Halloween Dinner: Chicken Parmesan Mummies

We had our Halloween dinner last night!

As tradition, we dimmed the lights to eat our spooky meal...

Chicken Parmesan Mummies

on a bed of baby bats (Farfalle pasta dyed gray while cooking)

with blood red sauce.

We also had Halloween shaped Parmesan garlic bread

& Halloween jello jigglers (:

I got the idea for the Chicken Parmesan Mummies from Somewhat Simple

although I ended up using crescent roll dough instead of biscuits.

It was super easy & so tasty!

Do you like having fun holiday meals?

Check out our other Halloween dinners:
Nightmare Before Christmas
Mummy Braided Chicken Roll

xoxo

FHE: Holy Ghost - Halloween

Opening Song: Family Night

Opening Prayer

Scripture: Doctrine and Covenants 130:22

Lesson:
Halloween is this week.
What are some symbols you think of when you hear the word Halloween?
(Jack-o'-lanterns, black cats, witches, skeletons, ghosts, etc...)
Today we are going to talk about a ghost.
Not just any ghost though...
We're going to talk about the Holy Ghost.
The Holy Ghost is not a scary ghost.
Instead of being scary, it helps us when we're scared or afraid.
The Holy Ghost can comfort us.

Story:
Found in Behold Your Little Ones: Nursery Manual (Lesson 6)

The Holy Ghost has many names...
The comforter.
The Spirit.
The Spirit of the Lord.
The Spirit of God.
The still small voice.

The Holy Ghost is called the still small voice because he doesn't speak loudly.
He tells us things in a quiet voice or most often in a feeling.

How do you feel when you do something that is good?
How do you feel when you do something wrong?
He gives us a happy, warm feeling when something is right
& a bad or sad feeling when something is wrong.

The Holy Ghost will help us know what's right & what's wrong,
but we have to be willing to listen & choose the right.

First stanza of the poem 'Help from the Holy Ghost' by Erin Renouf Mylroie
I'm learning how to choose the right.
I'll do my best both day and night.
But when I'm not sure what to do,
The Holy Ghost will help me through.

Closing Song: The Holy Ghost

Closing Prayer

Activity: We watched The Nightmare Before Christmas,
but Casper would probably fit the theme better if you wanted to watch something (;

Treat: Banana Ghosts

xoxo

Saturday Dishes - Halloween

This week's theme is:
Halloween

I can't believe that Halloween is less than a week away!
Do you have any fun traditions to share?
Feel free to share Halloween themed foods, parties, decor, or anything else that fits the theme!

If you have any family friendly costume ideas to share as well,
feel free to link them up at my Halloween Costume Party!
It's not much of a party at the moment
because I haven't had the time to promote it,
but it's all good...
My feelings are still intact.
I'll be adding a Sonic the Hedgehog costume later this week!
Anywho, let's talk about THIS linky!

If you're new to the party

welcome to Saturday Dishes
where every week is a new theme...

Your job is to post your recipes that coincide with that theme!

Easy peasy, right?

Don't have a recipe that goes with the theme?
No worries!
Just sit back, relax, enjoy the other posts,
& be sure to check out the index & upcoming themes
to see what you can post in future weeks!

Saturday Dishes is hosted by:

- Marissa @ Life is Fantasmic -
Facebook ♥ Twitter ♥ Google+ ♥ Pinterest ♥ Bloglovin' ♥ SoundCloud

- Lisa @ Pebbles and Piggytails -
Facebook ♥ Twitter ♥ Google+ ♥ Pinterest ♥ Bloglovin' ♥ Instagram

Check out our blogs & show us some love!
We love seeing new faces & new followers on our social media,
& comments make us smile (:

Last week's theme was Pumpkin & Squash.
There were so many wonderful recipes that I want to try!
Here were a few of my faves...

Pumpkin Eclairs from So Much To Make
Eclairs are so tasty! I could go for one of these right now. Or two. Or three...

Extra Thick Pumpkin Pancakes from Reveal Natural Health
I had pumpkin pancakes for breakfast the other day & have been wanting them ever since!

Mile High Pumpkin Pie Bars from Bitz & Giggles
These sound simply delectable!

Lisa's faves might be different than mine,
so don't forget to swing by her blog too! (;
Oh yeah...
& if you were featured
feel free to grab a button!

<div align="center"> <a href="http://lifeisfantasmic.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="Life Is Fantasmic" src="http://imageshack.com/a/img834/3923/21jg0.jpg" />

Next week's theme is:
Family Recipes
so come back next week to share recipes that were passed to you from a family member!

