Make Your Own Halloween Tea Lights

I was thumbing through my latest issue of Family Fun Magazine when I came across instructions for turning ping pong balls and battery powered tea lights into spooky halloween eyes. I quickly did one eye ball. Then I found orange ping pong balls that afternoon and thought why not create miniature jack-o-lanterns? So I did. Then 9yo, owl-obsessed, Thing One asked if I could make him an owl...with a spooky tree. So I did. Then the ideas from the kidlets kept pouring in.

Lights On

Lights Off

The Entire Set In Action

Now Barbie has a jack-o-lantern.

If you want to make your own all you need to do is cut an X in the bottom of the ping pong ball, pop it over the "flame" on the battery powered tea light then create your design using permanent markers. Super, super simple. You can also use a pencil to draw your design first and make adjustments since the pencil marks erase off the ball easily. Similar, but not nearly as attractive, single blinking eye battery lights sell at Target for $2.99 each. My boys were full of praise for me when they saw the Target version...and its price. I already had battery powered tea lights on hand but my local Dollar Tree also sells two packs, batteries included. And the ping pong balls can be found for around $2 for an 8 pack at the grocery store or big box stores. My neighbor even tells me she saw them at The Dollar Tree.


I think I may need to do this at Christmas, too. Glowing Christmas trees, or candles, or ornaments, or angels...

I was so in love with my first three creations I took a quick video to share with my friends on facebook. Unbeknownst to me, my man snagged a video of me. Oy. Enjoy the Behind the Scenes.

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Make Me A Sandwich!

My 9yo boy is obsessed with owls after reading the "Guardians of Ga'hoole" series and learning about the upcoming movie based on the books. So things have been about owls all year. It's gotten to where I'm seeing owls. And several days ago when I took a slice of bread out of the bag, instead of being perturbed at its extreme dip on top I saw the makings of an owl. And with a few cookie cutters, cheese and pepperoni I made Thing One an owl sandwich. He declared it the best sandwich ever. 

The Owl Born from Bent Bread

But I erred. I raised the bar on cute food because today during lunch as I'm sliding hoagie rolls out to make sandwiches he asks for another owl. Sorry, boy I can't make an owl out of a hoagie roll...
or...
wait a minute...
grabs knife...
grabs provolone and cheddar...
grabs camera...

The Barn Owl and Cheese

I'm definitely affected by the owl love. The bread just looked like a barn owl with its bottom taper. This time next year I might be building elaborate owl bento box lunches. Look out!

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