Our Over Sized Okra

Our Garden as of now

     As you can see, our okra is HUGE!  I don't know if it got that big because we planted REALLY late into the summer or the seeds we used hmmm...  We only have okra and tomatoes and they are STILL producing!!  

     And other than our garden, this post is about...

Halloween!!!

   I wanted to talk about mine, my sister's, and brother's costumes.  So, my costume is going to be a Masquerade Ball Girl!! I am sooo excited about wearing it!! I have always been into wearing dresses, gowns, and BIG, puffy dresses!  I am going to be wearing a silver/gray dress with little jewels at the top with a really cool mask that (almost) matches the dress!

     My brother is going to be Spiderman.  He is also VERY excited!  He has been looking forward to getting and trying on his costume.  We finally got it at Target the day we went to Tellus for Heavy Metal in Motion (see my other post Tellus Cotton Day! to see more about Heavy Metal in Motion).  We kept it a surprise until we got home.  We told him, "We have you a surprise!", and he was super excited!  He told us on the way home why does it have to be a surprise, can't I just know?  Haha! Once we got home, he couldn't wait any longer and opened the package and put it on.  Once he got it on (with some help)  he went over to my mom and said, "Did you get the shooters?" (As seen on their commercial.)  My mom said, "No, we just got your costume."  He then said, "Aw man, I wanted those cool shooter things! (and he struck a pose, you know the one Spiderman makes when he shoots a web? Pow! Pow!)

     As for my sister, she is going to be what she has been fascinated with for years!  A Toilet! Just kidding about the fascinated part! But, she REALLY is going to be a Toilet.  Well, I don't really know if that is her final decision (she keeps on changing it!).  She (thinks) she is going to make the whole costume (with my mom's help, of course!).  She is going to cut out the bottom of a large box and step into it, add a toilet bowl (to hold her candy, or so she says), and add a flush lever.  

That is what has been going on with me.  Halloween costumes and admiring our over sized okra before it, **Sniffle** **Sniffle**, DIES!:(

                                                                                   TTYL

                                                                                (Talk To You Later)

                                                                                                   ~Zoe

I just decided I am going to put pictures of mine and my brother's costumes (not my sister's because well, it hasn't really been made yet! Haha!).  

             

Bye! :),

Zoe

Spooky Sweets

     I know I said that I was going to post some seasonal desserts but today my mom, me, my brother, and my sister were making a really cool Betty Crocker recipe.  My mom remembers making this recipe for my sister when she was in Kindergarten (at a public school.)  We made Frankensteins, Spiders, and Ghosts.  Here's the recipe and pictures of how we did it and what they look like.

Spooky Sweets:

Makes 12 brownies

What you'll need: 

1 box of Betty Crocker brownie mix

2 tubs of 6 oz. Betty Crocker icing

M&M's

Betty Crocker gel food coloring

Decorating gel

(at least) 12 Large Marshmallows

Gummy Worms

1 roll of Betty Crocker Fruit Roll-Ups

     These are really fun but, a little challenging.  To start, bake the brownies according to the brownie mix package.  Let them cool for 1 1/2 hours.  Now your ready for the fun part!  Take your large marshmallows and place them on top of your cooled brownie (This batch makes at least 12 regular size brownies so, if you want an even number of each creature, make 4 of each.)  The Spider's marshmallows needs to be laying on its side, the others can stand up long ways. Go ahead and divide the icing into 3 bowls.  Now, choose which type of creature you want to start with.  You can go in any order.

                Spooky Spider:   Start by placing the gummy worms underneath all of your spider's marshmallows.   Then, color the first bowl of icing the color you want your spider to be. (We colored ours a purple color but the Betty Crocker recipe said to color the spiders red or pink. Either way it won't affect the outcome of your spiders.)  Mix the color in really well.  Now place into the microwave for about 15 seconds.  (Microwave more if you want the icing to be thinner or microwave less if you want it thicker.)  Take it out of the microwave and pour spoonfuls over your marshmallow topped brownie until the marshmallow is no longer visible.  Wait about 1 minute (or until you think your icing is hard enough to hold M&M's eyes.  We did some of ours right after it was covered and the eyes slid down the marshmallow.  Others we waited a little longer and the eyes turned out perfectly!)  Once your eyes are secured on the iced marshmallow, place decorating gel pupils, mouth, and eyebrows.  Do all of your spiders the same way as the first.  After your done move onto the next creature.

                   Boo-Brownie: On the ghost, really all you do is the same as with the spiders except don't color your icing.  To make the ghost, take the next bowl of uncolored icing and put it into the microwave.  Take the bowl out and drizzle icing over your marshmallow brownie.  Wait for the icing to cool, just a little bit, and then place the M&M eyes on.  Take black decorating gel and draw on the moaning mouth and eyes.

                    Franken-Brownie:  Take your next bowl of icing and squirt in the gel coloring of your choice.  Microwave for about 15 seconds and pour over your brownie.  Let it cool a tad and add the eyes and bolts on the sides of his neck.  Now, cut a strip of fruit roll ups.  Make cuts (but not all the way through it) until it looks kind of like a grass skirt.  place on top of Frankenstein's head.  To finish him off, give him decorating gel eyes and a mouth.  

These are Betty Crocker's brownies

My brother's ghost

     

My Frankenstein

My ghost

I hope you enjoy this recipe! It is one of my favorite desserts especially, around Halloween time!

                                                                                                                           ~Zoe

A special thanks to Betty Crocker for this great Halloween Tradition!

Betty Crocker's Recipe

5 Cool, Creepy, and Crafty Halloween/Fall projects to do

So, I just created this blog (with my mom's help:)) and I decided what better thing to do my first post about then these really cool Halloween projects I've been doing!


