Thanksgiving Snacks (nope, not the healthy kind!)

When I saw these two posts on acorns and turkeys, I knew I had to give them a try! 1) They're just adorable and 2) they'll be yummy to snack on while the turkey's in the oven. They're so easy to do and the kids could even help if you're busy with the cranberry sauce, the rolls, the mashed potatoes......

1.) Peanut Butter Chocolate Acorns

Nutter Butter Bites
Hershey's Kisses
Chocolate chips

Take a small plate and put it in the microwave for 30 seconds. See how many Hershey's Kisses you can unwrap in those 30 seconds (I got up to four). After the 30 seconds, take the plate out and place the Hershey's Kisses bottom down on the plate. Give them a few seconds to warm up and once the bottom is slightly melted, put it on a Nutter Butter Bite and on a different plate to cool. Do this for as many acorns as you'd like to make.

Once the Hershey's Kisses are securely "glued" to the Nutter Butter Bites, do the same things with the chocolate chips, only keep in mind they only need to be on the plate for a couple seconds. Trust me, they melt fast! Stick them on the other side of the Nutter Butter and voila! Peanut butter chocolate acorns!

2.) Rice Krispies Turkeys

Rice Krispies

Marshmallows (1 bag of big or 1 bag of mini-marshmallows)

Reese's Miniature Cups

Fruity Roll-ups

Googly eyes

First, make a batch of Rice Krispies treats. If you don't know how to do that, neither did I, I just followed the recipe on the box. It's quite simple: melt butter, pour in marshmallows, then pour in Rice Krispies. I poured the mix into a pan covered with aluminum foil, cut it into pieces, and once it was completely cooled, I flipped the batch over so the flat side was facing up.

 Now it's time to make the turkeys! Use the Reese's miniature cups as the body, googly eyes, and fruit roll-ups for the feathers! The original post called for using Starburts, melting and rolling them out but that just seemed like WAY too much trouble!

 

TOTAL COSTS: About $25 (prices from Vons)

$3.50 for Hershey's Kisses

$3.50 for Reese's Miniature Cups

$2.49 for Nutter Butter Bites

$3.99 for Fruity Roll-Ups

$2.99 for Rice Krispies (I used the generic brand)

$2.49 for marshmallows

$2.99 for chocolate chips

$3.99 for googly eyes

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: 2 hours to complete both

1.5 hours for the Rice Krispies turkeys

30 minutes to make 30 acorns

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 1 out of 5 for the acorns, 2 out of 5 for the Rice Krispies turkeys

The turkeys aren't difficult to make, they just take a little more time! Enjoy!

5 Minutes or Less Halloween Ideas

If you just found out you're hosting a Halloween party and you only have 20 minutes to get ready (I don't think that would actually happen but lets pretend, shall we?), here are four 5-minute ideas to get your place ready! And all of this didn't cost me a thing because I already had all the supplies so hopefully you do too!

Mmmm...bloody bandaids....

#1 - The food

Cookies take too long to make and you don't have time to run to the store. What do you do? Grab some ingredients out of your cupboards and fridge and make these Band-Aid Appetizers from Likes.com.

INGREDIENTS: Graham crackers, cream cheese, and jelly
TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: 4 minutes, 45 seconds to make 9.
Notice that I didn't flatten out the cream cheese and make it square but if you get your kids to make these, they probably won't either!
EASY-PEASY SCALE: 1 out of 5. They're so easy to make and they'd be a fun project for the kiddos! Now whether they taste any good... well... that's up to your taste buds.

#2 - The mood

Pumpkin silhouette

So you don't have any fake cobwebs laying around? No zombies? That's ok, you can still make your space spooky! Cut out black paper, or print on black ink and cut out, different designs like jack o'lantern faces or bats! If you want to be really fancy, you could cut out one of these templates from Martha Stewart but it would take more than 5 minutes. Anyone else wish there was a face of Martha Stewart template to cut out? Maybe I'd only be spooked by that...

Bat silhouette

SUPPLIES NEEDED: Paper, scissors, tape (I recommend double-sided but if you don't have any, just make loops) and tape to the front of the design and the inside of the lampshade. Remember not to show the tape outside of the design or it will show through!
TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: 4 minutes, 25 seconds
2 minutes, 25 seconds for the bat, 1 minute 30 seconds for the jack o'lantern, and 1 minute to tape them inside of lampshades
EASY-PEASY SCALE: 2 out of 5. It depends on how difficult of a design you're cutting out but again, something the kids could do and looks great! Just remember not to have paper too close to the hot lightbulb or you might have another kind of scary night!

#3 - The oooed (just go with it)

Mummy

What if the electricity has gone out? Well, put those candles to good use! This post from Thrifty Decor brings to "light" two different ideas and they're super quick and easy!

Creepy eyes

SUPPLIES NEEDED: For the mummy: Gauze or cheesecloth, googly eyes (I used Wilton Candy Eyeballs but you could easily cut eyes out of paper), candle, mason jar, glue. For creepy eyes: dark paper, scissors, tape, marker, hole puncher, candle, and candle holder
TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: 2 minutes, 25 seconds for the mummy and 2 minutes, 30 seconds for the creepy eyes
EASY-PEASY SCALE: 2 out of 5. Again, very easy and very quick to put together. I didn't even tape the gauze for the mummy, I just tucked it in in the back and I didn't glue the eyes on but you certainly can. And while the original creepy eyes calls for strips of paper with eyes cut out, I opted for one sheet of paper wrapped around the candle holder to save on time, taped the paper to the holder, then punched out eye holes. I probably should have drawn the pupils bigger, though.

Tissue ghosts

#4 - The booed

I used to make these as a kid and when I saw this post, I was so happy to see Jen Banks at A Busy Mommy does it for her kids as well! This is probably my favorite but for sentimental reasons.

SUPPLIES NEEDED: Tissues, string or yarn (I used black thread which is harder to see from far away), and a marker
TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: 1 minute per ghost (I made three), and 30 seconds to hang per ghost...unless you have a really difficult chandelier
EASY-PEASY SCALE: 1 out of 5. As I said, I used to make these as a kid so they're really easy to make. The most tissue ghosts, the better!

Happy Halloween!