Now on to the linky...
Link up your Halloween recipes, parties, traditions & ideas,
visit other posts,
& make new friends!

Keep spreading the word so we can see new faces at the party!

If you'd like to be a guest host send us an email so that we can get you on the calendar,

& let us know what themes you would like to see in the future.
We'd love to use your ideas!

By linking up at Saturday Dishes, you are giving permission for Life is Fantasmic & Pebbles and Piggytails to feature your posts with one image on social media with links back to you.

An InLinkz Link-up

xoxo

Halloween 2014 Costume Party

Pretty self explanatory, right?

Link up your family friendly costumes

anytime between now & November 8th (:

An InLinkz Link-up

xoxo

Halloween Dinner 2013

So remember that Halloween post

where I explained that Halloween didn't feel like Halloween this year?

On Friday we had our Halloween dinner.

A day late.

Trying to keep that tradition alive.

It was tasty, but even this dinner didn't seem very Halloween-like.

We didn't get out the Halloween tablecloth.

We didn't use our Halloween plates.

We didn't even clear off the table.

We just enjoyed our slightly Halloween themed dinner.

But hey, the tradition happened, right?

Here's what we ate:

Mummy Braided Chicken Roll

Here's that recipe.

It's a favorite around here.

Bloody Jello Jigglers

I was going to do my usual orange & grape Halloween jigglers.

However, I had no grape & only had one 3 oz package of orange.

What we did have was an abundance of red jello flavors.

So I went with cranberry & made 'bloody' jigglers.

The bloody spatter/streaks on the plate were made from the thin layer of jello

that spilled over in the jello mold while transferring it to the fridge.

Goblin Eyes

Green grapes.

Easy.

Healthy.

Delicious.

That's it.

That's all we had.

Again, nothing super fancy.

No decorations or whatnot.

It was an enjoyable family dinner tradition

& I didn't have to put a whole lot of extra thought into it.

Huzzah.

If you haven't seen our Nightmare Before Christmas Halloween dinner from last year,

you should definitely check it out!

xoxo

Halloween 2013

How was your Halloween?

Ours was windy & rainy all day long...

Because we've had such a crazy month:

I didn't get out any decorations,

I didn't have costumes ready,

we didn't carve/paint pumpkins,

we hadn't had our traditional Halloween dinner,
we hadn't watched The Nightmare Before Christmas,
(or any Halloween movies for that matter)

we hadn't enjoyed caramel apples,

(even though we picked 1/2 bushel at a local orchard)

& I didn't have candy until the day before.

It just didn't feel like Halloween.

So when it came time to make lunch for the kidlets,
I decided to pull off an impromptu Halloween muffin tin meal.
This is what happens when I don't plan ahead of time...

We watched The Nightmare Before Christmas while eating pumpkin shaped cheese, ghost shaped pb&j, apple slices, a banana ghost, a pumpkin orange with an apple stem, & of course caramel sauce to dip the apples in.

Simple, cute, & mostly fruit.
Not quite as 'themey' as my usual,
but I like how it turned out.

After the first couple handfuls of trick-or-treaters came by,
I finally pulled out our Halloween bin to decide on costumes.

I wasn't sure how well the paint on the Calvin & Hobbes costumes would handle the rain
(it might have been fine, but we didn't want to take the chance that it might run)

so we decided to take the simple route
& go as student witches & wizards.

Yes, I understand that our school uniforms are not up to Hogwarts standards.
We're working on adding to them little by little,
& eventually will have our complete uniforms.
We received plenty of compliments on them "as-is" last night,
but that was probably because of those adorable red-heads that were wearing them.

We lost a wand while we were out & about,
so today we're going to retrace our steps to try & find it.
If we can't find it while we're on our walk,
We may have to make a trip to Ollivanders in the near future for another one.

Tonight we're going to have our {belated} Halloween dinner,
then make caramel apples.
We're going to nix decorating pumpkins this year,
but I think that will be okay.
Don't you?

Oh, & if you missed my Harry Potter party posts last month:
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3
Check 'em out!

xoxo

Halloween costume 2013 - Possibilities

Halloween really sneaked up on us this year.

I'm sure that's partly because we're still trying to get settled,

but mostly because Gram passed away a couple weeks ago.
I can't believe it's already been two weeks

We've had a lot going on with the funeral & everything...

Since Halloween is only one day away at this point,
instead of creating/finishing our Wreck it Ralph costumes last second

I think we'll be taking the easy route

& wearing repeat costumes this year.
That's okay, right?
I'm thinking yes.

Besides...

Nobody in our new area has seen us wear these costumes before!

