Halloween Graveyard - October Project 2

Graveyard Fireworks Party - October Project 2:

OK so we have 20 or 30 leftover cascarones from last year that we will use for our Halloween party. Cascarones, as pictured above, are like mini pinatas made of eggs. When you are making breakfast, simply use a thumb tack to pierce the egg, then chip out a penny sized hole and dump your egg in a bowl to cook. Wash the remaining egg shell. Dry. Decorate by dyeing, painting, stickers, glitter glue, whatever you fancy and fill with confetti. Cut a square of tissue to cover the hole or try my new decorative idea and roll a flower out of crepe paper streamer, matching colour, twist it to hold and glue with glue gun or white glue over hole. You may have come upon Cascarones in Mexico or Europe. Make a wish and crush them in your hand sprinkling the contents over someones head (for safety do not crack on someone's head - organic egg shells are hard and sharp). Children and adults love Cascarones!

Garden Graveyard (October Project 2)
Now for the front yard graveyard set-up! Several years ago we made simple gravestones by cutting styrofoam rectangles and spray painting them gray. We painted poems and epitaphs (Google search "famous epitaphs" or make up your own) in black paint. Coat hanger wire is stuck in the bottom on both sides and we push the grave stones into the ground using the wire. Grave stones are stored and reused yearly.

We have a huge maple tree so we rake the leaves in piles to represent the grave itself. In the very last few days before Halloween we go to a big store with lots of pumpkins left and haggle for a good price on 10 to 20 pumpkins. We have a crew; kids, me, Aunty, Nana, and carve like crazy (simple faces are fastest)!

Add these pumpkins with candles to the ends of the graves and between graves. We will pile 5 or 6 at different levels (using the garden wall and a chair) for a focal point as well. Then we scatter plastic bones and skeletons and spiders etc (Walmart) on the grave mounds and hang one skeleton from the tree (we have built our props collection over the years a few pieces per year). We put a witch on our door (with a baby monitor in the mailbox so she can speak to trick-or-treaters) and buy a box of fireworks. We are set for outside! More on our Shrine to Honour Our Dead (inside), next post!

6 more Days to Halloween!