Sure, there are plenty of haunted houses out there that go above and beyond to traumatize their visitors for good money, but how often do you get to tailor scare tactics to your own friends, family, and other visitors? In the end, they’ll likely expect you to do it again next year, too.

Use this outline to get organized so your haunting will come together as well as any witch’s brew.

Location & Layout

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Before you get carried away with spooky ideas, remember that your haunting has to fit in the space you have. So choose your location carefully. You might not be able to take people through every room of your house like you want, or you may find some of your favorite ideas will be best executed out in the yard.

Draw out a few different options for the layout of your haunted house and the path you’ll lead your visitors along so you don’t have to uninvite any vampires or ghosts to your haunting. If you’re planning to have it up all month long, you’ll want to make sure some things are easy to stow away so your home can be lived in during the day and quickly transformed for the dead at night.

Scenarios

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You’ll want to plan out your scares and scenarios for your specific audience as well. Young kids might not do too well with depictions of chainsaws and torture, but adults may find your werewolf pretty pathetic.

Think about scenarios that would scare you and try to bring those to life in the best sections of your layout. Think mad scientists, zombies, and shadowy monsters. And, if you think they’ll need it, give your guests a respite with the cutesy side of Halloween, too: smiling pumpkins and fairies will help any troubled heart feel just a bit safer until they turn the next corner.

Lighting

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Before you go throwing decorations on the walls and in all the corners, take a serious moment to plan out the lighting for your haunted house. You may think turning all the lights off will do the trick, but how can people get scared if they can’t see anything?

You can make use of any portable lighting you already have like lamps and fairy lights, but it wouldn’t hurt to bring out the bigs guns with some extension cords. Blacklight or other colored lights are always a great choice because of the distortion to reality. And don’t forget how effective strobe lights will be with any moving props or people in costume.

Props

It’s easy to go overboard and over budget with props, so scout out the Halloween shops, your favorite holiday Pinterest boards, and the dozens of DIY articles detailing how to make your own creepy objects from cheap, everyday items.

You might decide to splurge on some key pre-made things then fill up the rest of your space with cobwebs and old wine bottles dripped over with candle wax. You won’t have to fill up every space in the room either. Empty spaces make for great dark patches and will help keep everyone safe from tripping or falling in the midst of their terror.

People

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For those who are happy to go the extra mile, initiate your family members into the game by letting them dress up and become part of a scenario. Your kids will get a thrill from giving people a scare, and you’ll be able to keep the haunted house from getting too predictable.

While lots of people do like to get scared, don’t forget that people will need a reprieve, so make sure you supplement your scares with some other fall fun along the way. You’ll always be able to come back to the haunted house when you’re done.

The post Creating Your Own Haunted House appeared first on InstantELLA.

1. Slow Cooker Cheesy Potato Casserole

Casseroles are great around the holidays. They are easy to throw together and they feed a lot of people. This wonderful recipe from The Diary of Real Housewife is a perfect quick dish to prepare and let sit in the crockpot all day while you visit with your guests or prepare the rest of your meal.

2. Sweet Potato Casserole Bites

Do you love finger food around the holidays? Or maybe you need some quick appetizers that are sure to please? Then look no further than these delightful sweet potato casserole bites from Shaken Together Life. They’ve turned a classic holiday dish into a convenient and delicious appetizer.

3. Loaded Leftover Mashed Potato Balls

You can make this dish for an appetizer or with the leftovers from your Thanksgiving mashed potatoes. Mashed potatoes have never been so delicious! You can find the full recipe at Handle the Heat.

4. Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Take a classic and make it better. Everyone loves mashed potatoes, and these roasted garlic mashed potatoes will have your guests back for seconds and thirds, so make sure you make plenty! Go to Cooking Classy to find the recipe.

5. Scalloped Potatoes

Don’t underestimate the power of a delicious classic potato dish. You don’t have to do something totally unique or super fancy to please your guests. Try this scalloped potato recipe from Gimme Some Oven and see how happy your guests will be.

6. Duchess Potatoes

Take your mashed potatoes to the next level with this fancy look. Bake fluffy, perfect individual servings of mashed potatoes with this treat. Find the recipe at Home Made Interest.

7. Roasted Maple Cinnamon Sweet Potatoes

Because sweet potatoes are a staple of holiday gatherings, we had to throw another recipe in here. These roasted maple cinnamon sweet potatoes are sure to have your yam-loving guests coming back for more. Find the full recipe at Together as a Family.

8. Three Ingredient Roasted Potatoes

You can never go wrong with roasted potatoes. This 3-ingredient dish is so simple to prepare that you’ll want to make it with every meal. All you need is baby red potatoes, olive oil, and dry onion soup mix. You can thank The Food Charlatan for the recipe.

