

I hope you had a Happy Halloween!  Now on to my birthday and Thanksgiving in November!