Tag Archives: Halloween

Halloween Activity Basket

Posted on by
Reply

It’s officially spooky season!

We love Halloween in our home and have so much fun with it every year. Last year, I made a Halloween preschool activity box for Mila and decided to make a new one this year! Filled with fun activities, this basket gives her busy tasks to do after school or while dinner is getting made. I love to have fun and engaging activities for Mila when she comes home, but sometimes, I can get busy. This basket will have the same activities in it all month long so she knows what to expect.

Let’s dive inside.

I got most of the items in person at Target, various dollar stores, and Joanns Fabrics. BUT, I searched online to find you all similar items incase you’d like to do this with your child. As with any links I have on here, I might get a small percentage with every purchase.

First, I got this orange basket at the Dollar General. Their baskets are always so good at an even better price. To make it festive, I used The Letter Vee‘s printable with some fun yarn.

I also have some other fun Halloween printables from The Letter Vee. She has a ton listed that are perfect for spooky season, but I put the spooky alphabet sheet for letter recognition and a coloring page. Both are great for a quiet activity. There’s also some blank papers in there for Mila to draw or trace.

Speaking of tracing. I added in some Halloween cookie cutters. She can practice tracing these and cutting them out. I’m excited what she creates with these.

Here’s some fun cookie cutters I found online:

https://zuli.ly/sl/n/t/r12M
https://amzn.to/3CaVisK

Another fun tracing element I added were Halloween resin letters from Beags and Bubs! We love their resin letters and sensory sets. These particular letters are Halloween themed and we’ll use them all season long. Mila can trace them and also use them with the letter sheet too. They’re a staple in our home to play with.

If you do want to get some resin letters OR sensory kits from Beags and Bubs, use MILA15 to save!

Since Mila absolutely loves to paint and color, I added some wooden crafts from different dollar stores. These are so great for kids to create with. They’re cheap and they always end up so cute. She has a wooden jack-o-lantern and pumpkins. We use these crafts all the time so she’s very familiar how to work with them.

One fun activity that I actually made using The Letter Vee printable was this Halloween matching/memory game. I linked the video of how to make it to the picture. This just sits in a bucket and has been a big hit!

We also added some Halloween books. Most of our Halloween books are on Mila’s reading shelf in our home. She always has access to books and I plan to change these ones out every few days so she can be surprised.

Here’s some Halloween books that we love. If there’s some of the ones that you love and we’re missing, comment the titles below!:

Okay — that’s a TON of books, but they’re all so good. We have a lot more at home, but I had to limit myself to this amount for right here. Again, if you have a book we need to read for Halloween, please comment below.

On to the next item in the basket. STICKERS!

Mila is no different and loves stickers. I added a Halloween sticker book and some from the dollar store too. These will provide so much fun for her. She can use the wooden pumpkins or paper to stick them too.

I love this sticker book option from Amazon!

The rest of the items are ones you can find any where, and again, are staples in our home.

Here’s a closer look at everything inside this Halloween basket. It’s linked to an Instagram post where you can hear the sound with it too.

We love how everything turned out and I can’t wait for Mila to enjoy this all October long. I’ll make sure to share all the fun Halloween Activities we do the next few weeks. You won’t want to miss it!

What was your favorite item in the Halloween Basket?

Advertisement

Halloween DIY: Googly Eye Headband

Posted on by
9

A smile is the best accessory a girl can wear… but a Googly Eye Headband is the spookiest.

Mila absolutely loves accessorizing for school, dance class, and everything in between. We had to make something a little creepy for Halloween week! This Halloween DIY was a fun one to make and made a huge statement too!

To make our Googly Eye Headband, we just needed three things… I found everything at our local dollar store:

  • Fluffy Kitty Headband
  • Hot Glue
  • Googly Eyes

First, remove the ears off of your cat headband. Mila’s were easy for me to take off. I just had to tug at them a little bit. They didn’t negatively impact the headband either!

Next, glue the two ear together to make a diamond shape. Be careful here, you could burn your fingers.

Then, start gluing googly eyes down.

I didn’t do it in a specific order. Just where I thought the different sizes should go.

Once the diamond shape was completely covered, I glued it to the headband. To make it more cohesive, I added a few googly eyes directly to the headband too.

After everything was glued down, I made sure to take off excess glue that stuck to the eyes and headband. I ended up adding a few more eyes on it too when it was put together.

Mila LOVED how it turned out and has worn it a couple of times already.

I think it would be perfect for a witch’s costume, if your child wouldn’t want to wear a hat. It might be cute for a monster costume as well.

My favorite way Mila’s worn it was with a Halloween shirt to school!

The headband doesn’t get weighed down by all the eyes and Mila had hers on for the entire day.

This simple Halloween DIY is a fun way to add a little spooky to your every day outfits. You can easily pick up these items at your local dollar store too!

I hope you and your little ghoul love this accessory as much as we did!

What’s your favorite wearable Halloween outfit or accessory you’ve made for either you or your child?

Tiny Ghoul Gang Party

Posted on by
9

Mila and my’s favorite part about this October was her Tiny Ghoul Gang Party. It was a fun way to get all of her friends together and celebrate Halloween!

She had been asking me for weeks about having a party. For some reason she was convinced that her birthday was this month… and not six months away. Instead of fighting that battle for six more months, we invited her preschool and dance friends over and had a Tiny Ghoul Gang Party.

When I first decided to throw this party for Mila, I came up with a pumpkin painting party idea. She loves painting and crafts and I figured her friends would too.

I had a ton of Halloween activity ideas pinned and saved on Instagram. There’s so many creative people in the world, I’m so thankful they share their ideas! It was easy to find things for the kids to do.

Thankfully it was minimal prep too!

The Activities

Pumpkin Painting:

The main party activity was pumpkin painting. We literally laid down an old blanket and table clothes, set out paint and brushes, then let the kids have at it. Honestly, they went right to wanting to paint pumpkins which took me by surprise. If I would have known that, I would’ve got the paint out beforehand. Thankfully, there was a great group of parents who immediately jumped in and helped out!

Besides paint, we also let the kiddos put googly eyes on their pumpkins to decorate too! They all turned out adorable.

This activity is messy. Obviously. If I were to do this again, I’d have found more tables or gotten pallets for the kids to use. Just to stabilize the pumpkins and keep the brushes and paint upright.

Witch’s Brooms:

I just talked about these in another blog post. They’re one of my favorite Halloween activities and went pretty well with a big group of girls. The hardest part was finding the letters of all the girls’ names.

Before the party, I made all of the brooms. If I would do this activity again for kids, I would have their name beads already set out or put in a bag.

Again, there was an amazing group of parents their with us that helped out!

Sensory Bins:

Technically I had three sensory areas set up, but we only got to two. The one sensory play idea that wasn’t used was a potion making station. I think that was fine because it ended up getting cold, which is never good mixed with wet clothes.

The one bin that was used the most was the spaghetti bin. There were eyeballs, fingers, and spiders that the kids could find. But, a couple of them (mostly Mila), ended up just eating the spaghetti… yum. They all did seem like they loved playing with this sensory bowl.

Maybe for the next Halloween party, I’ll do multiple cold spaghetti bowls.

In the other sensory bowl was ‘monster soup.’ It just had torn up tissue paper, Halloween colored sensory items (balls, pipe cleaners, etc). The girls really enjoyed this too!

Bobbing for Apples:

Like I stated above, the cold and water don’t really mix, but the girls really enjoyed trying this. It’s just your classic bobbing for apples game. The ones who participated did really good… the others volunteered to just eat the apples.

Halloween Egg Hunt:

Mila helped prep this activity. I found Easter eggs that looked like jack-o-lanterns at Target. We filled them up with candy and Mila spread them around the yard.

I’m not sure how well she hid them… but the kids loved running and finding them. It was an easy activity and got them playing independently.

Throwing Games:

We also had a few throwing activities that I didn’t get pictures of. One was to throw rings around pumpkin stems. Again, easy set up and fun! Then my mom found this game where you throw a ball in pumpkin styled cups. What kid doesn’t like throwing?

I think all the kids loved what we had set up. There was Halloween music playing in the background, so we got to see some dance moves too. When the kids didn’t have a guided activity, they just ran, talked, or played on the play equipment too. I don’t think any of them were ever bored during the party.