The post 8 Awesome Potato Dishes for the Holidays appeared first on InstantELLA.

Mini Pizza Pumpkins

Make personal pizzas with your kids. Let them decorate their own pizza like a jack-o-lantern with the toppings. The cheese makes for the perfect pumpkin color. Olives are the perfect topping for the eyes, nose, and mouth. But if your child doesn’t like olives, you can always use another topping.

Find the recipe at Play Party Plan.

Pretzel and Cheese Broomsticks

If your kids like string cheese, these are the perfect after school snack for any October day. And they are so simple and quick to put together. If you want to keep the kids busy, have them make the broomsticks themselves. They’re that easy!

Find the recipe at One Little Project.

“Boo”-Nana Pops

Make some frozen “Boo”-nana pops to get excited for Halloween. These spooky treats just take a banana, white chocolate (or vanilla yogurt for a healthier option), chocolate chips and popsicle sticks.

Find the full recipe at Skinny Taste.

Silly Apple Bites

These fun apple bites look like little green monsters. And they make such a great healthy treat! Putting these treats together would be a fantastic activity for a kids’ Halloween party. Just give each kid a plate and their ingredients and let them go to town. They’ll have so much fun and enjoy a healthy snack in the process.

Find the recipe at Fork and Beans.

Grapefruit Jack-o-Lanterns

Carving pumpkins is fun, but can you eat them? Help your kids carve a face into a grapefruit and fill it up with their favorite fruit salad. Snacks are always more fun with faces.

Find the recipe at Say Yes.

Spider Sandwiches

Whether it’s for an afterschool snack, lunch, or a party treat, these spooky spider sandwiches are just the fun healthy treat your kids need to get them in the spirit of Halloween. Make their favorite sandwich, cut it out in a circle, and use pretzels or carrot sticks for the legs.

Find the recipe at Autism Learning Felt.

Healthy “Candy Corn”

Mock up everyone’s favorite Halloween candy with similarly colored fruit with some whipped cream or yogurt on top. One piece of candy on top won’t hurt either. Use fun colors and similarities like this to encourage healthy eating.

Find the recipe at Family Fresh Meals.

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We all know what Halloween is about. It’s been widely celebrated (and over- celebrated) in the United States, but other countries are not unaware of it either. That said, while I was ‘aware’ of Halloween, this is the first time I’ve witnessed and celebrated it with family in the U.S. We did the whole traditional ‘Trick-or-Treat’ thing, dressed up in character, watched the 1993 classic- ‘The nightmare before Christmas’–  and opened our home to ghosts and ghouls.

We ain’t afraid of No Ghosts! Celebrating Halloween 2016 with my lil Munsters.

That said, let’s get back to the Pumpkin. I have never carved a Pumpkin before and being my first year celebrating this hallowed ritual, I must shamefully admit, I cheated (sad face). I used eyes, nose and mouth cut-outs to create a face on the two pumpkins my lil pumpkin Sebastian, proudly picked from a pumpkin patch during his school trip to Ikenberry Orchards. He lugged his precious pumpkins all the way back home and excitedly placed them on our Kitchen counter one sunny Friday afternoon, a week before Halloween,  as if to say….’ok now. Do your thing, Mama!’ totally oblivious to the fact that I have never been this up close and personal with a (Halloween) Pumpkin before. Well Sebastian, Mama did ‘do her thing’ and she named the bigger one Kayden (our older son) and the smaller one Sebastian

Pumpkins carved, mission accomplished!

Kayden and Sebastian sat on our counter even after the rest of the Halloween decorations came down. Because I had not desecrated the pumpkins earlier, it meant that I could actually use them now and the possibilities were endless — pumpkin pie, pumpkin cupcakes, cookies, dips, shakes, lattes, smoothies. I researched the options online until pumpkins came out of my ears! I finally narrowed it down to Breakfast Pumpkin Pie Smoothie and Pumpkin Spice Latte because I love challenges, variety and everything caffeine! The results were yummy and my biggest tip here would be to use homemade Pumpkin Puree and a lot of store bought Pumpkin Spice like McCormick’s which is easily available and can be used for practically anything that requires that extra zing of Pumpkin flavoring.

I turned my leftover carved pumpkins into Breakfast Pumpkin Pie Smoothies & Pumpkin Spice Lattes

I have to admit, I’m looking forward to my next Halloween. Maybe I will hide and/or eat all the candy my kids bring home, maybe I won’t cheat next time and carve out a real Jack o’ lantern and maybe just maybe I’ll let evil take over and do the rest. The possibilities, especially when it comes to Pumpkins and spice……are endless!

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