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a FALL fave! hands down for Halloween!

Friday, October 25, 2024


Last weekend, as we mentioned in yesterday’s post,

Laurie and her family celebrated Little P’s first birthday!

Special thanks to those who sent birthday wishes to this sweet girl!

And, if you are looking for some fun and festive ways to include

adult beverages in your Halloween/fall plans,

♥️ 🎂 ♥️

Meanwhile, Laura was at the cabin with her extended family last weekend.

Her own grandkids weren’t there,

but she got her Littles fix by spending time with these two cuties!

While the grown-ups did a lot of fall clean-up and outdoor chores,

her great nephew and great niece kept busy playing flag football,

doing a few Halloween activities and crafts that Laura had brought along

and roasting hot dogs in the fire pit!

We even made Mac & Cheese Jack-o-Lantern Cups to go with our hot dogs!

YUM!

It was a successful and productive weekend on all fronts!


If you are still looking for some fun

Halloween crafts, games and or meal options

to enjoy with your Littles this weekend or next week,

check out the past posts below for LOTS of our ideas!

(Click on the links if you'd like to learn more!)



Today, as a final nod to Halloween,

Laura is sharing another FALL FAVE!

It’s a quick way to package a few Halloween goodies in a festive way!

HANDS DOWN… It’s a winner!


Laurie’s post yesterday,

reminded me how fun it is to deliver a Halloween surprise to someone!


Years ago, this idea for a Halloween favor or goodie bag came to my attention!

The supplies were easy to find and were so versatile.

I could mix and match the contents and even personalize them.

As an added bonus, I was able to make several in short order

and my girls loved giving me a HAND as we assembled them, together!


This simple project is one I’ve made often over the years!

Today, I’m sharing two versions of this simple project…

One for the Littles in your life, filled with candy and/or toys

and, the other,

a sweet and salty version everyone will love!


Halloween Hands for Littles!

Over the years, I’ve delivered this version filled with candy and toys

to special Littles including kids in my Sunday School class.

It's an extra special way to show a Little in your life that you are thinking about them!

MATERIALS NEEDED

• food-safe vinyl disposable gloves (size M or L - latex & powder free) 

  (Here’s a link to the ones I purchased)

• individually wrapped candies (I used a variety of shapes & sizes)

• novelty Halloween toys (optional)

• ribbon


DIRECTIONS

1.  Fill each disposable glove with a variety of candies or novelty toys.  I used longer/thinner candies and toys to fill the fingers (Smarties, Twix bars, Monster Fingers) and then bigger/bulkier items to fill the palm.  Feel free to use items your Littles favorites


2. Once you’ve filled the glove, use the ribbon to tie it shut!  Add a spider ring (optional) for an extra dose of fun!

3. Repeat these steps until you have filled all the gloves you’d like to deliver!


Sweet & Salty Halloween Hands!

I’ve also surprised colleagues with a sweet and salty version of this treat,

one that I’d secretly deliver to their school mailboxes!

Believe you me… there’s nothing like the week leading up to Halloween

in an elementary school!

Treats are ALWAYS welcomed and appreciated!

MATERIALS NEEDED

• food-safe vinyl disposable gloves (size M or L - latex & powder free) 

  (again, these are the ones I bought)

• seasonal M & M’s (optional)

Hershey Kisses (5 for each glove)

• cheese popcorn and caramel corn

• ribbon

NOTE:  The above sweet and salty foods are options that I chose.   You could also use other sweet treats (chocolate covered raisins, Craisins, candy corn) and salty snacks (cheese balls, plain popcorn) in place of those we used.

ONE MORE NOTE: In hindsight, I'd buy the bigger size of disposable gloves (I bought M) as the Hershey Kisses were a tight fit. It worked and I just pushed them into place with my finger, but beware!

DIRECTIONS

1.  Place one Hershey Kiss in each of the five fingers of each disposable glove.   These will represent the hand’s fingernails!   (I used the dark chocolate ones with the purple foil covering. Details! Details!)

2. Fill the fingers and palm of each disposable glove with the salty mixture.  (I used a combination of cheese and caramel corn and mixed in some Halloween M & M’s.)

3. Once the glove has been filled, use the ribbon to tie it shut!


4. Repeat these steps until you have filled all the gloves to be delivered!


Both of these Halloween Hands would also make

great table favors for a holiday party

OR

might be fun to have ready for trick-or-treaters

(especially if only a handful visit your neighborhood each year).




While we often highlight blog posts on our OGL Facebook and Instagram sites,

you’ll also find lots of other content there…

Thanks to Laurie, our very own Social Media guru!


In case you missed them, here’s a few Halloween inspired posts

that you may not have seen here on the blog… until now!


A Pumpkin Carving Contest!

Here’s another idea to add to your own Family Boo Bash!  Have a pumpkin carving contest!  

Even your youngest Littles can participate by painting or gluing on pictures or by adding stickers to their pumpkins.  You could even award prizes for the scariest, the most original, the most joyful or the silliest pumpkin!  

Everyone can help clean up the mess in one big swoop and everyone gets to go home with a carved pumpkin!  It’s a win!  Find the original IG post here.


Vampire’s Kiss!

In honor of National Vodka Day earlier this month, we shared the recipe for this spooky beverage!

