Category Archives: Fall

Fun Halloween Books

Books, Fall, Halloween, , , , , ,

I love children’s books and I have two that we get out to read every year for Halloween.  My grandchildren love these two; the boys love,

“Frank was a Monster who wanted to Dance.”

Written and Illustrated by Keith Graves

It is a monstrously funny, deliciously disgusting, horrifyingly hilarious story of a monster who follows his dream.

The illustrations in this book are delightfully wacky!

The girls love this darling book by Mary Engelbreit,

“Queen of Halloween”

It tells about how Ann Estelle is ready for a Halloween night on the town, but Halloween can also be a little bit scary.  Will Ann Estelle be brave enough to ring the bell of the spookiest house in  town?

Of course the illustrations in the book are darling.

This book also includes a paper doll of Ann Estelle, so that is a fun little bonus!

I hope that you can spend some time this weekend reading to a child and enjoy their wonderful responses, it is so fun to see the delight in their faces as you read the story.  What are some of your favorite children’s books?

Halloween Bingo

Fall, Games, Halloween, Printables, , , , ,

Here is a cute little bingo game that you could play for FHE, a school party, or at your own Halloween party!

There are 6 game boards and 2 pages of calling cards.  You can use M&M’s or candy corn for markers, or buttons or paper circles.  You may want to laminate the playing cards for durability.

To print, just right click and go to copy.  Open your favorite program, like word or any other program you like. Right click again and go to paste.  These are 8 1/2 x 11 format, but you could resize them to fit 2 on a page in landscape setting.

Happy Haunting!

You can also email these to a lot of your favorite copy stores and they can print them for you.  Alphagraphics in my area, will print them for .56 a page, and that is on cardstock, so that is a pretty good price.  You could also have them laminated (I am not sure of the price of lamination, but their prices seem to be very reasonable) and you would just have to go pick them up and cut them out and you are ready to go!

You can also email these to a lot of your favorite copy stores and they can print them for you.  Alphagraphics in Lehi will print them for .56 a page, and that is on cardstock, so that is a pretty good price.  You could also have them laminated  and you would just have to go pick them up and cut them out and you are ready to go!

 

Roasted Pumkin Seeds

Fall, Recipes, , ,

When I made the “mumkin” the other day, I took the seeds out and decided to roast them.  I found a recipe on allrecipes and tweaked it a bit.  But boy are they yummy.  I have never made these before and I think that I may have just discovered a new tradition for our fall treats from now on!

Here is my version of the recipe: Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

1 cup raw whole pumpkin seeds

1 tablespoon butter-melted

Kosher salt

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F

Clean the pulp off the pumpkin seeds. Rinse well and pat dry. Toss seeds in a bowl with the melted butter.  Spread the seeds in a single layer on a baking sheet, sprinkle witih kosher salt and bake for about 45 minutes or until golden brown. stir occasionally.

Let cool and enjoy.  I think that these would also be good with garlic salt, seasoned salt or any other seasoning that you love!

I ‘m “nutty” about these Roasted Pumpkin Seeds!

Pumpkin planter aka “Mumkin”

Crafts, Fall, Flowers and Garden, , , , ,

I saw this darling idea on Pinterest and just had to make it. I think they called it a “Mumkin!”All you do is hollow out a pumpkin.  Make the hole in the top big enough to put your pot of flowers in.  After I cleaned out all the guts, (which, by the way, you will want to clean and save all of those seeds, because I have a yummy recipe for roasted pumpkin seeds coming tomorrow!) I filled up my pumpkin with water and added a litle bit of bleach to it.  I let the water run over the edges and down the outside of the pumpkin.  This helps the pumpkin not rot as fast.  Empty the bleach water and let the pumpkin dry out for awhile.  Add your potted plant and a cute bow and waala, you’ve got a darling “Mumkin!”Make sure that you take the pot out of the pumpkin to water it and let it drain good before putting it back in.  I am also going to spray bleach/water to the inside of the pumpkin when I take the pot out to water.  I have heard that your pumpin should last about 2 weeks by doing this.  Then when my pumpkin has finally wilted too much, I will just hollow out a new pumpkin to put my pot in!Add some pretty gourds around it and you have a fun fall arrangement!

Pinterest is a virtual board where you can pin any of your favorite finds on the internet.  If any of you would like to view my boards, you can do it by clicking on the link on the right side of this blog.  If you would like an invite to Pinterest, let me know, but be warned, it is very addictive! :)

Happy fall y’all!

Pumpkin Pie Cake

Fall, Recipes, , ,

Fall is here and with it comes the wonderful smell of pumpkin cooking.  We love pumpkin pies, and therefore we also love this Pumpkin Pie Cake!  It has this wonderful crumb topping and I usually heat it up before putting the whipped cream on top. Yummm!

