Halloween Fabulous Food For Kids

Here are a few ideas for your Halloween Kids Party Food. Easy and fast, most take only a few minutes to make and will be a hit with the kids and the adults.

Spooky Spiders

Spread peanut butter or process cheese spread onto round butter crackers then place four chow mien noodles or small pretzel sticks on each side of the cracker making eight spider legs then stack a cracker on top making a sandwich then dip raisins into peanut butter or cheese spread and place on top as spider eyes. Peter butter makes a great glue.

Bloody Bones

Spare ribs with your favorite barbecue sauce. Arrange ribs to resemble a human rib cage. Place a half of a red pepper or tomato in the middle as the heart and put a real knife or fake knife into the heart.

Bloody Brains

Any type of cooked spaghetti or spiral pasta with red sauce.

Monster Hands

Place a candy corn into each finger of a plastic deli glove then fill with popcorn until plump and tie off at the wrist of the glove.

Yummy Eyeballs

Slice carrots, cucumbers or radishes in bite size circles. Put a dab of cream cheese on top and then put 1/2 a pitted black or green olive on top.

Fingers and Dip

Peel and slice carrots length wise into finger size pieces. Attach almond slices or plain potato chips pieces onto one end of the carrots with cream cheese as the fingernail. Use the same idea using pretzel rods. Supply your favorite dip.

Apple Bites

Core and slice an apple. Spread peanut butter to one side of the apple slice. Put three or four tiny marshmallows for teeth on top of the peanut butter. Top with another apple slice, peanut butter side down.

Mummy roll-ups

Use a cooked hot dog or breaded chicken strips or nuggets place in tortilla with ketchup and roll up burrito style leaving one end open. Use ketchup to dot on eyes of mummy.

Food Faces

Create scary, silly, or jack-o-lantern faces using meat, cheese and vegetables pieces on round foods such as pizzas, cheese crisps, quesadilla or tostadas. You can use homemade pizzas or frozen cheese pizzas. Use pepperoni and black olives as eyes, red pepper pieces to form a nose or diced onions to create teeth. For cheese crisps use black olives for eyes shredded lettuce for a mouth, salsa or sour cream for noses or mouths. Be creative.

Bagel Monsters

Slice bagel in half. Spread on cream cheese fill with meat and use a piece of ham to make a tongue coming out of center of the bagel hole. Attach black olive or pepperoni eyes with cream cheese put lettuce leaves as hair and a carrot nose.

Hope you have a fun and safe Halloween Party for kids!

Dee Power is the author of several nonfiction books. Get your free ebook Party Ideas Kids You'll also find lots more Halloween Party Ideas. Dee's hobbies include Gourmet Grilling and gardening.

Fourth of July Grilling Recipes Kids Will Love

Fourth of July marks the high point of summer and is often celebrated with an outdoor barbecue. Don't limit yourself to the good ole American menu of hamburgers and hot dogs. There's lots more to grilling than that. The first task is deciding on a menu that offers something for everyone. If yours is going to be a family affair then take the kids' preferences into consideration.

Mini burritos are easy and quick. Fill a small flour tortilla with a tablespoon of cooked hamburger, shredded chicken, or sliced steak. Add a slice of tomato, a tablespoon of shredded cheese and roll up burrito fashion tucking in the ends so you end up with a nice little package. Grill for a minute or two on each side to heat up the meat and melt the cheese and there you have it. Serve with an interesting salsa of chopped grapefruit, cilantro, onions, jalapeno peppers, and jicama for the adults to munch on as appetizers until the main course is ready. If you don't like grapefruit substitute seedless watermelon.

Most kids love fish sticks so why not serve fish tacos? Brush mild boneless fish fillets like halibut or tilapia with a marinade of lemon juice, minced garlic, minced onion, and a touch of cumin. Grill until the fish is cooked through but not over cooked. About 5 minutes per inch of thickness of the fillet. Cut the fillets into about 4 inch by 2 inch servings. Cover with foil and set on the back of the grill to keep warm, in a warming drawer, or in a 200 hundred degree oven. Set up a taco bar with corn and flour tortillas, toppings of tomatoes, sliced onions, cheese, shredded cabbage, sliced jalapenos, salsa in both mild and hot varieties, cucumbers, chopped cilantro, sweet red peppers, cooked corn, black beans, and pinto beans. Consider putting a sign with a flame and the word HOT in front of any topping that you feel might be too spicy for children.

