Jack-O-Lantern Pancakes

My husband made these pancakes for us, and I just had to share them. The kids loved eating them. 

First, you make some pancake batter. Put a small amount in one bowl (for the green) and the rest in another bowl. Dye the small amount green and the large amount orange.

Heat a skillet.

Put the green of the pumpkin on first. Do the eyes, the stem, and the mouth. My husband used a fork and drizzled it on there.

Then pour the orange around the green.

Cook and serve! A fun, festive breakfast. Our kids waited a while before eating them because they liked looking at them :)

Pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins...

Besides the usual carving pumpkins with the kids, there are other things you can do with them, too! We roasted the seeds this year and the girls devoured them! An easy recipe:

1. Boil water (1 cup for every 1/2 cup of seeds). Add salt. (1 tsp per cup of seeds, more if you like them pretty salty).
2. Add rinsed pumpkin seeds and simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Drain. On a cookie sheet, drizzle some olive oil and roll the seeds in them. Spread the seeds in one layer.
4. Cook for 15-20 minutes in a 400 degree oven. Look for them to be golden brown.

Charis scooping and sorting seeds:

Atalie was a little young to help with the carving and not that interested in the pumpkin goop. So, I pulled out the paint and let her design her own pumpkin. She had a BLAST. (FYI- if you use washable paint and they want to do the activity again, let them

give the pumpkin a bath, dry, and start painting again!)

Peanut Butter Pumpkins

This is a tasty treat that is easy to make. I found it in the Big Book of Halloween.

Skills Developed:

• Math skills
• Color skills
• Fine motor skills

Ingredients:

• 1 stick of butter
• 12 oz jar of peanut butter
• 16 oz powdered sugar--sifted
• Red and yellow food coloring
• Green icing

Supplies:

• Large bowl
• Wooden spoon (but I used beaters, and wish I had just used my Bosche mixer)\
• Toothpick
• Sifter

Method:

1. Melt butter
2. Pour butter in large bowl
3. Add several drops of food coloring to make orange. 2 drops of red and 3 drops of yellow will make orange, but I had to do that several times before everything was truly orange. 
4. Add peanut butter.
5. Add powdered sugar (sifted).
6. Mix until a dough like consistency is reached.
7. Shape dough into small balls. 
8. Make ridges using a toothpick. Don't scratch them in. Just press the toothpick into the balls.
9. Add a small amount of green icing on the top of each pumpkin for a stem.

Note: See the bowl in this picture? Not a large bowl. I ended up moving everything into a large bowl.