Children’s Homemade Halloween Costume: A Printable Skeleton

This article is part of the series of Printable Children’s Halloween Costumes, which features 4 costume ideas that parents can create at home using these free printables. The skeleton is a cute costume for a boy or girl – the child will have fun cutting out the bones and assembling them to make a human skeleton. It is also a quite simple costume – all you need really is a black shirt, black pants, and this printable skeleton printed on your home computer. Cut out the bones and pin them to the shirt and pants after your child has put them on. While you may use any black pants and shirt, I highly recommend a pair of tight-fitting long underwear. I find these every year at sports stores that sell ski-wear.

What you need:
- Black long-sleeved shirt
- Black pants
- Fabric glue or preferably small pins (because they are not permanent)
- One set of our skeleton printables, printed on your home computer using white paper

Print this file:
- skeleton.pdf

Making Fancy Butters

I love how fancy hotels and restaurants serve butter. They always manage to make it look so innocent: so delicate and appetizing. Sometimes they serve miniature bowls of butter with a design carved into the top of the butter, sometimes they serve butter in the shapes of little balls, and sometimes they serve it in even fancier shapes. I find it so much more fun to go this extra step on special occasions. Guests indulge in it as do I. 

To create bowls of butter with an etched design, first allow butter to soften. Then, press into mini serving bowls. Refrigerate or freeze until butter is firm to the touch, about 10-20 minutes. Use a fork to scrape a design onto the top of the firmed butter. To create balls of butter, you will need a melon baller. Using a mellon baller, create small balls of butter much like you would create balls of ice cream using an ice cream scoop. For this method, the butter will need to be quite firm. Not many of us have mellon ballers in our kitchen, to purchase one from Amazon, click here: http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=3737061

Making even fancier butters is quite quick and simple because all you need is a good old icing bag (decorating bag) and your favorite tips, which many of us do have in our kitchens. Allow a few sticks of butter to soften to room temperature.  Attach a tip to your decorating bag. You can also use a plastic freezer bag for easy clean-up.  If you are using a freezer bag, cut a small slit into the corner of the bag, and slip the decorating tip through the hole before you add the butter.

Squeeze small shapes of butter onto a sheet of wax or parchment paper placed on a cookie sheet. Freeze for 10 minutes until the butter shapes are hardened. Transfer to a plastic container for storage. Serve in decorative bowls or dishes on the day of. This is a fun and easy project. I did it with our six year old daughter today in preparation for our Thanksgiving dinner.

Although any butter will do, my favorite brand of butter for eating with bread, hors d’oeuvres, or appetizers is Lurpak unsalted butter. It is a Danish butter that may be found in all major grocery stores (or Whole Foods), usually in the specialty cheese section. It has a delicate creamy taste.

Preparing for Thanksgiving Dinner

If you are hosting Thanksgiving dinner at your home this year, today is a good day to start preparing if you have not done so already. I start the weekend by planning the menu and drafting a grocery list, a task with which our budding first grader is eager to help with to show off her writing skills. Younger children can help by drawing a grocery list. The children all pitch in their requests (pumpkin pie, apple pie, turkey decorated cake, shortbread cookies, etc.) of course. And, I draft my own organized and legible list in secret so as not to cause disappointment. After we finish planning our menu, we start to pull our server-ware from the cupboards. This weekend is a good time to clean and polish the pieces you plan to use on Thanksgiving day. I also find it extremely helpful to label the pieces with a small post-it note, noting on each what the dish will be used to serve. When things get busy on the day-of, I don’t need to think, and family members are more empowered to help without asking. Every year I also seem to notice some little thing or another that I need. This year, it is more serving spoons! I also make a point to pull out the linens we will use and put them aside for ironing.  After ironing the long tablecloth, it is helpful to fold it in length and hang it on a hanger to minimize creases.

Pumpkin Apple Bread Loaves

It seems we have been testing different pumpkin and apple bread recipes all month long. This recipe is a good staple recipe for pumpkin apple bread. If you like your breads sweet, you will want to increase the amount of sugar. The recipe will make 2 regular sized loaves, or 6 mini loaves. We always make the little loaves, as we keep one or two out for the week, and freeze the rest for later. A slice of the scrumptious pumpkin apple bread makes a great school or after school snack.

