Friendly Frankenstein Halloween Dinner

It's time for another FUN Halloween theme dinner! These ideas (see more HERE and HERE) are all my mom's creations. She is the ultimate DIY party planner and an incredibly generous Grandma; each week in October she creates an awesome Halloween-theme lunch for the kids. Her ideas are always clever and she truly puts these all together with ingredients and decorations she purchases locally (Meijer, Target, Homegoods) - I share them here and on instagram #gigisoutrageousoctoberlunches to hopefully inspire you to make a little extra magic with your family this season. Now, on to the lunch!

This week's theme was FREAKY FRANKIE FEAST
Featuring a Frankenstein guacamole served with blue corn chips. Entrees were chicken BLTs that the kids added monster faces on to using olives, cheese and tomatoes. Dessert was "Eyeball Pie" aka cheesecake topped with cherries and embellished with edible eyes.

Halloween Fun Food Ideas. Four Full Menus for Halloween Party Inspiration

It’s October! Bring on the decorations, costumes, and parties! Many of you know that my mom is incredible and that every week in October, she treats the kids to an amazing Halloween themed lunch! It is a tradition that we adults love as much as the kids. This year’s lunches kick off this Friday - yay!  You can see them weekly by checking out #gigisoutragousoctoberlunches on Instagram or following here where I will (try) to post them weekly. Before that, I thought it’d be fun to share some snaps from last year’s lunches -  I hope these photos serve as inspiration! xx M

Week One: Mummy fettuccine alfredo served with broccoli, green peas, bruschetta eyeballs, breadsticks and mummy whoopie pies for dessert.

Week Two: "Sugar Skull" Hummus and Veggies served with blue corn chips, along side of grilled chicken and rice. Cupcakes topped with sugar skulls for dessert. Cheese popcorn treat to enjoy while watching Coco.

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Week Three: DRACULA theme! Steak (STAKE) Sandwiches with FANG fries with a cool vampire blood drink and a cream-cheese-cake dip served with cinnamon "BATS" for dessert.

Week Four: This one was beyond amazing! Gigi prepared an entire turkey dinner in theme! That amazing Witch's head is a turkey (wrapped in melted cheese with radish eyes, a pepper nose and lips carved from a beet. Her hair is curly parsley and that hat was shaped from tortillas painted in edible paint) -- along side this witch were cranberries, corn, stuffing, gravy, rolls, and mashed potato ghosts!

If you have any questions, please comment/message me! I'm happy to help you plan your spooky celebration!

#diyhalloween #halloweenparty #halloweenfood

If you enjoy this post, check out “Festive Food For Halloween 3 diy menus”

Festive Food for Halloween–3 DIY Menus!

To know my family is to know, we’ll throw a party for just about anything, because life is awesome and should be celebrated. When the holidays roll around, our family calendar is jammed with fun outings and festive family traditions. One of our favorite October traditions has to be “Gigi’s Outrageous October Lunches” – each week in October, my mom prepares an awesome, Halloween themed luncheon for the kids. Her creations are spectacularly fun! Another family tradition that my kids look forward to each month is Movie Night! I love hosting movie nights and planning a full themed menu to accompany our film. It’s easy to see, I get it from my mama! Ha! 

Today, I’m sharing some fun DIY Halloween foods for you to try. I know Pinterest is full of fabulous over-the-top Halloween food and treats, but I also know that most of us will pin a dozen ideas and never actually make them. So all of the ideas I am sharing here are real dishes that we actually prepared and served at real events. I’m sharing my personal pics along with some DIY tips we’ve learned along the way.

Enjoy!

Event One: Candy Corn Pizza Party

Menu:
Pizza :: made using a large “take and bake” pizza from Sams club and layering slices of cheddar cheese, mozzarella cheese, and pepperonis to look like candy corn stripes.
Candy Corn Fruit Cups :: In a clear cup, stack chopped pineapple, mandarin oranges and a dollop of whipped cream to create these adorable and healthy Halloween treats!
Candy Corn Punch :: Start with a clear pitcher FULL of ice, pour orange soda to fill 1/3 of the pitcher, then add yellow Gatorade to fill 1/3 of the pitcher, then lemonade flavor Smart Water to the top the final 1/3 of the pitcher. There are many recipes for this punch, the soda/Gatorade/smart_water combo worked well for us! The key is to have the drinks stacked by sugar content, with the sweetest drink on the bottom, the next sweetest in the middle, and the least sugary drink on the top.
Hostess Candy Corn Cupcakes, candy corn popcorn (from our local candy store) and regular ‘ol candy corn completed this fun lunch.

Event Two: Silly Witches Feast
While my kids LOVE festive, they will not eat anything too gory! So the witches feast is a lighthearted one!

