Family Movie Night, Halloween Classics!

Growing up (in the 90's) I remember these movies being on EVERY year for Halloween! Now I want our kids to remember Halloween a little bit like the way we did. So after seeing way too many awesome Halloween snacks on Pinterest, I've decided to make a list of said snacks, paired with a classic family Halloween movie.

Starting with the movie starring the coolest witches of all time,

 Hocus Pocus! 

 Perfectly paired movie snack:

Witch Hands!

Halloweentown!
This movie still always makes me feel super festive!

Perfectly paired movie snack:

Halloween Boo Mix!

This is Halloween, this is Halloween...

The Nightmare Before Christmas. I just can never get enough of Jack!

Perfectly paired movie snack:

Jack Marshmallows Pops!

Beetlejuice,

  Beetlejuice, 

Beetlejuice!

Perfectly paired movie snack:

Graveyard Dip! 

I can't wait to make my munchkins some 

Halloween Hot Cocoa!

These cute, delicious ghosts pair perfectly with the friendliest ghost we know, Casper! 

And last, but not least, another fun loving classic ghost movie. 

Who you gonna call? 

Ghostbusters! 

What are you going to snack on?

Green Slimed Popcorn!

DIY Milk Jug Skeleton, AKA "Little Jack".

Meet Little Jack, our new house guest!

Made from just a few milk jugs, paint, felt, glue and some string. I've seen many variations of milk jug skeletons, but most had the eyes, mouth, and nose cut out, or had awkwardly long bodies. Oh yeah, and none of them looked like Jack Skellington! :D

Caution! This is for indoor use only! I am currently working on acquiring more milk jugs to make some outdoor friendly Jack-faced skeletons for our yard. We are in NEED of some yard decorations, and these would be perfect with a little tweaks. So, stay tuned!

 Here's what you'll need:

-5 clean milk jugs

-Black felt, & Red felt

-Hot glue gun

-White embroidery thread

-Thin black (or white) ribbon

-Black acrylic paint, & paint brush

-Scissors

-Sharpie

-Hole puncher

-Nail polish remover

-Stiffing Spray 

First thing you'll want to do, is paint the face. This way, it will be dry when it's time to attach the head. 

Next, you'll want to cut out Jacks bat bow tie. I just sketched out the tie on paper, and used it as a stencil. After cutting it out you'll want to spray with the stiffing spray. Giving this a chance to also dry, while you work on the rest of his body.




Now you want to draw your lines, using your Sharpie. Don't worry about the lines being messy! That's what the nail polish remover is for. It also takes off any date stamps you have on your jugs as well. You just wet a paper towel with nail polish remover, and wipe the marker away. 

I hope these angles give you a good idea where all your lines should be. The one jug is obviously going to be your skeletons rib cage. The other jug you are cutting off the top, to flip over and use as the groin.








Using your hot glue gun, you're going to attach the top piece of the other jug, to the bottom of your rib cage, like shown in the photo below. Then you're going to cut away the pieces outlined with the red doted line. And before moving onto the next step, you should punch holes where the legs will soon be attached.

Using the jug you just cut the top off, and one other jug,
you are going to cut off two handles. 

Which now you are going to hot glue onto the top side of your skeleton's rib cage. Just put a little glue under the handle, and press in place until it starts to cool off. 

Your skeleton's head should be dry now, as well as his bat bow tie. Simply hot glue them both in place, like so.

Using a small piece of red felt, cut out a simple heart and hot glue that in place as well.

Using this photo as a guide, you are going to cut out each of these pieces TWICE. You'll need two jugs, and each jug should look like this >
on all four sides.








When finished cutting, you should have two hands, two feet, and two bones for each limb. I realized that dipping each piece in nail polish remover, and then wiping them off was more effective then just wiping them with a wet paper towel. Once cleaned off, punch all your holes.

 After this step all you're doing is using your white embroidery thread to tie all your pieces together, and in place. Also, all the pieces are slightly bent, so make sure to lay out all your pieces first to be sure they are all facing the same way. 

To hang him, just cut two slits on the top of his head, and slide your thin black (or white) ribbon through, and tie a knot. He's very light weight, so I was able to hang him with just a single push pin. Making him officially the cheapest, and coolest Halloween decoration we have yet! Come Christmas this little guy will be back again, rocking a Santa hat. Which then will also make him also the coolest Christmas decoration we have. :D

DIY Chore Charts.

Okay, so I'm a weeee bit of a control freak. I tend to forget to let my children clean up after themselves, because it's just so much easier to get things done myself. But seeing as my 5 year old daughter thinks cleaning her room is now a death sentence, I figured it's time to give her a grasp on real responsibly. So I came up with these adorable chore charts for both her and her little brother.

Things you'll need.

- Rectangular frame, mine are 14x7inches. 
- Thick (1 inch) ribbon 
- Clothespins (how ever many you choose to use)
- Acrylic paints 
- Hot glue gun, glue sticks
- Blank sheet from a picture album
- Buttons
- Thin ribbon to use to hang frame 
- Permanent marker
- Wooden craft flourishes. Micheal's always has a huge selection of these. I used trucks for my little man, and went with a crown and castle for my little princess.

I started with painting the clothespins first, since that was the step that would take the longest. (I also used this time to let my glue gun heat up.) After I finished the front of the clothes pins, and they dried, I used the same colors to paint the word "Done!" on the backs of all the them, using a toothpick. 

Now using the blank photo album sheet (I use these for many different projects, so when I come across an old album I make sure to save the sheets) you're going to cut out small rectangular pieces just big enough to fit over the size of the clothespin. Cut out one piece for every clothespin. 

 Using your permanent marker, you're going to write the chores you wish you use on each of the pieces you just cut out.

Now you just need to hot glue it into place. I lined up the clear piece over the clothespin, put a small dot of hot glue right in the left corner, and put the button right over it to hold it all in place. I thought this was a good way to make them so that when I want to change their chores I can just pluck the clear pieces right off, make new ones, and glue those back on with out ruining the clothespins.

The easy part is just hot gluing your wood flourishes in place, and flipping your frame over and also hot gluing all the ribbons in place. And then voila! You start the day with all your clothes pins on the left. After each task is completed, your little one can flip the clothespin over and put it on the right side, showing that the task is "Done!" :D