3 1/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ginger

2 cups canned pumpkin
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup apple juice
1 baking apple (such as Granny Smith), diced small

Preheat oven to 350. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside. Mix the wet ingredients in a separate bowl. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix until just mixed (about 8-10 strokes). Pour into greased and floured pans. Cook until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the loaf comes out clean. For the mini loaves, cook for 50-60 minutes.

Printable Thanksgiving Hats for Children

Print this file:

printablethanksgivinghat.pdf

These printable Thanksgiving hats match the printable Thanksgiving stationary and placecards that I uploaded earlier. There are three parts to the hat; cut them out and staple them together to fit each child’s head. The children will have a festive time with them on Thanksgiving day. Like with the earlier printables I uploaded, I am uploading a high quality .pdf file for optimal print quality. Print on regular sized 8.5 by 11 paper, preferably cardstock.

Purell works wonders at removing stains, and it is a solution that is usually redily found in and around the homes of families with little children running back and forth. I keep several around the house, in the kitchen, in the laundry room, in the family room, in the baby’s bedroom, in the car, and in my purse.  I always have it with me, so it makes a wonderfully convenient stain removal solution. Blot Purell, or any other (less expensive) liquid hand sanitizer, on the stain. Let it sit for 5 minutes. Wash out using warm water. 

Printable Thanksgiving Turkey Placecards

 

Print this file:

turkeyplacecard.pdf

Here are some printable placecards that may be used to set an adult’s or child’s Thanksgiving table. Children will love to cut them out, and write on them the names of friends and family members. They match the Thanksgiving stationary that I uploaded on an earlier post. I am uploading a high resolution .pdf file. Print this file! not the .jpg file. The artwork and resolution are of the same quality that high end stationary stores use to print their expensive stationary. The trick is using good quality paper or cardstock, which can be purchased from an office supply store (like Staples or Office Depot) or Walmart.

Buying Those Pomegranates: How to Peel, Cut, and Eat Them

 

When I go to the grocery store, I find myself trying to broaden our exposure to the various fruits and vegetables that do not compose the staples of our diet. I’d like the children to eat more turnips, leeks, and beets than I do. Whatever I buy now, they will become accustomed to. This past week, I purchased several large pomegranates. Even if one was not to eat them, pomegranates look quite festive this time of year. They make a great centerpiece for Thanksgiving or Christmas, piled and arranged in an attractive bowl in the center of the table.

If one does not know how to cut and peel a pomegranate, learning how to do so is helpful, as it is quite a frustrating task if performed according to one’s random instincts.  On a first note, the red juice of the pomegranate seeds stains. I have yet to find a method of removing pomegranate stains from any color or type of fabric. Once you do extract the edible seeds from the pomegranate, have the children eat them in a bowl with a spoon and wear aprons. This is how to remove the seeds from the pomegranate to eat:

Step 1: Make circular incision below top of pomegranate

Step 2: Remove top

 

Step 3: Make incisions downward along the outer skin where the white membranes make contact with the skin

 

Step 4: Submerge the pomegranate in water, break apart each of the sections, and remove the seeds from the outer skin and inner membranes. The seeds will sink to the bottom, and the membranes to the top. When done, strain and, I suggest, serve in bowls with spoons.  Submerging the pomegranate under water not only helps in removing the seeds, but also saves your hands red juice stains.

 

Free Printable Thanksgiving Stationary

thanksgivingstationary.pdf

Here are some printable Thanksgiving stationary, which I produced, which can be used as invitations or letterhead. I am uploading a .jpg for you to see the file, but also the .pdf file to be used for printing. The .pdf file will print stationary of the same quality of stationary found in the finest stationary stores. Print on 8.5 by 11 paper. For best quality, print on 8.5 by 11 cardstock or thick paper.
 

Printable Halloween Stationary

My collection of printable Halloween stationary: