The Nightmare Before Christmas

Considering it is the halloween month, and this was the last book club with my boys, I decided to use "The Nightmare Before Christmas" as the focus for our Halloween Party!

The choice to use this story was a little selfish...it's my FAVORITE halloween story!  I love it, I love Jack Skellington and I love Tim Burton's creativity!

Halloween Town is never sunny.  It's always gray and dark.  Luckily, ZERO (Jack's dog) has a glowing nose to help brighten the night!  And, in Oogie Boogie's lair everything is neon.  So I thought it appropriate to make some glow in the dark play dough.  Who doesn't like play dough?  Guess what...it actually worked!

This is a recipe I aquired years ago from a neighbor.  This is the recipe I used for this playdough project.  I left out the Kool Aid so the dough would just be white.

This is the 'glow in the dark' paint I used.  I had the boys poke their finger into their playdough ball, I filled the hole up with this paint.  Then the boys kneaded the paint into their dough until the it was back to it's regular consistancy. (dough will become a little too gooey for a minute, but it WILL come back to it's thicker consistancy)

You can see that this will make your hands a little sticky and goopy!  We tried to take pic's of the glowing dough when we were in the dark room, but they just didn't take real well...but I promise, IT WORKS and it's awesome :]

Our second project was making our own creepy graves!  This is an easy (but MESSY) project, and it's edible!  You will need (for 4 cakes): 1 box chocolate cake mix, 1 small tub of chocolate frosting, 4 small bread loaf tins (walmart, 97 cents for a pack of 5), chocolate cookies, gummy worms and spiders, 4 milano cookies, gel (writing) frosting...and any other creepy things you can think of. 

You know, all things in Halloween Town are not part of the 'living' world.  Jack himself sleeps in a coffin.  So why not create a spooky grave scene?

Grab your 'grave' and smother it with mud!
(cake and frosting)

smack the 'ever living' out of those cookies for a heap of 'dirt'...

get your grave dirty!
(pour and smash cookie powder on top of the frosting)

personalize your grave stone and make that grave scary!!!
(stick in the milano cookie and use your decor!)

A fun book club for an awesome October day!  There are several things you can do with this story...so be creative :]

Of coarse we came in costume!  We had a creepy creeper, doctor, dracula and an FBI agent!  I was a skeleton witch!  Good Times :]

Reading is an adventure.  It takes us to places we can only imagine!  Everyone want's world peace....well, I want every child to be happy and imaginative.  If I could change the world today, I would make sure every child had someone to read to them and kiss them good night.  Until then...I will do what I do and hope it inspires others to do something too :]

Miss Lisa :]