The Itsy Bitsy Spider

Toddlers are destructive forces, just ask the four pairs of sunglasses I've had to replace over the past six months that have faced the wrath of Jack.  Chris keeps telling me to move them to a higher shelf when I'm not wearing them.  The issue is I'm only 5 foot 1 and unless I want to carry a foot stool wherever I go, other things like my real glasses and cell phone take upper shelf priority. 

Because of Captain Destructor* we've had to be very cautious about which seasonal decorations we put within smashing reach around the house.  The plan was to focus our decorations on the outside of the house this year.  Unfortunately, our front porch was literally crumbling down and to avoid a lawsuit from angry parents of Trick or Treaters we opted for an early October renovation.  This however has put my outside and inside non-breakable festive decorations on hold as it's currently unreachable until the porch is complete.

Until we can reclaim our front stoop I've had to allow one decoration and festive craft to fill my Halloween spirits.  Inspired by the Martha Stewart Halloween Magazine, behold my Halloween bouquet.  Martha does it better, but I'm fairly certain she didn't purchase most of her supplies from Dollarama.



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*Jack was promoted to Captain from Officer after he broke six of our sandwich plates and two Correlle pieces which I thought were supposed to survive the Apocalypse.

And We'll Have Halloween On Christmas

Halloween has always been a huge deal for us.  Recently when we were re-organising the ocean of baby supplies/clothes in our garage (incoming and outgoing) we realized that we have a significantly more Halloween decorations than we do for Christmas and Easter combined.*

As we started to go through the supplies and plan our Halloween display we realized that some things that we've always done in the past won't pass the toddler-proof test.  Wine rack full of skulls (most weighted over 5lbs) might be a little unsafe around Jack and his game, "Jackie Smash!!!"  The pumpkin headed scarecrow that Chris has created for 8 years is going on sabbatical until after the minions decide that they don't need scale every vertical surface in their daily tribute to King Kong.**

So what are toddler friendly Halloween decorations?  Essentially anything they can't destroy, can't hurt them and that won't scare the bejesus out of them.***  Since many of our decorations don't meet the above criteria, we now have a fairly modest supply of Halloween decorations that we can use, so I decided to get creative and crafty. This is highly unusual because I am to crafting what Martha Stewart is to ethical investing, what Andy Dick is to funny, what Ashton Kutcher is to likable**** and what Charlie Sheen is to sanity/ moderation - you get the picture.  Here's what I've come up with so far and on a budget thanks to some on line searching (Pinterest, on line parenting magazines, my fellow Halloween enthusiast AS) and browsing at Halloween stores for some inspiration for crafts for the uncrafty.

Halloween Tree - Because they can't destroy what they cannot reach.

Bristol board 50 cents dollar store, ornaments $1.25 dollar store...total cost  $1.97 (including tax).

The Wicked Witch of the East

Created using old socks from an Alice in Wonderland costume, newspaper stuffing and red shoes.  Cost to me $0 - cost to build this using thrift store shoes and discount store socks ($10) 

Witch themed signs

Stencil $2.49, silver paint pens, $3.98, frames - I already had these from IKEA - but you can get some at the dollar store or IKEA for about $1 each. Total cost: $9.57 including frames.*****

*5 boxes of Halloween supplies is normal, right?  And even if that doesn't include the dress-up boxes of costumes and random Halloween supplies that are general decor around our place 365 days a year.
**Shows exclusively held when a parent is outnumbered by babies, trying to change the other twin's diaper or cook dinner.
***In the continuation of Molly's extreme fear/hatred of moustaches she has begun to aggressively point and glare at passerbys with moustaches from the seat of her stroller.   Movember is going to be hell on earth for that child. 
****I strongly dislike Ashton Kutcher and not just because of the movie Valentine's Day.
****This actually cost me an additional $5.98 if you include the silver paint pen that I broke and threw a fit about one evening while Chris tried to watch baseball in peace.