Fall Family Fun Weekend Pumpkin Painting

With Halloween being less than two weeks away, we are officially in the thick of Autumn. Last weekend we held our annual Fall Family Fun weekend. My husband is the oldest of eight siblings, and we host them, their families, and his parents for a weekend of all things Fall. We have a scary movie marathon, eat our favorite foods, carve pumpkins, and head over to the local corn maze and pumpkin patch. It is something we look forward to every year, and I am so excited to share our pumpkin painting craft with you!

We had six children this year, including my two girls. Ages ranged from 1 to 12, and every one of them seemed to truly enjoy creating their own pumpkin masterpieces. I loved transforming my dining room into this fun little creative space. I was totally inspired by the Daydream Society Hocus Pocus Collection. I can’t get enough of the whimsical design, and the pops of purple and silver are perfect. I sculpted a festive balloon garland, pulling from that same powder purple, orange, and black–you can shop my Amazon store for all of my balloon garland supply essentials HERE. I added in a few silver star, ghost, and bat mylars from the Target dollar spot ($3 each)! The creepy cloth backdrops are from Pottery Barn Kids, and I love her well made and versatile they are. You can do a million different things with them–like use them as a tablecloth.

I like to have a few goodies for the babes when they arrive. Just a few snacks and fun elements for them to use throughout the weekend. This year, the kiddos got the cutest Halloween bags (a HomeGoods find) labeled with personalized chalk art tags from Chalk Designs by Me. I love these tags because they also double as reusable gifts–check out her darling shop HERE. I added on orange spider rings for a fun spooky detail.

Each child received a monster cup, boo straw, light-up ghost necklace for after-dark bonfire shenanigans, , haunted kitty glasses, Daydream Society temporary tattoos, and a snack cup full of harvest trail mix. I stuffed the bags with iridescent gift paper from Hobby Lobby. I LOVE how it reflects the purples and orange.

There are no rules when it comes to snack mix, so it’s really easy to make. You just mix together all of your favorite dry ingredients and add in some spooky candies. For this snack mix I used: dry cereal, pumpkin and bat mini pretzels, candy corn, candy pumpkins, mini marshmallows and spooky sprinkles. The fun polka dot paper cups are from Hobby Lobby.

For the pumpkin painting session, we had the most darling sweet treats to snack on. Spoonful of Sweet is a local baker who creates delectable cakes, cupcakes, and in our case: cakesicles! I sent her a photo of the Hocus Pocus tableware, and she created the prettiest little cake popsicles to fit the occasion.

The flavors were chocolate and funfetti, and those beautiful bats were edible, and yummy. They tasted even more delicious than they looked. They were perfect, and loved by all of us! Spoonful of Sweet is a must if you’re in the Fort Bragg area, you can check out her page HERE.

When it came down to setting up for the craft, I wanted it to be festive but practical. I had to take into account that small children would very likely be getting paint EVERYWHERE. I covered our dining table with a roll of craft paper. You can purchase an inexpensive roll HERE for about twelve bucks. It’ll likely last you the entire year. Clean-up was as easy as rolling it up, and sticking it in the trash. You can also snag that super cute spiderweb table runner for about six bucks HERE. I used our Spooky Occasion Kit table confetti to add a bit of Halloween flare to the table runner.

I bought mini white pumpkins from our local farm for the kiddos to paint (these were the perfect size and they were easily carried home in the kids’ treat bags. You may remember them from our Pumpkin Wash Sensory Bin not too long ago. The powder purple paper baskets that I used to store supplies can be found HERE. Each kiddo got a mini jack-o-lantern to use as a water cup for their paint brushes. You can order the same ones HERE. I plan to reuse them for snacks and other Halloween fun. I got a six-pack of mini paint pallets from Dollar Tree.

As for our actual supplies, I knew I wanted plenty of color and texture options. We are huge fans of Ooly arts and craft supplies. You may recognize a lot of them from our Supply Stations. Ooly gifted art supplies to me in exchange for sharing this fun filled occasion. (I make it a point to only collaborate with brands that I truly enjoy and love. All opinions are entirely my own.) I included a full supply list below, with links to shop our exact supplies. Simply click on the name of the art supply.

• Chalk-O-Rauma Crayons
• Rainy Dayz Gel Crayons
• Modern Trio Markers
• Perfectly Permanent Markers
• Color Lustre Markers
• Dot a Lot (Neon)
• Dot a Lot (Pearlescent)
• Mini Dots Pixie Paste
• Lil’ Poster Paint Pods (regular)
• Lil’ Poster Paint Pods (glitter/neon)
• Lil’ Paint Brush Set
• Velvet Ribbon + Googley Eyes (Walmart)

To say these kiddos had a blast is an understatement. We had to physically tear them away from the table to go to the pumpkin patch. Raegan and her Auntie Sara rushed back over to see their dried pumpkin, and to add another layer of flair. I personally loved watching the kids truly dig in and get creative. Their little conversations about what they were dreaming up for their pumpkins was priceless.

This is what Fall Family Fun is all about: creating a space to spend intentional time together, and make fun seasonal memories. It’ll be so fun to see what designs these babes come up with next year.

This is such a simple concept with an unlimited amount of variations. I hope you’ve found a little inspiration for you own Halloween traditions. Thank you for checking out our family fun, Happy Halloween!

xo
Shakira

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