We probably won't decide until tomorrow,
but here are some of our easy options...

Chances are that Hubby & Little Dudeman will be going as Calvin & Hobbes again.

Little Princess will either be rockin' the Perry the Platypus costume,

the butterfly fairy costume,

or she may go as a little witch from Hogwarts.

I'll be Isabella again if Little princess is Perry the Platypus.

I never finished making my caterpillar costume to go with her butterfly one,
but I can always throw on a muumuu & lei like last year
or just find something in our costumes bin.

OR
We may ALL go as witches & wizards.
Fresh from Hogwarts.

It will be a surprise.
Don't worry, I'll post pictures of what we actually end up wearing.

On a complete side note...
Keep your eyes out for my review of K5 Learning.
Coming soon.
K5 Learning has an online reading and math program for kindergarten to grade 5 students.  I've been given a 6 week free trial to test and write a review of their program.  If you are a blogger, you may want to check out their  open invitation to write an online learning review of their program. - See more at: http://www.k5learning.com/review-k5

xoxo

Halloween costumes 2012

I know this is a couple weeks late but better late than never, right?

Sooo...

Happy {belated} Halloween!

 Our little princess was a butterfly fairy.

We already had the purple onesie, found the tutu at Deseret Industries, and my grandma gave her the wings.

Absolutely adorable!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And now for the guys...

Little dudeman was Calvin and hubby was Hobbes.

The Calvin costume started out as a red t-shirt and black pants, and Hobbes was just an orange sweatshirt and orange sweatpants that I ordered on Amazon. Hobbes' belly was made from a pale yellow t-shirt from Deseret Industries. I basically created my own pattern by masking off where I wanted it on the sweatshirt,  then marking it on the t-shirt with chalk (accounting for seam allowance).

Then the cutting and sewing began...

I am definitely no professional when it comes to sewing, and I get REALLY nervous every time I do it. If I had a real pattern for this, I'm not sure I would be able to figure it out and I would probably get a headache trying to do so.

So please excuse me for my lack of correct sewing terminology.

I tend to do better eyeballing it which makes no sense, but it works for me. For now.

Next, I painted the stripes on the Calvin shirt and the Hobbes costume by using masking tape and slightly watered down black acrylic paint. Unfortunately, I think I watered down the paint a little too much a few times that I mixed it, which made the paint bleed underneath the taped off areas as you can see with the top of the Calvin costume. :(

I was able to fix the areas that bled too much on the Hobbes costume since they didn't need to be evenly spaced, but couldn't do anything for the Calvin shirt.

The tail is probably my favorite part of the costume... haha

I made the tail out of an orange t-shirt that I got at Deseret Industries that was a pretty close match to the color of the sweats. I cut out one long, wide strip (making sure to account for room for batting so it would be big enough all the way around). Then I used my sewing machine to sew it together on two sides & turned it inside out so that it was a long tube. I stuffed it with batting and scraps (since I didn't have enough batting on hand), then I taped and painted it. Once the paint was dry I sewed it onto the pants.

The ears were made out of black felt, the pale yellow t-shirt scraps, and pipe cleaners. I got the idea for the ears here, but since I didn't have any no-sew fabric glue I attempted sewing them. I sewed two pieces of felt together, turned them inside out and placed the pipe cleaner inside, then sewed the inner ear on, which held the pipe cleaner against the edge of the ears. I cut the slits into the hood of the sweatshirt and hand-stitched them on. They turned out a little bigger than I had intended, but not too bad for not knowing what I was doing.

In the end, nobody knew who they were. Everyone thought Hobbes was Tigger.

Oh well... I still think they turned out pretty awesome!

Here's a couple Calvin and Hobbes Halloween strips for you to enjoy:

I found this awesome comic strip here...

...and this funny was found here.

What about me? I threw on a muumuu and handed out candy. I didn't have time to make myself a costume. Maybe I'll have time next year...

Nightmare Before Christmas - Halloween dinner 2012

This year for Halloween instead of doing a "Halloween" dinner,
we did a Nightmare Before Christmas dinner...
It was basically a smaller version of Christmas dinner with a Halloween twist.
(Notice the red Christmas tablecloth)

We had Halloweentown ham shaped like ghosts,

Pumpkin King potatoes,

and Oogie Boogie's rolls (We couldn't forget the dice!).

We also had Sally's stuffing, peas & candy corn,

and Halloween jigglers!

We turned the lights out and got to enjoy the meal with our Halloween candles!

We were also going to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas that night since it went with dinner, but time just didn't allow for it so we had to postpone the movie.