Bringin' It on Beggar's Night

As if I didn't already know that the "ballet moms" (we all met via our girls' ballet class) was a great group of women, they were bringin' it Munchie Mom style for Beggar's night!  Apparently I've rubbed off on them some!  Check out the fun eats we feasted on before hitting the trick-or-treat trail:

I brought the Mummy Dogs- add your own ketchup or mustard eyes.  Nothing too original for me this Halloween, but easy, delicious, and a hit with the kiddos.

Jill brought this awesome and delicious fruit pizza.  I managed to weasel myself a slice with blueberry, orange and pineapple. Mmmm.

Kelly, our gracious host, had cheese slices to go on the sloppy joes in all of these Halloween shapes.  Adorable!  I chose the skeleton one for my sandwich.

Ami brought the crowd pleasing (I know I was pleased) taco dip, with the adorable ghost tortillas to decorate the top, and chocolate chip spider web cookies.

Yea Munchie Moms!  I can't wait for our next get together.

Long Weekend

Today is Diva's Halloween party at school and I'm headed in to help out with all of the festivities- so no snack today.

Monday is trick-or-treat night, plus Diva has a Daisy Halloween party after school, so we'll be snack free Monday too.  I am making mummy dogs for our trick-or-treat group.  The expectations I've set up for myself!  :-)

Have a great weekend and be back Tuesday, November 1 with more fun snacks!

Day 39

Candy Corn

Banana bottom, mandarin orange middle, yogurt covered raisin top.  Figured it would be cruel if I didn't include the real deal too.

Day 38

Witch and Cauldron
(I like how the cauldron came out, but the witch-meh)

kiwi face and nose, sprinkle eyes and teeth colored with black edible marker, orange and plum hat and surrounding cape, plum cauldron with marshmallow bubbles

Photography Help

Diva is becoming the social butterfly and has another play date after school today.  It ends up working out well, because I am battling a cold today and am wiped out.  I have 2 more Halloween snacks planned for this week- so stay tuned!

I could use help from one of you though--I'm having trouble getting the top down pictures of my snacks not have too much glare.  Any recommendations on camera settings?  I try and use the natural light from the window as much as possible, and the ISO high sensitivity setting seems to be the best option.

I take decent pictures, but am by no means a photographer and don't have a fancy camera.  I can manipulate some settings.  Any suggestions?  Better angle?  Customized settings?  Food photographer that can swing by at 2:20pm each day?

Day 37

Scarecrow

apple overalls, hat, nose and mouth, ritz cracker face, mini chocolate chip eyes, fruit roll up shirt, sprinkle buttons, string cheese straw

Free Friday

Diva is off to a friend's house after school today, so I have a few precious Friday hours free! 

If you have a snack suggestion, feel free to comment.  I'm always looking for ideas!

Have a great weekend!

Day 36

Pigeon
The inspiration comes from the "Don't Let the Pigeon" series of books, which Diva got from the book order at school this week!

mini bagel head filled with cream cheese, chocolate chip eyeball, apple neck, body and beak, pretzel stick legs and feet

Day 35

Rubber Ducky

pineapple duck (this one I traced from a clip art template), marshmallow and mini chocolate chip eye

Day 34

Jack-O-Lantern

carrot circle cut with crinkle cutter, cucumber eyes, nose, mouth and stem, candy corn garnish around the plate

Day 33

Today Diva starts her first Daisy Girl Scout meeting right after school.  She's super excited about it.  I volunteered to take the first shift on preparing snacks, so today my snack is for the 9 girls and 2 leaders.  I found this idea in Family Fun magazine.

cheese and grape butterflies- simple place the snack in snack size zip lock bags and use a pipe cleaner to tie the middle like a butterfly

*Please excuse the poor picture.  I almost forgot to take one and there is condensation from the snack being in the fridge.

Yo Momma

Diva has Thursday and Friday off from school, so I also have a break from snack making.  I need to regroup and do some brainstorming.  Leave a comment if you have an idea or suggestion!

It’s interesting some of the replies I’ve gotten on the snack ideas.  Don’t get me wrong, I think the general consensus is that of “cool!”.  (Did that make me sound like I went to college in the 90’s.  Well, I did, so there.  College in the 90’s was cool).  What’s struck me is how my snacks, which I would say are far from the average bear, are not a typical child’s snack.  It’s a way for me to be creative.  It’s by no means a reflection of bad parenting on your part, or better parenting on mine.

Let me say that again, because I make crazy snacks and you don’t does not mean you are a bad mom.

It’s the mom guilt.  Why does it have to be ever present in our lives?  Your child will suffer no harm from not having a snack shaped like a frog.  Promise.  

We beat ourselves up.  We see something someone has done and we either want to do it, or don’t have time to do it, or for some reason it makes us feel that we aren’t doing our best as a mom.  I don’t think most of us on any given day feel like Super Mom.  BUT WE SHOULD.

We are all different.  We are all parents.  We all have our talents.  We are all parenting the best way we can and know how.   Tell yourself that every day.  And be the best you can every day.

Hmmm… wonder if I can make a Super Woman snack…

Day 32

Bicycle

Ritz cracker wheels, pretzel and grape parts, string cheese sliced in circle plate decoration

Day 31

Give Peace a Chance- a Diva request for a peace symbol

broccoli peace symbol, ranch dip in the middle, strawberry flower on the outside

Day 30

Frankenstein! 

green apple head, neck, arms and legs, black plum hair, nose, bolts, body and boots, marshmallow and mini chocolate chip eyes, mouth and scar drawn with edible marker

Diva really wanted a body on good ol' Frank, so I obliged.  I'd rather leave it out next time.

Day 29

We had a little infestation of these critters in our house yesterday-- they got in through the fireplace.  Hopefully we took care of the problem now by burning a little fire. 

Bee

banana body, mini chocolate chip stripes (not as perfect as I would like, but I'm not feeling super attention to detail today), cracker head, mini chocolate chip eyes, twizzler pull n peel wings, antenna and mouth

Day 28

I picked Diva up from school for a change today instead of having her ride the bus.  She wanted to watch me make the picture snack. She came up with the idea, and what we were going to use to make it too!  Munchie Diva!

Piano keyboard

yogurt covered raisin and chocolate chip keys

Day 27

Owl

Apple body, ears, wings and claws, marshmallow and chocolate chip eyes, pretzel branch, green fruit snack leaves


(Not my original plan for today.  I'll do a do-over on that one tomorrow.  The owl came out OK, considering I was down to 10 minutes and trying to use up the apple I already cut.  Apparently there is a shortage of green fruit snacks in my cabinet, because I had to open 3 packages to find them!  Picture has some huge glare too- I took it with my cell phone as my good camera is just getting back from a work trip with Goofy.)

Day 26

You scream, I scream, we all scream for... ice cream?

1/2 a cake ice cream cone, purple cauliflower "ice cream" (available at most local grocery stores- this I got from Meijer), ranch dipping sauce served on the side.

Day 25

Bonjour!  Diva is fascinated with the Eiffel Tower and seeing it some day.  Today, here's a small taste.

pretzel stick tower, grape, string cheese and apple French flag