Your guests including the little ones will have a great time building their fish tacos. If you're not sure everyone will like fish, grill some boneless chicken breasts as an alternative.

Serve a grilled and raw veggie platter with several dips. Try some new vegetables you might not have thought about grilling such as carrots, endive spears, cherry tomatoes, broccoli spear slices, or summer squash slices. Toss the vegetables with a marinade of olive oil, citrus juice, garlic, and herbs for at least an hour before grilling. Use bottled Italian salad dressing if you're in a hurry.

Echo the marinade flavors in the dips you offer. Mix some Italian salad dressing in a cup of cottage cheese add 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese, extra chopped fresh basil and whirl in the blender until smooth.

A quick citrus dip is simply sour cream with lemon, lime, and orange juice. Add a teaspoon of grated citrus peel to boost the flavor with some freshly grated pepper.

Grilled fruit kabobs make a great dessert for both children and adults. Cut peaches, plums, pineapple, in one inch chunks, add seedless grapes and halved apricots. Thread fruit on a short wood skewer and brush with lime juice. You can do all this ahead. The lime juice will keep the peaches from turning brown. Grill over a low fire until grill marks are barely visible. Remove from the grill and brush with a glaze made from equal parts honey and lime juice.

Your little guests will be happy and satisfied until the fireworks start.

More grilling tips, techniques, recipes, and menus. Dee Power is the author of several nonfiction books and loves to come up with party ideas for kids.

Father's Day Gift Ideas - Car Safety Kit

It seems Dads are always protecting their children and keeping them safe. Father's Day is the perfect opportunity to show him you and the kids want to keep him safe as well. Put together a car safety kit. Most of the items can be found in the hardware store and grocery store. Don't feel you have to buy new, if you already have a fleece blanket for example, use it.

Most of us don't even think about what we would do if we're in a car accident, the car breaks down and we're far from town, or we suffer a minor injury.

If you live where it freezes often in the winter a collapsible shovel is great for digging out of snow or mud. Add a box or bag of ice cream salt to melt the ice for better traction under the tires. A fleece blanket to keep the cold out is a good addition.

A gallon of water can be used for lots of things besides drinking. Of course in hot weather dehydration can strike quickly and a gallon of water can be critical. Add a baseball cap or floppy hat to keep the sun off in case Dad decides to walk for help. Throw in a couple of packages of granola or energy bars as well.

A basic first aid kit can consist of hydrogen peroxide for cleaning cuts, old clean washcloths, gauze, and first aid tape. Add hand sanitizer, petroleum jelly, and a squirt bottle. The squirt bottle can be filled with water and used to clean out a wound without wasting a lot of water. There are also cold packs and heat packs that could come in handy. A box of assorted band aids, a couple of packages of aspirin or other pain reliever rounds out the first aid kit.

Add a flashlight, can of flat tire repair, and flashing lights to put to on the road to indicate there is a problem.

This may sound silly but in an accident or other stressful situations we often forget important facts. Have you ever been on the phone and someone asks you for your address and just for a moment you can't remember it? Write down your home address, home telephone or cell phone, and your work phone number on a piece of cardboard and include it in the kit.

The last step is to find a plastic container with a tight fitting lid to store the items in the car safety kit in the trunk of the car. Of course the gallon of water won't be going in the container but everything else should fit. Dad will appreciate his car safety kit.

Dee Power is the co-author of the novel, Over Time. Money Love and Football: All the Important Things in Life. Over Time makes a great Father's Day Gift. Find other Dad's day ideas at Party Ideas Kids

Pearls make a great gift

Pearls Before Swine - Where Do Pearls Come From

Pearls, beautiful, lustrous, glowing pearls. And to think it all started with a grain of sand.

