Fun Find: DIY Disneyland Main Street Mickey Pumpkin Video

Happy Friday Friends!  Today is an extra special day for us because Eliot and I are in San Jose so we can attend the Sharks season opener tonight!  And since we're out of town, I have scheduled a Fun Find Friday post to share with you all today!

I first saw this video a few years ago when Disney Family originally shared it online.  I absolutely love the giant Mickey pumpkin at the end of Main Street in Disneyland.  This felt like the perfect time to share this video since we were just there to visit it in person! 

I absolutely love this video on how to make your own version at home!  I am definitely going to have to make one at some point.  It probably won't be this year since Eliot and I have been really busy, but it's on my radar!  Isn't he cute? 

I hope you enjoyed this cute little video!  Have a wonderful weekend everyone!  °o°

Fun Find: How To Make a Mickey Pumpkin Candy Apple

Happy Fun Find Friday!  Today, I thought that I'd continue with my candy apple making fun.  Part of the reason that I love Disney's candy apples so much is that they are versatile enough to change them up for the holidays.  (You know how much I love the holidays!)  In fact, these Mickey Pumpkin Candy Apples are one of the first things my mind conjures when I think of celebrating Halloween at the parks.

Photo Source

These Mickey Pumpkin Candy Apples aren't really that hard to make either!

Yum... I'm getting hungry just looking at them!  Maybe I'll attempt to make some of these tasty, magical treats this spooky season!!!  °o° 

Autumn 2021 Bucket List

Happy First Day of Fall... Pumpkin Spice Season is officially here!!!  

I absolutely love the fall in Maine.  Autumn has always been a favorite of mine.  I love the rich, beautiful fall colors when the leaves are changing.  

Plus, summer yielding to autumn means the beginning of my favorite time of the year is almost here!  Halloween to New Years has always been my favorite; I love celebrating Halloween, my birthday, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas and New Years!

But I don't want to get ahead of myself.  There are so many things that I love about the fall.  I loved doing my summer bucket list so much that I've decided to make one for autumn too!  This also starts the busiest time of the year for Eliot's and my businesses, and considering how crazy things have been the past few months- I'm preparing for a doozy!  Having a bucket list will help make sure we still get to make time for ourselves to have some fun!  So without further ado, here is my Autumn 2021 Bucket list!

Melissa's Autumn 2021 Bucket List

1. Go to Six Flags New England
2. Make a Fall Craft
3. Take a Drive to See the Fall Foliage
4. Watch Hocus Pocus
5. Make Pumpkin Treats (fudge, bread, or muffins)
6. Go to the Yankee Candle Village Store in MA
7. Carve a Pumpkin
8. Wear a Halloween Costume
9. Drink Apple Cider
10. Watch all of the Halloweentown Movies
11. Go to the Jordan Pond House
12. Visit Salem, MA
13. Buy Pumpkins for Front Porch
14. Go Apple Picking
15. Make a Halloween Craft
16. Celebrate Our 9th Wedding Anniversary
17. Watch Football
18. Have a Pumpkin Spice Latte
19. Make Candy Apples
20. Travel Somewhere New
21. Visit Some of the Hocus Pocus Filming Locations

Woo-hoo!  I'm excited!  I've never been apple picking and there's an orchard not far from us.  Eliot and I have been talking about going... and making candy apples is the perfect way to use some of those apples!  (I haven't done that in forever!)  We also haven't bought pumpkins for our porch in a few years.  And while we've been to Salem, I've actually never gone to look for the locations used in the Hocus Pocus movie!

I think this list is the perfect way to make sure Eliot and I take some time to enjoy the fall season!  I'll check back in a few months to see how well we did and to share some photos of our experiences!  Happy Fall Y'all!  °o°

Halloween Jack O'Lanterns

One of my favorite parts of Halloween is carving Jack O'Lanterns! 

Last year we went to Katie's apartment for a pumpkin carving party after our Maine Wedding Reception.  It was dubbed Pumpkinfest: Bar Harbor Edition.  It was a great night of pumpkin carving, food, friends and fun. 

Eliot went online to find some jack o'lantern stencils for us to use.  I hadn't carved a pumpkin in such a long time!  We selected Kermit and Tigger since they seemed easy.  

I ended up getting a little bit of help carving Tigger (from the wonderful BJ) with carving out the details on mine.  And yes, I am still wearing my tiara.  I had it on at the reception and we stuck it in my hair pretty good so I just left it on instead of wrecking my hair style. Once a princess, always a princess!

Eliot worked really hard on Kermit.  He was pretty happy with the result.

Our Disney loving pals BJ, Katie and Kathleen also made Disney pumpkins.  They carved out Captain Hook and Malificent!  After all, what's Halloween without a few Villains?

Katie designed her own stencil and made Floyd, her signature flamingo!

Here's a group picture with how they turned all out!

At the party, Eliot severely caught the pumpkin carving bug.  He created a group on Facebook to share some of the templates that he found online with all of us.  He also wanted to carve pumpkins... lots and lots of pumpkins.

Since you can't just go out and buy pumpkins all year long, we decided to look into some of the plastic ones you can get at craft stores.  They also aren't as messy and they won't spoil so you can enjoy them for many years to come.  Luckily for us, Michael's had a large supply that were 60-70% off so we stocked up on them.  Eliot has made a few jack o'lanterns with the fake pumpkins.  (They are on sale right now if you're lucky enough to find some lingering at your local craft store.)

Eliot wanted one for our apartment last Halloween, so he carved out another Kermit for us to enjoy. (We kept the real pumpkins at Mom and Dad's house since we weren't sure how they'd survive the 5 hour drive back to Boston.  Plus, we knew that they'd actually get trick or treaters and our apartment building would not since you had to key into the building.)  

Shortly after that, he made Captain Jack Sparrow.

He also found a stencil for Eeyore.

And a week or so ago, he added Tigger to our collection.

I'm trying to convince him to make me a Tinkerbell pumpkin with lots of pixie dust like this one I found on Pinterest!  I might even paint it lime green with some of my left over wedding paint!

If you're interested in carving some Disney pumpkins, the websites that Eliot found to get stencils to carve from are Zombie Pumpkins and Spoonful.  (You have to become a member of Zombie Pumpkins to get the stencils.)

Here is our current display of jack o'lanterns!  We use orange flickering LED tea lights to illuminate them.  (That way they can stay on for hours at a time and the LED lights won't melt the plastic of the fake pumpkins.)  They look great and you can't even tell that they're not real ones!  I'm hoping to add some Haunted Mansion hitchhiking ghost pumpkins to our collection next year!  °o°