Glitter Pumpkin Deco

Family traditions are really important to my children. They never grow too old to still want to do some of those holiday traditions. I was not up to the mess of carved pumpkins yet. I know that the family can’t wait to carve their pumpkins, I guess they are never are too old to want to create their own original pumpkin carving. I think it is more of a competition now than anything. So we added a new tradition this year and did some glittery pumpkins, since they are the rave this season. As you know I am a frugal mom and was not up to spending the savings on those fancy glitter pumpkins I keep see everywhere. So we went with our own take on the glitter pumpkin. We added white school glue to the paint so that it would give the paint a shiny look; it also allowed the glitter to stick to the wet paint.


• Set pumpkins on trays
• Mix equal parts of paint and glue
• Sprinkle with glitter
• Set out to dry


Make sure you have extra pumpkins because the kids are going to want to make more than one. Once they mad a pumpkin for mom they all decided to make one of a kind painted pumpkins. Tradition is tradition and I’m sure next year they will make me break out the paint and glitter.

Friendly Ghost Craft

Here is a group of friendly ghost to welcome your guest. This fun and easy craft will only take about 30 minutes to make. All you will need for the craft is;

• Foam Craft Balls in different sizes

• Black Sharpie Marker

• White Pipe Cleaners

• Cheese Cloth

• Fishing String or Black Yarn

• Hot Glue Gun

First we cut a white pipe cleaner about an inch long.  Folded it in half and stuck it in the top of the foam craft ball.

Next the kids drew on simple faces using a sharpie marker.

To give the ghost an illusion of having arms take a whole white pipe cleaner, folded it in half to find the middle.  Then we take each end of the pipe cleaner and twisted the end to the middle making two lopes.  Once all arms have been formed, place the foam craft ball on top of a glass, this will allow you to hot glue the arms to the bottom of the ghost head.

Once you have all of the ghost head and arms but together cover them with cheese cloth.  Tie the cheese cloth with fishing string or black yarn.  Hang the friendly friends by the door to greet all of the Halloween guest.

Pumpkin Party Game

Here is a great fall party game for the little one. They will be learning, laughing and having a good time with this party game.

How to make

I made pumpkin bean bag out of felt (orange, black, brown and green). I was able to get 4 pumpkins out of two craft felt sheets. I hot glued the face, stem, leaf and vine (pipe cleaners wrapped around a ball point pen) to the top piece of the pumpkin. I then sewed a back piece to the pumpkin leaving a hole at the bottom to fill with rice. Once filled with rice I sewed it shut.

I made enough bean bags for a group of 6 children (2 bean bags each) to play a bean bag letter toss game with. 

I wrote letters on paper plates that we had been working on over the last few weeks.  I then placed the plates on the floor with the basket of pumpkin bean bags. 

Each child stands behind the line and tosses their bean bag, trying to land the bean bag onto the plate. As a child landed their bean bag onto a plate they identified the letter and then give the letter sound. If they needed help they asked a friend to help them.

Variations for the game:

• Numbers on the plates
• Picture cards on the plate (building vocabulary)
• Names of people at the part (Early Reading)