Halloween Festivities

Hey guys! It is almost Halloween and if you are like me you are frantically thinking about how there are still so many festive things you want to do before this holiday is gone but you have no idea what to do or where to start. Well, this blog post is for you! Today I am going to share three fun and easy Halloween activities you can do either by yourself, with a significant other, or with all of your friends! The more the merrier!

Festive Halloween Baking

So, there are a few things that I always have on my Halloween festivities to-do list and the first one is festive baking! Now, if you are anything like me you LOVE the idea of baking from scratch but really... who has the time for that! So for this my bestie and I just used a festive boxed cake mix and spent our QT (quality time) on the decorating!

The first thing we did was spent an ungodly amount of time at Target trying to choose the best possible cake and frosting combination as well as decorations! I must say that they have a lot to choose from this year! Below is a picture of everything we chose.

We went for the Halloween funfetti cake mix and whipped frosting! We also got trick or treat cupcake cases, ghost shaped marshmallows, Halloween shaped sprinkles, and green glitter! You can choose whichever decorations you want but we wanted to keep it simple but cute.

With any festive baking extravaganza you also want to have something else planned during the duration of the baking and cooling of your cake mix so we chose to open a few adult cocktails and watching The Nightmare Before Christmas which is one of my favorite Halloween films!

After our movie was over and all of the cakes were out of the oven and cooled, we decorated! Here are some of our finished products!

It was super simple but also fun and a great way to have a fun and memorable night during the Halloween season!

Bonfire Night

Another fun and festive way to get yourself geared up into the Halloween spirit is to have a bonfire! All you need is an open space of dirt, preferably not around foliage, some logs, and a match or two!

This is a great idea because you can invite friends over to enjoy the delicious cupcakes you have already made (see previous) and gather around a warm fire on a chilly night and tell spooky stories! (Anyone else remember the show Are You Afraid of the Dark?) 

Some of my friends and I got together one night and decided to do just this and we had a blast!  You can bring your leftover ghost marshmallows and roast them on the fire and just enjoy each others company while also enjoying the outdoors! I know I need more time outside in some fresh air so this is a great way to accomplish that! Here are some of the pictures from the night we had our bonfire.

 Again, this is something that doesn't take a whole lot of effort but it is something that is very fun and a memory you will be able to laugh about for a long time to come! Just make sure someone puts out the fire at the end of the night!

Carving Pumpkins

Now possibly the most festive activity that I like to do during the Halloween season is carve pumpkins! I have already been able to enjoy it twice this year which has made this season the best! {The first pumpkin carving I did was with my bestie Daniel and we also filmed it for his YouTube channel so feel free to hop on over and watch us carve those pumpkins here: https://youtu.be/L-tDAX3dNi8}This is something that is even more enjoyable with friends! All you need to do it grab some pumpkins and get some carving tools and go to it! (side note: I would definitely also grab some pumpkin carving stencils from somewhere because then you can really impress people with your designs if you aren't as artistically inclined!)

When we all got together to carve pumpkins it was also to celebrate our friend MK's  24th birthday so her apartment was decked out in the cutest decorations which is something else you can do to add to the Halloween feeling! Here are a few pictures of the decorations.

All of our designs were different but I think that the fun is all in the time spent together creating pumpkin masterpieces! (Even if your pumpkin doesn't turn out quite the way you wanted!) Here are some of the pictures of the process as well as our finished pumpkins!

All of these activities can be done in one night or each on their own! Whatever you choose to do to celebrate just remember to have fun! I hope this inspires you to grab a bunch of friends and make the most of the last days of October and Halloween!

If you do choose to do any of these activities let me know in the comments below! I hope you all have a spooky and fun Halloween!

xoxo Jess 

Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween

Disney during the fall time... literally the most wonderful thing imaginable!

So I went to Disney for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party this past Sunday and I wanted to make a post about my experience! (PS Daniel also uploaded a vlog from this day if you would like to see more of what we got up to! https://youtu.be/VwdZesywFN8 )

So, to start off with, I think one of the best parts was seeing everyone dressed in costumes. My friend Daniel and I decided to do a more low key option, which I think was a great choice, but there were many people there who were FULL out and I loved it! Sometimes I would think people were in line to meet a character when actually it was just someone else visiting the park, the costumes were THAT good!

Here is a picture of Daniel and I in our costumes in front of Cinderella's castle! He was Cruella and I was Minnie Mouse.

We really lucked out on Sunday because it was raining the entire time we were driving there and when we made it to Magic Kingdom it stopped raining and the weather was amazing the entire rest of the time. I highly recommend going to this event if you can because it is absolutely amazing and well worth the money.

A few things about the event itself: You don't have to buy a park pass for the day if you are just going to the event then you only need to purchase a ticket to the event which saved me a ton of money honestly. Also, unless you pay for the event you have to leave the park by 7 p.m. which is when the event "starts" however, they will let you in the park early so we ended up arriving around 5:30 and were allowed in.

One of the best parts about this event is the park decorations. There are pumpkins everywhere and the cast members all have halloween themed outfits on as well. It made it a completely new experience for me. This was my third time at Disney this year and it felt like my first all over again because everything was so different! Even down to the music! Throughout the park they played Halloween themed Disney music and it added to the feel of the event and it was so much fun to have the villains get their moment to shine.

This is an example of the types of pumpkins they had EVERYWHERE around the park! I thought it was so cute!

The biggest part about this event is definitely the different fireworks and shows and parades! They had a "Boo to You" Parade which featured normal Disney characters decked out in costumes as well as featuring the villains and also Haunted Mansion ghosts. The parade was not very well lit however because of the nature of it and so I didn't get to take really good quality pictures of it. However, I did get a few pictures of the Castle during HalloWishes and the new Hocus Pocus Villains Spelltacular show! I have to say the Hocus Pocus show and Hallowishes were absolutely more than I could have imagined! Disney did such a great job with both of these and I was over the moon the entire time I was watching them! They also have trick or treat stations all around the park and you receive a "goody bag" when you get into the park to collect the candy. You can go through the lines as many times as you want and you can fill up as many bags of candy as your heart desires!

This is a picture of the castle during Hallowishes! It was amazing and they not only had fireworks but they also displayed images on the castle during this show which were little ghosts and pumpkins.

This is a picture during the Hocus Pocus Villains Spelltacular, The Sanderson Sisters were wonderful and of course they included hightlights from the movie within this show and it also featured a gang of villains to help them with their potion.

Something else that is noteworthy is the timing of everything. When you go, there is only one showing of Hallowishes, however there are two showings of the Hocus Pocus show and also the Boo to You parade so Daniel and I chose to see the later showings of both to go on rides during the others and there were NO LINES. For Big Thunder Mountain it was a 5 minute wait but honestly the 5 minutes was how long it took to walk up the big hill to the ride. We rode that twice in a row and the second time there were only two carts for the whole ride filled. We also got to meet Elsa and Anna and the wait for that was only 20 minutes. It was amazing because not only are you getting to experience Disney during a fun time of year but you also get short wait times and you get to ride more rides than you would on a normal day!

If you want to meet villains however I do suggest you go talk to a cast member and find out where they are going to be because the lines for special characters, such as Cruella, are longer. When we met Cruella we waited about 45 minutes which wasn't too bad but the lines for Jack and Sally and the seven dwarfs were longer.

This is me meeting Cruella and Daniel and I meeting Elsa! They were both really great and Cruella was so much fun!

Overall it was a wonderful experience and I definitely want to go back every year during this time to experience the magic during Halloween.

Have you ever been to Disney during Halloween?! Leave me comments and let me know!

xoxo Jess