Pumpkin Wand

Every little girl needs a wand to make them feel like a fairy princess, it is a rule. My daughter is not into "dressing up" very much, she puts the outfit on, does a few twirls and she is done. But she does love the wands that accompany these dress up outfits. So I made (with a little help from my girl) her a pumpkin wand. It is too cute and very easy.

You'll need:

• Template for Fairy Godmother Halloween Wand
• Long-handled wooden spoon ( found a set of four at Dollar Tree)
• Craft paint (gold looks especially nice)
• Small paintbrush or foam brush
• Scissors
• Craft paper (two shades of orange and brown for the pumpkin stem or any color you want your wand to be)
• Glue stick
• Glue dots
• Glitter glue and/or faux gems
• Curly ribbon and/or curled green floral wire

Instructions:
1. Paint the wooden spoon and set it aside to dry. ( I skipped this step and it looks just fine)

2. Print the template and use the pieces to cut out the shapes in the specified colors of paper. Note: younger kids may need some help cutting the grooves in the pumpkin overlay pieces.

3. Glue the overlay pieces and then the stems onto the pumpkin bases, keeping in mind that the pumpkins will be glued back-to-back so they should look like mirror images.

4. Place the wooden spoon with the handle facing down. Use glue dots to stick one of the pumpkins to the bowl of the spoon. Glue the other pumpkin to the flip side, matching up all of the edges with the first one. Use additional glue dots to stick the perimeters of the pumpkins together where needed.

5. Now your child can embellish the pumpkins with glitter glue and/or faux gems. For the finishing touch, glue or tie on curly ribbon "vines."

 

Pictures & idea from Disney Family

Decorating Pumpkins

Need something to keep the kids busy for awhile? Grab a pumpkin (any size), some paint, glitter, paper, and whatever else you can come up with and let them decorate a pumpkin. You can get pumpkins for 89 cents so this is a very economical activity too!

Ages: 18 months & up

Free Pumpkin Carving Patterns

Betty Crocker has pumpkin carving templates from your kids favorite cereal box characters that you can view once you sign up or login.  Patterns include Count Chocula, Franken Berry, the Trix Rabbit, Lucky Charms, and more.  Your kids are sure to love these. You can save the PDF patterns to your computer and print at a later time.
You can find other free pumpkin carving templates at:
Better Homes and Garden
Hershey's
Family Fun

Thanks Totally Target and Deal Seeking Mom

Peek A Boo Pumpkin Bread

Frigidaire and Jennifer Garner are teaming up to support Save the Children and help make sure that more children have access to nutritious foods this holiday season and all year long. You can join Frigidaire by setting a place at a virtual kids' table. When you do, Frigidaire will donate $1 to help kids in need and you'll be entered for a chance to win the daily prize, $50 toward your holiday spread, and the grand prize, a new Frigidaire Professional® freestanding gas range.
And make sure to check out the great kid-inspired holiday recipes - they're sure to be popular with your own kids.
Here is just one of the delicious recipes you can find when you play.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 oz low fat cream cheese, softened
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/3 cup old fashioned oats
1 tsp grated orange zest

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray an 8"x 4"x 2" loaf pan with non stick cooking spray, line with parchment or waxed paper and set aside. In a large bowl, combine flours, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice and mix well. In a medium bowl combine the oil, eggs, sugar, honey and vanilla, mix well. Stir liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients just until batter comes together. Don’t over mix. In a small bowl add 2 tablespoons of the batter to the cream cheese, mix well and set aside. Add the pumpkin, cranberries, oats and zest to the large bowl of batter and mix gently until combined. Spread 1 cup of batter into bottom of prepared pan and, using a teaspoon, dot with half the cream cheese mixture. Spoon an additional cup of batter over, dot with remaining cream cheese mixture and top with the last cup of batter. Place bread in preheated oven and bake for 60-70 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted in center of loaf comes out with a few moist crumbs clinging to it. Remove bread from oven and cool in pan for 10 minutes. Carefully remove loaf from pan and cool completely on a cooling rack before serving.

Servings: 12     Calories per serving: 215