It was so much fun to see Mila’s favorite groups of friends come together.

The Food

I promise I had every intention of making this party have more food than dessert. It just didn’t manifest that way.

The food spread was mostly a dessert bar full of Halloween treats. To be honest, I bought all the desserts. I did not have time to make everything, besides adding extra Halloween sprinkles to the cake. Still, I loved how it turned out!

For the food, we had fruits, veggies, cream chicken, mummy hot dogs, and a skull meat and cheese plate. Plus, there were buckets of chips and a sweet Halloween mix too.

I was actually surprised with how much food was eaten. Of course I still had leftovers, but the majority of it was gone!

We also started a fire and had s’mores too.

The Goodies

To make it a little more special, I made Ghoul Gang shirts for the girls. I think they turned out adorable and even made myself a sweatshirt.

It made for really cute pictures and I love getting shirts, so I knew Mila’s friends would too.

We also made baskets for the kids to take too. It was just a trick or treat bucket filled with goodies for them to take home.

The best goodies for me was watching all of the ghouls having fun. Their smiles and laughs are the reason why any parent does what they do for their kids. I love that this group of girls get to grow up together. Just knowing Mila will have friends going into school and through life brings me so much peace for her.

I am so thankful for all the parents that let their kiddos come. Mila has talked about it almost every day since.

Throughout the madness of the day, Mila and I didn’t get a single picture at her party. This isn’t too crazy. We rarely remember to get pictures together.

Once we got home, she thanked me for her party and gave me a big hug. That’s when we got the picture.

I love being her mom and having the ability to do these types of things for her. Something tells me she’s going to be a kid that wants a party for all occasions. Fingers crossed we’ll be able to do it!

Even when life is crazy, it’s party days like those and the hugs after that make the hard parts worth it.

I can’t wait to see what we come up with for next year’s Halloween party.

Have you ever threw your child a Halloween party? What was your favorite activity at yours or Mila’s?

11 Simple Halloween Activities.

Posted on by
15

Halloween is almost here!

Mila and I have done a lot of fun activities to celebrate this month. I wanted to share Simple Halloween Activities you can easily put together before the big day.

All of these can have a version put together quickly at home, but they’re all fun for kids.

1. Potion Making

Mila has loved the idea of making potions this year. As always, water is a HUGE hit with kids.

Witch’s (or Warlock’s) potions help with gross motor skills and amps up pretend play. I always provide multiple bowls, jars, and spoons for her to use. Mila will sit at the island and play for a long time, especially if I keep filling up the water jar.

I won this particular potion making kit from an Instagram giveaway from Little October House.

Emily, the shop owner, is a fellow Ohioan and does an amazing job putting together seasonal sensory kits. I’ve been wanting to order and was so happy that I was able to win this kit.

It came with everything I needed, I just needed to set up the bowls and give Mila water!

Not only was it fun for Mila, it smelled so good.

I’ve also set up DIY potion kits for Mila to play with too. All I used was jars, bowls, spoons, food coloring, and dish soap.

It definitely gives the potion making vibes and she had fun with that too!

One thing I want to try to make it a little more special is grinding up one of her bath bombs too. I think it would give off more bubbles.

The resin creatures, bubbles, and elixir in Little October House is just too cute to pass up! We’ll probably be doing more DIY potions the q few days since it’s been Mila’s favorite way to unwind after preschool.

2. Play Doh Monsters

If you’re looking for an easy activity to set up and only need two to Inca, look no further.

All you need for this simple Halloween activity is Play-Doh and googly eyes! If you’re really feeling fun, you could add pipe cleaners too.

To get Mila started on this one, I just told her to make monsters with a lot of eyes. That seemed to do the trick. She dove right in and made all different kids of monsters.

She even started singing her latest song she learned at preschool.

Watch out for my big scary eyes. Watch out for a big surprise… BOO!

One way to make it more educational is to have kids count the number of eyes or tell them how many eyes to put on each monster.

But, they’re learning SO many skills by just picking up the eyes and playing with the play-doh too.

3. Boolage (Halloween Collage)

As we all know, Mila LOVES stickers. To prevent her from covering any surfaces in our home, having her create a collage on a piece of scrapbook paper was a way better option.

