afreena: Tot Tuesday - Family Friendly Frugality

Well hello there Mr Pumpkin.

Tot Tuesday is a weekly feature where I highlight a special kids activity, frugal recipe for kids, kids tutorial, etc.

My son is 4. This year, he seems to be Halloween obsessed already. We recently went to a Halloween store that popped up randomly in a strip mall near us (does that only happen in Texas? Random Halloween shops taking up?abandoned?buildings for 2 months every year?), and it was so exciting to see him push a bit past his fears and loudly assure us (as well as himself) that it was all just pretend and oh so silly!

Still, he?s 4. A lot of Halloween decorations are a bit too spooky for him. I also have a 2 year old girl, who is mega tough, but not a fan of ghosts and ghouls (unless they have fabulous shoes of course).

This left me with a bit of a dilemma. I want to deck the FFF Family halls with awesome Halloween decorations, but I want them to be cute and fun for my kids. Not scary or spooky.

So I Swagbucks searched ( ) some kid friendly Halloween decor craft ideas and came up with a bunch of goodies! I went armed with a coupon to my nearest crafting store and bought the supplies. Today we did our first craft. Oh boy was it a blast!

My kids love playing on the fridge with magnets. They have an older version of this LeapFrog Fridge Phonics Magnetic Alphabet Set ?and they love to put in the letters and listen to the sounds and the alphabet song. Really though, they look that it?s MAGNETIC. What is it with kids and magnets?

Regardless, when I saw this awesome Happy Jack tutorial on Disney Family Fun?I had to try it out!

It?s basically just a magnetic jack o? lantern that you make from super simple supplies:

Supplies:

How to:

Gather Your Supplies

Glue the orange paper to one sheet of magnet. You can make your pumpkin more pumpkin shaped...or you cheat like me and just round the corners. Cut a bit of a triangle out for the stem.

If you are lucky enough to find magnet that is black on the front...you won't need to cover your magnet with black construction paper. Otherwise, cut out a few different eyes, noses and mouth (and a stem!) and glue them to the magnet. When the glue dries, cut out the pieces.

Stick it on the fridge

Make a cute face on it before you call the kids over.

Watch what they come up with!

If you have older children, they can probably help with the cutting and drawing of eyes, noses, mouths, etc. Since mine are so young, they mainly watched and enjoyed the finished product! I?m so excited for this craft and can see us making something like this for every holiday!

FYI: This craft uses magnets. Magnets are VERY harmful if swallowed. Use caution if you have little ones in your home.

If you decide to attempt this project, I?d love to hear about it! Either leave me a comment or send me an email with a link to where you blogged about it at heather @ familyfriendlyfrugality.com

DO YOU have a great Halloween craft, tip or tutorial you?d like to share with the Family Friendly Frugality audience? Shoot me an email and if I love it, I?ll share with my readers!?