Since Halloween is coming up, I've been looking for some really cool and FUN crafts, but surprisingly I haven't found many.  I mean, you would think from looking up Halloween crafts on the internet you would find at least a gazillion hits to the word "craft".  So, since I HAVE found a trickle of crafts I decided that I should make my own post on the crafts I find. Stop searching your crafting hot spot is here!






1. The first few crafts I actually found were out of a Family Fun magazine my mom subscribed to a while back.                                                          

                                                       Feather your Nest

                                           

                                              What you'll need:

1 toilet paper roll

Coffee filters or cupcake liners,

really anything with ruffles you can over lap to create

a feather effect*

 Tacky Glue or tape

White or orange construction paper or card stock

1 black marker

                
*Please note: If you use coffee filters you may need to dye them if you want brown and yellow owls. I tried to dye mine and the waves came out when they got wet. 

                  

 To create one of these cute creatures cut one inch off the top of your toilet paper roll, fold in the top, and

use tape to hold in place(1).  Next, cut the coffee filter or cupcake liners into quarters(2), and glue or tape onto your toilet paper roll(3).  Now, keep repeating step two until the front of the paper roll is covered (or until as feathery or ruffly as you want.)  Now, cut out the owls eyes from the construction paper or card stock.  Use the black marker to draw a circle to create pupils in the middle of the construction paper and glue them on the feathered toilet paper roll(4)  (You can also cut out circles from the filters and glue them behind the eyes)(5).  Now, using the orange construction paper cut a triangle for the owls beak, glue it on(6).  For wings, cut rectangles from the ruffles of the filter/liners and glue to the sides of paper roll (7)  Let it completely dry and you have a new fall decoration!

**1**

                                                                       

**2**

                                                                          

**3**

                                                                                   

**4**

                                                                         

**5**

                                                                         

**6**

                                                                           

**7**

                                                                               

2. This craft was also from the Family Fun magazine,

 Cotton Swab Skeletons

What you'll need:

Lots of cotton swabs

Plastic Wrap or Wax Paper

1 cotton ball

Black construction paper

Lots of glue

Thread

Tape

To make this spooky spine tingling skeleton, you first need to tape down the plastic wrap or wax paper to the surface you'll be working on. Next, build a skeleton form (any way you like, there are multiple ways to make one!) Now your ready to glue! Squeeze the glue, in generous globs, on all of the "joints" (where the cotton swabs connect). Make sure to glue your cotton ball to the top of the skeleton to make a head. Now, use your black construction paper and cut out many different shapes and glue to cotton ball to make the features of the face. Use your thread to hang the skeleton up in your home! (My mom  hung my brother's up through the "ribs" of his skeleton).             ----->

                       

3. This craft I found off of the web site www.kidspot.com.au


              
                                                            Spook your Mantle 

      

  What you'll need:

1 sheet of black construction paper

1 sheet of green construction paper

1 sheet of white construction paper

  1 sheet of purple construction paper

Tape

Scissors

Glue

Silver or Gold Paint pen
 marker, colored pencil, or crayon

 To start, roll the paper into a cone and secure with tape. Now, cut the bottom to make it level. Next, on the white sheet of paper draw a mouth, eyes, and a nose with the marker cut them out (You will use them later). Cut a big circle in the green sheet of construction paper. Cut out the center of the circle leaving about a 10cm band around the circle. Save the scrapes. Now, slide the ring you just made around the cone to make the bottom of the witches hat. Now glue the eyes, mouth, and nose to the witch. Cut the purple paper into strips  about 10cm long and about 3cm wide, glue around the witches head for hair. To finish off your spooky decoration use the gold and silver paint pens to draw the witches buckle onto her hat. 

4. I found this one on Enchanted Learning

                                                   

                                                        Jack-o-Lantern Mask

                                                                     What you'll need:

2 paper plates

orange, green, brown, and yellow crayons, 

markers, or colored pencils

yarn, string, or elastic

Scissors

 1 pen

Hole puncher

 To start, take your two paper plates and put them together ( they will make your mask more sturdy). Next, color your paper plates with orange and yellow. Draw a stem and leaves using the green and brown crayons, markers, or colored pencils. Now use your pen to draw on the eyes, nose, and mouth of your mask ( remember you will be wearing this, so make sure you place each feature according to your own.  When you wear it, you want to be able to see, talk, and breath normally, like you would a real mask.) Use the scissors to cut out each piece. Now, put two hole punches, exactly straight with each other, and tie your yarn so that it fits your head. Congrats! Now you are ready for Halloween with this disguise!

5. I found this one also on Enchanted Learning

A Homemade Leaf Wreath

What you'll need:

2 Paper Plates

A few sheets of black and orange

construction paper

Leaf Template

Scissors

Glue

String

Stapler

Glue the two paper plates together (to make them more sturdy) (1). 

**1**

Next, trace the leaves onto the construction paper and set them aside (2). 

**2**

Now, cut the inner circle out of the paper plates (3). 

**3**

Glue the leaves to the paper plates (4). 

Take the ends of your string and staple to the back of both paper plates.  Now, go and hang your wreath on your front door, back door or wall!

         I hope you have enjoyed my Fall/ Halloween crafts. I know how hard REALLY good ones are to find. So, be sure to visit back to my blog. Also, today is Columbus Day and I am going to post some more crafts! I am also thinking about doing a post on desserts soon!

                                                                                                                           ~~Zoe!

        Thanks to Enchanted Learning, Family Fun, and Kids Spot ,the places where I found all of the crafts shown, thanks again!:) 

                        Family Fun                             Kids Spot                        Enchanted Learning