• 1 ½ ounces vodka

• 1 ounce raspberry liqueur

• ½ ounce 100% unsweetened cranberry juice

 (not sweetened or cranberry juice cocktail)

• ½ ounce fresh lemon juice

• ½ ounce grenadine


Simply shake up all the ingredients, and strain into a cocktail glass.

Add ice, as desired. You can also add some vampire teeth on the rim of the glass or to a straw! (You can go to Google, search for a "vampire teeth" image, copy, paste and print!)


This is definitely not a drink for Littles but sometimes we Grands and Middles need something special too!   You can make a non-alcoholic version for them by adding more cranberry juice and Sprite or 7-Up in place of the liqueur and vodka.  Find this IG post here.



A First Halloween Keepsake!

Looking for a fun way to mark your  Little’s first Halloween?  Either an amusing photo and/or the footprint ghost art project seen in the display below would be a memorable way to commemorate this special first!

You’ll find our IG post here.



A Mailbox Surprise! 

DISTANT GRANDS… this one’s for YOU, too!

Want to make your Little’s day? Go buy or make a Halloween card, stick something fun in it, address the envelope to your Little and put it in the mail!. Yes – in the real mail! Everyone loves to find a surprise in their mailbox - even if you live nearby or next door to that special Little!   

Here are a few flat and no cost things to put in that card, depending on your Littles’ ages - stickers, flat sticks of gum, sports cards, Halloween word finds or mazes you run from the computer.  You could also print out a photo of you, your pets or your Littles and then use a Sharpie to turn them into a Halloween cat, pumpkin or zombie! You could also send some Halloween jokes or riddles. a cartoon or even money or lottery tickets.


You will bring a smile to your precious Littles’ faces! The best part? They will know how much you are thinking of them! 🧡💜🧡 Find this IG post here.


Also, while not mentioned above, 

for those of you on Facebook but not Instagram, 

you can find the same posts highlighted on our OGL Facebook site, here!

Special thanks to those of you who already follow us on these sites…

we’d love to have you follow us, too!

You may recall that Laura is a distant GRAND

so guess what’s going into the mailbox this weekend…

YEP!  Halloween cards for her Littles!

(Shhh!  Don’t give the surprise away!)

What a great way to connect when you can’t be there in person!

Thanks for the idea, Laurie!


Halloween will soon be here and we hope our recent posts

have given you a few new ideas for spooky fun!

You can always find us on Pinterest too,

where we link up many of our posts - past and present!


If you know of any GRANDS or others

who might enjoy our content, please share!

🧡💜🧡

As always, we invite you to subscribe to our OGL site!

That way, you’ll never miss a post!

We always welcome your comments and suggestions, too!

Feel free to comment at the end of this post

OR

you can also reach out to us directly at ourgrandlives@gmail.com!


We’ll be back NEXT THURSDAY… It’s HALLOWEEN!

Our plan is to give you some ideas of what to do 

with all that leftover candy you might be left with once all the trick-or-treating has ended!

See you then!






💗 We are delighted to join the following link up parties and blog hops! 💗

MONTHLY

SUNDAY

MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

SATURDAY


14 Comments


Guest
4 days ago

Oh, these are such fun ideas!! Wow. I love the creative pumpkins you shared here. So cute. Thank you for sharing this post with us at the Will Blog for Comments #50 linkup. Have a great week! We hope to see you at #51 with more posts to share (old or new), which opens next Monday morning. ~Jennifer

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Our Grand Lives
8 hours ago
Replying to

Thanks, Jennifer! We hope your November is off to a great start! See you soon! ❤️ 🎃 ❤️

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Joanne
Joanne
Oct 29

You two always have the best ideas!

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Our Grand Lives
5 days ago
Replying to

And you are very sweet, Joanne! I hope you had a fun Halloween! ❤️ 🎃 ❤️

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Guest
Oct 29

Thanks so much for stopping by!! So many great ideas here...I am looking forward to my twin granddaughters getting older and really enjoying Halloween...Wow! 1000 kids at a trunk and treat!!! This was the first time I ever went to one as my sons are in their 40's and there were no Trunk and Treats when they were young...It was fun and we are looking on improving it next year as it was our first time....I hope you are having a great day!!

Hugs,

Deb, Debbie-Dabble Blog

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Our Grand Lives
5 days ago
Replying to

We didn't have Trunk and Treats either until our kids were in high school and then they were quite small. It's a fun way for the community to come together! You've got lots of Halloween fun in your future! Thanks for stopping by, Deb! ❤️ 🎃 ❤️

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Guest
Oct 28

So much Halloween fun and goodness in one post! I love those ideas, we did the hand filled treats a few years ago and the kids loved it. Have a very Happy Halloween. #MMBC

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Our Grand Lives
Oct 29
Replying to

Thanks so much for your kind words and for stopping by to comment! Wishing you a happy Halloween, too! ❤️ 🎃 ❤️

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jdpres07
Oct 27

Y'all have some fun ideas for celebrating. I look forward to having grandchildren living nearby in the new year. I spent a ridiculous sum sending something by mail to my across the pond grands. Sometimes you have to : )

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Our Grand Lives
Oct 28
Replying to

Oh wow! I bet you have spent a few (or more) $$$! Laurie's grandkids live nearby while my (Laura's) grandbabies live about 5 1/2 hours away by car. I know the route well!!! How exciting for you to have grandkids nearby... I'm sure you can't wait! Thanks for stopping by! - 💕Laura

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