Menu:
Broccoli cheese soup topped with a black cat crouton :: The cat was made by cutting a slice of pumpernickel bread with a small, cat cookie cutter and toasting in the toaster oven.
Franken-grapes :: Start with a clear cup, doodle Frank’s hair and mouth with a sharpie, stick on tiny eyes (these are edible eyes attached with food gel), and fill with green grapes.
Witches Brew: Seven up soda with a scoop of green sherbet, topped with orange sprinkles and a gummy worm
Witches fingers: Chocolate covered pretzel rods – the green candy melts were bought at Target and the tiny “finger nails” were scrappy cuts of foot-by-the-foot.
Black Cat Brownies & PBJ ghosts :: It’s amazing what a cookie cutter can do for a fun lunch!

Event Three: Hotel Transylvania Movie Night
Hosting dinner and a movie is one of my favorite ways to spend an evening! I try to host one party a month, but it becomes a weekly affair during the holiday season, because let’s face it, there are SO many great Halloween and Christmas movies, I simply can’t choose!

This week’s featured film was Hotel Transylvania; it’s a year round favorite of ours, but makes a perfect not-so-spooky Halloween movie too!

Menu:
Scream Cheese Pizza : I started with “Take and Bake” pizzas from our local bakery, while the pizzas were baking, I cut mozzarella cheese slices into ghosts using a cookie cutter. When there was just one minute of baking time left, I added the ghosts to the top of the pizza.
Monstercolli : good ol’ pasta in a meat sauce served in a bowl with a monster hand inside.
Drac’s Blood Punch : fruit punch blend, served in clear cups with vampire teeth embellishments
Green Stuff: Salad served in a fun bowl with claw salad servers bought at Walmart.
Monster Mash Cakes : A variety of packaged lunch cakes embellished with edible eyes & food gel faces.
Ooh, and we had Plain Ol’ Chips because in the movie, Johnathon is a sweet character that is out of place in the hotel full of monsters; I won’t spoil the show for you, but the bright yellow bag of plain Lays just reminded me of Johnny.

During the movie, the kids munched on popcorn & gummy worms served in bat cups and drank juice boxes that I decorated to look like mummys! The cups and juices pouches were SO easy to make! They would be great to take to school parties too! My advice: make the front of the pouch (the part where you insert the straw) the BACK of the mummy to keep it functional.

If you’d like more how-to-details on any of these recipes or projects, please comment below. xx

Halloween Pre-Orders

Here's your chance to have a special HALLOWEEN piece created especially for you or your little one

I’m currently accepting Pre-Orders through the Daydream Believers Designs Facebook Page.
Here's how it will work:
1. Browse the Halloween fabrics in this album
2. Choose what you'd like me to make (dress, shirt, skirt) by selecting a style from the STYLE CATALOG album. There is also the option to order a custom TOTE bag; perfect for boys, girls, or stylish Mamas!
3. Comment under the fabric of your choice, letting me know the size & style you would like.
4. I will pm you to confirm the order, finalize design details and set up payment via Paypal.

Here’s a peek at the fabrics available:

- Pieces ordered via this pre-order will ship the first week of October -

If you have any questions, please post them here or send me a private message :)

BONUS! WHEN YOU TAG A FRIEND ON THE FACEBOOK POST, YOU'LL RECEIVE FREE SHIPPING!

**Pre-orders will open on 9/16 and close on 9/18 OR sooner if fabrics sell out**

Good luck, y’all! Shop early to claim your favorite prints! xx

STYLE FILE FRIDAY:: Happy Halloween Edition

“Well, another Halloween has come and gone”
--Charlie Brown, It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Happy Halloween! It was the coldest Halloween I can remember, but we didn’t let that slow us down!
We celebrated with family at my sister and brother-in-law’s Halloween Party. The kids had a blast playing games and eating sweets before heading out to hunt for candy! By trick-or-treat time the temps had dropped to 35 degrees, the wind was whipping, and freezing-sleet was pouring down (eek!) – SO, we bundled up like the good Midwesterners we are, and made the best of it! Here a few photos from our Halloween…

Iyla, the bat:


Vivian, as a famous singer disguised as the Wicked Witch:

Ethan as Dracula:  ((Sweet boy is constantly in motion, lol!))


My adorable niece, Lia, as a fancy pumpkin:


Monica, Eric and Lia - LOVED their costumes!


SO much fun!

How cute is this “bowling” game? My sister hand painted each can –SO great!

I’m glad my sis snapped this picture for us before the kids put their snowsuits on, haha!

Our Family, 2014: Dracula, Batman, Batgirl, Wicked Witch and Bat.

Want more costume fun? Check out these posts here and here!
Then hop over to the Virtual Costume Party at Funky Polkadot Giraffe (I’ll be there!)