She was so happy to see a little bowl full of Halloween stickers. I told her to create a picture with them on the page a she went to work.

This is a great simple activity that kids can really take charge! Plus, they get to be creative.

Hello more Halloween art!

4. Halloween Letter Recognition

This activity is probably the most educational in this list. We love doing letter recognition in our house, especially with our Beags and Bubs resin letters.

But when I saw this printable coloring page from The Letter Vee, I knew I had a perfect match.

Not only can the duo be used to letter recognition, I’ve had Mila color the page with her matching the colors too.

I love all the possibilities you can use with these fun Halloween learning tools. Mila has used them both so much to talk about what she’s learned this month, spelling her name, and just having a little Halloween fun!

5. Threading a Witch’s Broom

We technically did these for Mila’s Ghoul Gang Party, but I wanted to share them here.

Threading activities are so helpful for kids this age. It really can teach them patience, how to use their hands, and (again) show their creativity.

Out of all the easy activities, this was one with a little more prep. All I used was pipe cleaners and yarn to make the broom. If you only have a couple to make, it doesn’t take that long!

Then, I set out the color beads and lined up the letter beads for their names.

I had a lot of help at the Ghoul Gang Party, but Mila’s made multiple ones of these in the week since. It could be used to make a fun gift tag or just a kids present to their favorite adults around Halloween time.

All of these Simple Halloween Activities have been a hit in our house. I’m sure they would be in yours too.

I’ve also shared other activities we did this year too. Here’s the list to get some more inspiration.

If you try any of these activities out, let me know in the comments or tag me on Instagram (@greyskies.rainbowhighs). I can’t wait to see how much you and your kids love them!

What are some last minute Halloween activities you do with your kids?

Ghoul Power Boo Basket

Posted on by
8

There’s no better time to celebrate Halloween and little girls than with a Ghoul Power Boo Basket. This yearly tradition is a fun way to get your child ready and excited for Halloween.

Boo baskets were originally secretly left for neighbors and friends, but they’re fun for kids too!

Another amazing part of Boo Baskets is supporting small businesses. There have been so many things from Instagram and Etsy that I’ve been eyeing. Gifting them to Mila in such a fun way made them even more special for her!

Now it’s time to unpack all the ghoul power items inside Mila’s Boo Basket this year.

Activities

All Boo Baskets need some fun activities for kids to get excited for Halloween. Mila’s is packed with some of her favorite things:

Halloween Seek and Find by Beags and Bubs

Sticker Sheet from Walmart

Bubbles from Target

The best part of these activities are they can be done inside. Halloween is a weird transition time for kids from being outside in summer to staying inside more from the cooler weather. These are all great options for kids to play safely inside and have fun. Mila is obsessed with all of these. The bubbles are so much fun for her. The seek and find makes for great scavenger hunts. Stickers are always a hit too.

Accessories

Girls love accessories, even at three!

Our favorite shop right now is Sloane and Daisy. Both of the bracelet and pin are from there. They fit so many outfits and Mila has worn both of them multiple times since she’s gotten them. If you’re interested in a bracelet or a pin set from Sloane and Daisy, use GreySkies15 for 15% off!

Mila also got plastic spider rings, which are always so much fun during spooky season.

Bow and Wand

Mila loves playing with wands. This month she used this one to pretend she was a witch. Of course, her wand has to have pretty pink on it! I also topped it off with one of her Halloween bows from ACT Crafts and Creations.

You can easily make one of these wands that your child will definitely love.

Halloween Pajamas

My favorite part of Mila’s Boo Basket is her new Halloween pajamas from Harlee Bee and Co. I love the rainbow print on it and Mila loves the flower crown on the ghost. The fabric feels so nice and it’s well made. I wish they came in my size!

This year’s Ghoul Power Boo Basket was so much fun to make for Mila. I hope she loved it as much as I did putting it together.

Do you give your child a Boo Basket? If so, what’s something you’d suggest adding in one.

Spooky Snack: Frankenstein Avocado Toast

Posted on by
15

After school during October is the perfect time for spooky snacks. Since we love avocado toast at home we made a fun creation: Frankenstein Avocado Toast.

