Two weeks ago I bought supplies for Halloween themed crafts and science experiments. I was going to do two a week leading up to the holiday, but life happened. Instead, I decided to go all out and make the Thursday of our fall break a Halloween extravaganza fun day! I talked it up to the girls and they woke up excited and ready….

and earlier than I had anticipated. Ha.

We have a list of Halloween movies we always must watch (tradition!) so they cozied up on the couch to watch Curious George Boo Fest (I know, I know, it’s for toddlers but we all still love it… tradition!). They were snug as a bug while I made breakfast.

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After we ate and brushed teeth and all that jazz, we turned on Spotify’s Disney Halloween Playlist and jumped into our first craft- mason jar jack-o’-lanterns!

You can tell I’m not usually a crafty mom because both girls, especially Hailey kept saying “this is so fun, mom!” Bless their sweet, low expectations. But they were right, it really was quite fun. We are new to Modge Podge and learning all the cool things it can do (dries clear and strong!)

These are super simple to make: Cut up orange tissue paper and use modge podge to stick the pieces to the jar. Once covered, either cut a face out of black construction paper or draw and color in a face on white paper and cut that out. Glue it to the Jack-o’-lantern and let dry. Then use a LED tea light to make them glow!

Then we switched gears into potion making, which took a little trial and error, but produced a ton of giggles and shrieks.

First we made spooky lava lamps. We tried several methods, but ultimately what worked best was this: Large mason jar. Fill 1/4 with water. Add food coloring and shake to mix. Then add vegetable oil until full. Drop in 2 Alka Seltzer tablets and watch the colorful water bubble up and all around!

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That experiment was cool because it was new to us, but the biggest hit was when we just started playing around. Of course we had to have some fun with vinegar and baking soda, then started mixing ingredients, making predictions, and then seeing what happened.

By that time it was getting close to lunch, so we switched gears and made cookies. I only had white chocolate chips so we loosely followed the directions on the back of the bag. I say loosely because I didn’t have cocoa powder so we used hot chocolate mix. We also didn’t have eggs so I got to introduce flax eggs, which blew their minds.

Even with all those changes, we lucked out that the cookies were good! They tasted like hot chocolate and looked adorable with candy eyeballs (that I got from Target) on them.

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We ate cookies and a snack plate while watching Hocus Pocus, which brought us right up to their 1:30 piano lesson. While each girl had her 30 minute turn, I made yarn ghosts with the other.

These are so simple. Wrap yarn around a piece of cardboard(at least 5 inches long) about 100 times. Tie a piece of yarn around the top of the looped pieces super tight, then cut the other end of the looped yarn and remove the cardboard. Create the head by sitting it upright and tying another piece of yarn about an inch below the original tie. Glue on eyes. Or google yarn ghosts to get 100 variations.

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By mid afternoon the rain had moved in; so fitting for a Halloween fun day! We cuddled up to watch Coraline (which is a seriously freaky movie so I don’t recommend it for kids that scare easily).

We watched the whole thing and then it was time for Kaitlyn to get ready for the special Halloween class of her Tae Kwon Do. This meant a test run for her Halloween costume, including REAL MAKEUP so she was psyched.

By the time we got home, I was beat. But all the effort felt worth it because multiple times through the day the girls had told me how this was the most fun day ever. At one point I actually told Hailey to stop thanking me because it made me feel like I must be huge dud on all the other days of the year 😂

Truly though, it was a blast and set us up to head into Halloween weekend feeling like we milked this holiday for everything it’s worth.

We played a game of Catan with dinner, then cuddled up to watch one of my favorite childhood movies I’ve been waiting to introduce to them- Adventures in Babysitting!! (The original… supposedly there is a remake and that’s a hard pass from me). Both kids thought it was fantastic and I got a kick out of watching it through adult eyes (there’s no way she is only 17).

All in all, it was a super special day and one I really think they’ll remember. And if not, I took enough pictures to force them to. 🙂 Bring on Halloween!