Recipe:

Pumpkin Pie Cake

4 eggs     

1 c. sugar

¼ tsp. cloves

1 can evaporated milk

1 large can pumpkin

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp salt

Mix eggs and sugar together, add rest of ingredients.

Pour into greased 9 x13 pan.

 

Topping:

1 cube butter or marg. Melted

1 yellow or white cake mix

Mix together and sprinkle over pumpkin mixture.

Sprinkle ½ c. chopped nuts on top if desired.

 

Bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees.

Serve with whipped cream.

Glutton for Punishment!

Crafts, Fall, Halloween, ,

I saw this cute Halloween countdown calendar on Studio 5 the other day and I just knew that I needed to make it!  The problem is…that I can never just make one!  I figured that if I was going to make one, I might as well make six!  I made one for me and for each of the girls, and then I figured I might as well make an extra one just in case…   like the title says-

I am just a Glutton for Punishment!

But really and truly they were so cute and so easy that I am glad that I was able to make all of them!

It is a thirteen day countdown so you still have time to make one. If you would like to make your own, (or maybe you are a glutton too, and will want to make multiples!) you will need to go here for a free download of all the vintage prints and the numbers.  Kelly even has very detailed intructions on how to put it all together. She is a very talented crafter and I am so thankful that she was willing to share with all of us! I noticed on her blog that she will be on Studio 5 again on Wed,Oct 19th, making paper pumpkins. It will be fun to see what she will make this time!

Happy crafting!

Pin Your Heart on the Skeleton!

Fall, Games, Halloween, ,

I love, love, love Halloween! 

(As if you couldn’t tell!)

The food, the decorations, the games, the cool crisp air.  I love everything about Halloween.

I found this cute little game on Pinterest, and I thought that  it would be fun for our family party, or for all you room mothers out there, here is a quick, easy game to do.  There is a down load for the pattern here:

Too Cute!

1

Hope you have a bewitching weekend!

 

Halloween Tree

Crafts, Fall, For the Home, Halloween, , , , , , ,

My daughter had this dead tree that she brought over to me and said that it would be perfect for a Halloween tree!  What do you think?

I had this old, yucky pot, stains, cobwebs and all! And I spray painted the pot and the tree and…Added a bunch of decorations.And this is what I got! I added the witch hat to the base of the tree and this is what it looks like at dusk.This is my little flower cart on the front porch.My favorite find at Swiss Days a couple of years ago!It’s beginning to look a lot like… Halloween!

Fall Flowers

Fall, Flowers and Garden, , , , ,

I worked all morning in my yard, I was weeding and pruning some of the perennials. The flowers this fall have been absolutely beautiful!  I do not have the heart to pull some of them out!

These marigolds were planted from seeds that I gathered last summer, I could not believe how well they grew.  I just kind of threw the seed into the soil and started watering them and I think that they are some of my prettiest ones yet.

This is one of my planters on the front porch.  I need to pull them out so that I can put all my Halloween decor out.  I told myself that I had to wait until Oct, so next week my  planters will be history!These are some of the perennials in my yard.  I love the fall blooms.Beautiful!While I was out weeding and pruning, I came across this one lone Shasta Daisy.  I could not cut it down so I took a picture instead!My pink bush by the waterfall.Trumpet plantThese are actually in my neighbor’s yard, but they are on the fence line.  These morning glory are so big and beautiful.  I took this picture in the middle of the day and I was going to go back this evening to retake the picture and the blooms had closed up.  I did not know that the blooms only last for one day.  They are like the moon roses that my daughter in law has at her house.  They are very beautiful but only for  one day.  Thank goodness there are lots of new buds!These are Concord grapes that I have in my garden and even though they are not flowers, I think that they look beautiful.  However, I feel like the birds are going to win the battle with these beauties because I have to wait for the first frost before I can pick them and it has been so warm here with no frost in sight in the near future that I fear the birds are going to have a feast!  Oh well I guess it will have to be my contribution to nature!

I have been working on several printables for Oct including the new VT message and a couple of games.  So check back soon for these!

Just Peachy!

Fall, Printables, Recipes, , ,

I went out last Sat. night and noticed that my peaches were ready to pick!  The reason I knew they were ready was because the birds had started eating them!  I was bound and determined not to let the birds win, so my husband and I went out and picked them all.  This tree is only 3 years old and it was loaded this year.  I should have thinned them out a little more because they were not really big, but that is ok, because they have a fantastic flavor!I bottled peaches on Monday and I love to see all the bottles lined up on my cupboard before I put them away in the pantry.  I think that they look so pretty.Then I had to make this yummy fresh peach dessert.

I’m in Heaven!Here is the recipe, if you have any peaches around, you should seriously make this dessert!

Tomorrow I am going to flash freeze the rest of the peaches on a cookie sheet so that I can make smoothies with them!  Yum!