Not only is it healthy for your boo, it tastes great too.

Mila absolutely loves avocados. Like all I have to do is cut one up and she’ll eat them plain. I love that she loves them, but I like making food fun for her. This spooky snack was a perfect solution.

It’s ALIVE! Or just ready to eat. Here’s what you’ll need to make this creation:

  • Avocado
  • Toast
  • Black olives
  • Hard boiled egg
  • Cherry tomato
  • Salt and pepper

First, toast your bread. Simple right?

While it’s toasting, cut and mash avocado in a bowl. I usually add salt and pepper to mine. Mila likes hers plain.

Then, it’s time to cut the black olives. Cut two circles for the eyes, then strips for the hair and the bolts in the side of Frankenstein’s neck. I did different sizes to make it textured… or because I don’t have the best knife skills.

Next, cut two slices of a hard boiled egg and a cherry tomato in half.

After all this prep work is done, it’s time to assemble.

I really think this turned out so cute. Mila loved it and did little voices with it before she ate it. Frankenstein Avocado Toast is a perfect after school spooky snack your child will love.

What Halloween character would you want to try and make? I’m always up for a challenge! Let me know in the comments.

Pumpkin Spice Yogurt Bowl

Posted on by
12

Pumpkin spice season is in full effect. Every basic witch has to start her day with something frightening good. This Pumpkin Spice Yogurt Bowl would leave all the witches AMUCK AMUCK AMUCK.

I think it looks really cute all put together too. A major plus in my book.

When assembling this Pumpkin Spice Yogurt Bowl, I tried to make it look like a PSL. Here’s the ingredients I used to make it look like that…

  • Yogurt (I use chobani vanilla)
  • Pumpkin spice
  • Granola
  • Pumpkin candies
  • Caramel drizzle

First, put the yogurt in a bowl and mix pumpkin spice in it. Like with most of my recipes, I eyeballed this one too. Depending on how much you like pumpkin spice depends on how much you’ll want to add.

For the coffee look alike, the yogurt looks like whipped cream on top.

Then, lay a nice layer of granola at the bottom part of the bowl. I think it’d be a good idea to mix pumpkin spice in here too.

I thought this mimicked the look of coffee.

Next, line up a few candy pumpkins between the granola and yogurt. I’m not a huge fan of these, but mixed with the yogurt and granola, I enjoyed it. Again, it also made the bowl super cute too.

To top it off, I added caramel drizzle. I love it on all my coffees and it made the yogurt a little sweeter too.

I actually loved how this turned out. It tasted yummy and was quick to make.

Yogurt bowls are quick and easy breakfasts for our typical busy mornings. I also love that you can premake them to easily grab too.

This Pumpkin Spice Yogurt Bowl makes me feel like a Halloqueen and I think you’ll love it too.

Do you like making yogurt bowls? What are your favorite things to add in?

Looking for other great Pumpkin Spice recipes? Check these out:

Preschool Book Pairing Activity: Room on the Broom Handprint Art

Posted on by
14

The best way to learn is through books! To introduce Mila to Halloween concepts, we’ve been reading a ton of different ones. Lately, Mila’s favorite has been Room on the Broom. We extended her learning by pairing the book with an activity to make handprint art.

Again, it’s another decoration that Mila and I will be able to look at in the future and remember our times when she was little!

All we used for this craft was…

I want to start off by saying, I most definitely helped Mila with this craft. Older kids could probably do this alone. But, I used hot glue, cut out the hat, and made the broom. Everything else she had a hand in making… literally.

First, I painted her hand with green paint. Then let her press it on the canvas to make the witch.

While it was drying, I assembled the broom and hat. For the broom I used this cute gold pipe cleaner for the base. Then I cut up ribbon to make the straw part of the broom. I combined them by making a loop with the pipe cleaner and twisting it off.

The hat was easy to make. All I did was cut out a witches hat on black paper and hot glued leftover pipe cleaner for the base of the hat.

When the green paint was dried, I hot glued down the broom and the eyes.

Next, we made the hair. I took a few pieces of orange yarn and braided it to look like the witch in the book. Mila loved helping cut out the pieces and was very impressed with how much it looked like the original witch. She’s finally impressed by my skills!