The mollusk, that' s oyster to you and me, opens it's shell to pass fresh water over itself and snag tiny bits of food. Sometimes what it snags is a grain of sand or piece of shell. If the mollusk can't get rid of the bit of grit it begins to coat it with a substance it produces called nacre. Coating the grain of sand makes it less irritating. As time passes the grain is coated with many layers of nacre. Eventually you end up with a lustrous pearl.

Not all pearls are gem quality. The pearl can be lopsided, have an irregular surface, or the coloring of the pearl is grayish instead of glistening. If the irregularity is only on one side and the pearl looks good otherwise it can be set in jewelery with the flaw at the back of the piece where it won't be noticed.

Pearls can be from fresh water or salt water mollusks. Salt water is more expensive.

Colors range from white, yellow, pink, to gray. South Sea Pearls, sometimes called Tahitian pearls, are some of the most expensive pearls. They are larger, because the mollusk is larger, and the colors are iridescent black, purple, and dark gray. The pearl looks like a rainbow is playing against the dark surface.

Natural pearls are very expensive and difficult to find in jewelry since the Japanese began culturing pearls. Cultured pearls are simply oysters in an oyster bed that has been seeded with a nucleus.

Good cultered pearls have been left in the oyster over several years to build up layers of the pearl. Cheap cultured pearls start with a much bigger seed core and then left in the oyster only long enough to gather a few layers. Those layers can wear off.

The value of a pearl is based on 5 factors: cleanliness, shape, luster and orient, and color.

Dee Power is the author of several nonfiction books and loves gold, silver, and gemstones jewelry. She also is an avid gardener and loves to grow roses.

Quick and Cheap But Oh So Fun Valentine's Day Gifts

Flowers are fabulous but sometimes they just don't make the grade, especially for the men in your life. Are you stumped for a quick and easy (and of course cheap) Valentine's Day gift for your special someone.

Visit the grocery store and put together a gift basket. If your significant other loves the sour tang of lemons, use that as a theme. Find fresh lemons of course, lemon candies, lemon cake, lemon flavored tea, lemon soda, lemon syrup, lemon jam, lemon yogurt, lemon pasta, even a lemon based marinade. Package in a pretty basket, lined with a yellow terry cloth towel and top with a bright yellow ribbon.

Speaking of marinades, how about a home made dinner? If your sweetie is partial to pasta, put together the ingredients and a note that you'll cook. Find a pasta pan. Line it with a red and white checkered napkin letting a corner drape over the edge of the pot. Add a package of gourmet pasta, a wedge of good parmesan cheese, a bunch of fresh basil, bright red tomatoes, a bottle of extra virgin olive oil, crunchy sourdough bread, and whatever else catches your fancy. Follow the directions for the pasta when it's done, drain and place in a big bowl. While it's cooking coarsely chop the tomatoes and basil. Add 1/4 cup of olive oil (for 2 servings) and the grated cheese. Toss with the hot pasta and serve.

Focus on hearts. Pick up heart shaped cookies, candies, and cupcakes. Buy a heart shaped cake pan and fill with fresh strawberries. Add a coffee cup with a heart design and packages of gourmet coffee or tea. If you're feeling energetic buy a selection of cheeses and cut into heart shapes by tracing the outline of a cookie cutter on the cheese and cutting with a knife. Champagne glasses and a split of champagne is an elegant and not expensive touch. Wrap in cellophane paper, tie closed with red, pink, and white curly ribbon. Attach a heart shaped helium filled balloon.

Sports are near and dear to many fans. Celebrate your sports fan with a selection of the latest sports magazines and newspapers, his favorite beverage, and snacks. Visit a dollar store and pick up toys that relate to his sport. The fun part is you can use the toys later to have fun playing in the backyard, or if it's too cold, in the house.

Free report on more party ideas

Dee Power is the co-author of several nonfiction books including "The Publishing Primer: A Blueprint for an Author's Success," "58 Ways to Find Money for Your Business, "Inside Secrets to Venture Capital" and "Attracting Capital From Angels." Visit her Budget weddings site for a copy of "Weddings on a Shoestring Budget".