Halloween Traditions + Skeleton Wreath Tutorial

Can you believe Halloween is only a week away?

Are you a Halloween loving ghoul? or a I'm just her for the candy dandy?
I'm going to be real with you halloween is not my favorite holiday - I am not a dress up for Halloween girl - I've never really been in to it - but I LOVE celebrating and making magical fun for my kids. One of my biggest role model parents is my friend Jen, when we met  I did not have children yet, and she had 2 beautiful daughters who were 4 and 2, and she celebrated everything! I mean, decorations, fun food, perfect costumes, and she loved every minute of it - she did all those things for her and her children, and only for them - not because she felt she had to or was trying to be pintrest perfect - but because she loved it. I was in awe of it, but never thought I would be that kind of a mom - then again I was working 45-70 hours a week when I became a mom, so I'm sure that had something to do with it). Anyway I loved Jen's house, she made everyone feel welcome, she made everything fun, she really is just one of those incredible women you need in your life. I wanted my house to feel like Jen's house, like my house growing up, where everyone was welcome and there was always something fun happening.

I remember my first Halloween as a mom, I bought the perfect costume (which all three of my babes have worn), and we did pumpkins and handed out candy, which was just enough for me. Then one year I hung up a little banner for some random holiday I bought at Target, and my oldest who was about 18 months said "oohhh pretty, mommy, I love your decorations" and that right there turned me into a crazy decorating lady! For some reason my kids love holiday decorations - so I decorate for all the holidays. This year we added this awesome dude, inspired by Anna McFarland of Annaistheworst. Isn't he amazing?!?! Bonus he was so easy to make.

I bought the skeleton at Michaels for like $12, the flowers were around $20 from Michaels, and $4 from DollarTree. I used a piece of cardboard from a shipping box, and cut it to the desired size. I tied the skeleton on with some bakers twine and hot glued the holes closed.

Then I popped the flowers off the stems & cut the little plastic part off the back so they would be almost flat. I laid out the flowers - it took a few layouts to find the look I was going for.

Then I just started hot gluing the flowers on. I also added some leaves to fill in the background.

 This is such a fun and easy craft because there's no wrong way to do it - you just keep adding stuff until it feels right! I can't tell you how many people have come to my door asking about this guy, do yourself a favor and make a skelly wreath ASAP.

Now that the decor is complete we are ready to play. One thing I love to do for different holidays and seasons is read books that coordinate. We have a decent stash of holiday books, but I always hit up the library to get more so we can read them all month leading up to the holiday - in this case halloween.

A few of our favorites are: Happy Halloween Curious George,  Room on the Broom, Where is Baby's Pumpkin,  Duck & Goose Honk! Quack! Boo!, Goblin Moon, How to Scare a Ghost, Monster Trucks, Skelly's Halloween, Dino-Halloween, B is for Boo, Pick a Pumpkin, to name a few!

Time to Dress up! Other than the first year or two I let my kids choose their costumes. My oldest has been 1. Peacock, 2. Shark, 3. Tiger, 4. Dinosaur, 5. Astronaut, 6. Police Officer, 7, Darth Vader, and this year he is too cool for a real costume, so he will be a football player.
My daughter has been 1. Peacock, 2. Ruth Bader Ginsberg (yup Attorney mom here - this was the only year we did a family costume - I was my hero & first woman on the Supreme Court Sandra Day O'Conner, she was RBG, my son was a police officer, and husband was a prisoner - it was so fun!) 3. Fox, and this year she is going as a kitty.
Baby is celebrating his second halloween, he was a peacock for his first, and will be a shark this year. Gotta get my moneys worth out of those costumes 😉.

As for events, we will attend our Church's Trunk or Treat Halloween Party,  I'll volunteer for my second grader's class party, and attend my preschooler's halloween program (which I cannot wait for, her school has the cutest programs & and she's been practicing her songs all month). Then we will do a simple trick or treat around the neighborhood. One of my beloved childhood memories was trick or treating to my own house. My mom always had something special for us when we knocked on our own door. My kids will trick or treat to our house and will get a new book and a special treat. Here's what they are getting this year.

Big Book of Stars & Planets, Deep in the Ocean, Nibbles, Kinder Eggs

Food! If you know me, you know I love food! The bigs will both have school on Halloween, so they will get a special lunch of Spider Sandwiches, pumpkin oranges, hard boiled egg ghosts, and Trader Joe's ghost chips. For dinner we usually do mummy dogs - we wrap pizza dough around a chicken sausage to make it look like a mummy. I do the classic halloween mars mix for "normal" trick or treaters, and then I have special treats for our friends (pirate's booty for friends and kinder eggs for our besties).
Once they get all their candy we go through it, make sure everything is safe, let them choose a handful of things they don't have to share, and then everything good goes in a communal container in the pantry. The things we don't like get dropped off at our dentist's buy back event. How you handle treats is a totally personal decision, and we allow a fair amount of treats in our house.

However you choose to celebrate I hope you have the best Halloween yet! Make it Magical in your own way! Happy Halloween friends!

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