After that, we glued down the hat and added facial details and the night sky with a permanent marker.

Mila absolutely insisted on drawing the witch’s nose and the moon.

I absolutely love how this turned out… with all of Mila and I’s crafts. It’s festive and we put a lot of hard work into it. Doing a book pairing activity with her also underlines the importance of reading and teaching her that reading is fun and valuable.

Hopefully she’ll want to continue reading and extending upon those lessons in the future.

What’s your favorite Halloween book that we need to get next year?

DIY Halloween Costume: Minnie Mouse

Posted on by
12

It’s not secret, Mila and I LOVE Halloween. The one year, we went to a ton of trick or treats and had to be creative with different costumes every time. One of my favorites that we did was this DIY Halloween Costume of Minnie Mouse.

The best part about this DIY Halloween Costume was we had everything at home. BUT if you want to duplicate it, everything can be found on Amazon… which you can get in before Halloween!

SCORE!

We did this costume mostly because Mila was OBSESSED with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. When she figured out what she looked like, she was so happy. I’d love to dress her up as Daisy one year because she has the attitude to accompany it.

There’s only five key pieces you really need to transform your little into Minnie or Mickey Mouse.

We didn’t buy any ears because I did space buns on Mila. I think it made it extra cute. PLUS… she couldn’t rip them off. That’s so important on Halloween nights, when you don’t really want to loose anything. Bows are easy enough to lose!

If we were to do this specific costume this year, I’d definitely do the black nose and maybe red lips too.

I love doing DIY costumes and finding cheaper options than just buying a specific one. For Mila’s costume this year, I bought EVERYTHING from Amazon. It turned out cuter than other options and she’s obsessed. Plus, we can reuse specific aspects of the costume too.

If you’re interested in more DIY or last minute costumes, let me know and I’ll do a few more.

What is your favorite DIY costume you’ve made? Let me know in the comments.

Halloween Craft: Fluffy Ghost Bow Holder

Posted on by
15

We’re back with another Halloween Craft. Since Mila has a ton of Halloween bows, I thought it’d be fun to make a Fluffy Ghost Bow Holder! Not only is it a festive craft, it’s useful too.

Mila and I both made one of these. Mine became the bow holder and Mila’s became a cute, green ghost. Each of them are so cute and they make me smile each time I see them. This is just a reminder to parents that their kid’s crafts do not need to be ‘perfect.’ They’re so creative as is and what they create is them doing their best!

Without any more introductions, here’s what you’ll need:

First, get a ghost cut out. I found a pack of four ghosts at the dollar store for one dollar. You could also easily find one of these online to print out or with a Cricut. That’s completely up to you.

Or you can order them here from Amazon.

Then, glue cotton balls down with regular glue. Mila was able to do this, so just use your discretions of your child’s ability. The best part is… it doesn’t have to be perfect.

After it’s completely filled, cut out eyes and a mouth with the black construction paper. You can show whatever kind of expression you want your ghost to have. Mine and Mila’s ghosts have completely different expressions. They’re both so cute though!

At this point, Mila was done with this craft. She decorated the rest of hers with green glitter. It makes me smile to see. We’ll eventually add some ribbon on to hers too.

If you continue on with this craft to make it a bow holder, you need to first make sure the front is dried.

While it’s drying, cut out different pieces of yarn and ribbon. I used both and chose neutral colors, but you can obviously use whatever works best for your space. Mila has asked to use pink for her when we get to it!

Once everything on the front is secure, flip it over and hot glue the ribbons on the ghost. Even though I measured all the ribbons before I glued them down, I had to trim them up since they were on an uneven surface. It didn’t take too long, but I think it made it more clean looking.

To be able to hang the ghost, I also hot glued a piece of ribbon at the top to make a hanger.

I absolutely LOVE how this turned out. All her Halloween bows look so cute on here too. They haven’t pulled any of the ribbons off, so it withstands them too. We’re hanging it on her bedroom door to make our morning bow grab easier. Plus it spooks up our little hallway.

This will be another craft (both Mila and I’s) that we’ll hang up year after year!

Do you decorate your entire house for Halloween or just small places? I feel like we’ll end up decorating every room in the next few years with all our crafts!