Halloween was last week so we did the usual pumpkin carving and making pumpkin seeds....unfortunately I left the pumpkin seeds in the oven too long (we were getting ready to head to Grandpa's to go trick-or-treating) and they ended up burnt.... I have never been so upset in my life! You see, I have an obsession with pumpkin seeds that will probably never disappear because you really only get them once per year....or do you? Well, how about a substitute? Roast winter squash seeds (or even the ...
Homemade Chicken Pot Pie; Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Soy Free, Nut Free Recipe
It's the day after Halloween and my husband and I are exhausted! We spent hours yesterday chasing my little man around his grandparent's neighborhood in the pouring rain. "Next" my LO would say, "knock, knock". Once the door would open he would get shy, hold out his treat bag and then say, "Thanks, treat" and run back to us....."Next". It's not just Halloween that had us exhausted, honestly, it seems like we've been burning the candle at both ends lately and I really don't see an end in sight. ...
Halloween Activity Day 10 of 10: Carving Pumpkins and BBQ Roast Pumpkin Seeds
Do you cook your pumpkin seeds? If you don't, mail them to me! I'm serious! I love them! And being gluten free, dairy free, soy free, and nut free, pumpkin seeds end up being a great portable snack. Too bad we only get them once a year (which makes me wonder can you freeze them?)! We carved our pumpkins last night but I didn't roast the seeds yet because I was trying to remember how I made some delicious BBQ flavored pumpkin seeds last year (I didn't think I wrote down my recipe). In a last ...
Halloween Activity 9 of 10: Decorating a Trick-or-Treat Bag
This series is almost coming to an end and honestly, I'm happy to see it go. Why? Because I've kept all of my Halloween paint, googley eyes, stickers, pipe cleaners, etc, out on my dining room table for the entire month and I'm ready to clean it up. Also, I'm getting tired of my LO walking by the paint just about every hour and fussing that he wants to paint. Even though we had quite the painting fiasco the other day, I decided to let him paint one last time because he needs a trick or treat ...
Halloween Activity 8 of 10: Egg Carton Spiders
We try to recycle around my house, actually, we don't try, we do. We recycle a lot. I've actually started getting a ton of anxiety lately about the amount of trash we (as a human race) produce....it's really unbelievable (but that's a post for another day). Part of recycling means reusing things so here's another activity that I remember doing during my childhood. Like most of the posts in my 10 Days of Halloween Activities series, this activity is a fun and easy activity for toddlers. My 2 ...
Day 7 of 10 Halloween Activities: Painting the Carpet?
It's day 8 of my 10 days of Halloween activities posts and....Well, I skipped day 7 and this activity probably won't rank very high on your to do lists. Why? Well, first let me tell you a story. Yesterday, I left my husband at home with my 2 year old while I took my 12 year old dog to the groomer. Why did she have to go to get groomed? Because that 2 year old helped me make GF Apple Cinnamon pancakes yesterday and, when I turned around to flip the pancakes on the skillet, he grabbed a measuring ...
Halloween Activity Day 6: Autumn Leaves Window Hanging
The leaves have been changing for a few weeks now, offering a ton of fun activities outside. I can remember, at like 10 years old, being so excited to go outside and rake up leaves. Then I would get out there and, after a few minutes of doing it, I would realize it was actually quite boring. I couldn't remember why I thought it was going to be so fun. My friends and I would rake them all up into a big pile and run through them, fall into them, throw them up over our heads....yeah, not really ...
Halloween Activity Day 5: Mini Macrame Spiderwebs Activity
So, you may have seen the hand print spiders we made on day 2 of my 10 days of Halloween activities posts. I made 4 copies of each of our hand prints with plans to make some type of mobile-like Halloween decoration for us, my parents, and my in-laws. I'm super pleased with how it turned out! It took me some time to figure out the best way to accomplish a decent looking web (while my husband drove us to the petting zoo and pumpkin patch - multitasking!) but if you follow my easy directions you ...
Halloween Activity, Day 4: Painters Tape Pumpkin Painting, Toddler Activity
All of a sudden my LO LOVES painting, especially finger painting. It's odd because when I tried to get him to finger paint a few weeks ago he wouldn't and would only used this roller thing. Now, he likes to use a paint brush but he uses it to paint his fingers and then uses his paint colored fingers to paint on paper, pumpkins or whatever we're painting. After about a week of painting everyday he has now tired of painting on paper....time to paint on other things....like pumpkins. Like every ...
Halloween Activity Day 3: Mint Chocolate Bat Cookies, Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Soy Free, Nut Free
Mmmm....Remember Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies? Living gluten free, dairy free, soy free, and nut free means no girl scout cookies for us in our house but that doesn't mean we can't come up with a substitute! These chocolate mint bat cookies did the trick! They're also activity number 3 in my 10 days of Halloween activities series. We've done a few days of painting activities so I decided it was time to bake. My little man just recently became obsessed with mint after tasting an Altoid. Yuck! ...