Boo!! Halloween is right around the corner and we couldn’t be more excited! We love the Halloween season and have so much fun crafting and decorating in preparation for the big night. If you’re like us, sometimes life gets busy and it’s easy to forget to take a break. A recent study actually found that more than half of US kids are inadequately hydrated and that drinking water is one of the biggest “healthy habit” struggles moms have with their kids! We’re all about making everyday fun and creative so we’re big fans of NESTLÉ® PURE LIFE® 8oz limited edition water bottles. They’re available in 8 different Halloween-inspired designs, and are the perfect addition to a classroom party or a neighborhood get-together.

Enter our super fun yellow submarine water cooler!! We went to the pumpkin patch and picked out a big pumpkin with an oblong shape – make sure it sits nicely on one side so that your water cooler is nice and stable. We love the playful and spooky Halloween monsters on the Nestlé® Pure Life® bottles so we wanted to give them an equally fun and colorful cooler to chill in. Make a submarine pumpkin cooler as a centerpiece of your snack table this Halloween – replacing a single 12-ounce, 140 calorie sugar sweetened beverage with water each day for a year can cut more than 65 cups of sugar from one’s diet! Now let’s get carving!

• Large, oblong pumpkin
• Scissors
• Craft knife
• Kitchen knife / pumpkin carving knife
• Spoon
• Foam core / cardboard
• Pencil
• Paintbrush
• Permanent marker
• FolkArt Acrylic Paint (yellow)
• Double-sided tape
• Small, clear plastic bowls
• Clear plastic candy tubes

Step 1
Sit your pumpkin on its side so that it’s stable and sitting nicely. Draw an oval on the new top of your pumpkin and use a kitchen (or pumpkin carving) knife to carefully remove it. This will be the opening for the cooler, so make sure it isn’t too small! Remove the pumpkin seeds with the spoon.

Step 2
Draw three circles on the front side of the pumpkin to be the windows – you can trace small plastic bowls to keep them even.

Step 3
Cut out the circles with the kitchen knife, and thin out the walls behind them so that the bottoms of the plastic bowls can be wedged in and stay there. For now, leave the plastic bowls out but we’ll add them back in later on.

Step 4
To make the propeller for the submarine, draw a shape like this (think a thin figure 8) onto foamcore / cardboard drawing a template first on scrap paper if needed. Draw a rectangle coming out of the center of the 8 and then use a craft knife to cut out.

Step 5
Do the same for two rutters to sit on the top (next to the cooler opening) and bottom (directly opposite) of the pumpkin. Paint the rutters yellow and the propeller silver. Let dry.

Step 6
Time to make the periscope! We used clear plastic candy tubes (your local craft, bulk, or container store should have something similar) and cut one almost in half to be the top part. Paint the inside of both yellow and let dry.

Step 7
When dry, use double stick table to attach the short piece to the top of the long one and your periscope is ready to go!

Step 8
Paint your carved pumpkin yellow! Make sure to do this on a covered surface to protect your tabletop and then let dry completely. We chose to paint the stem, but you could leave as-is or remove if you like. Depending on the shape of yours, you could maybe even turn it into a fun detail on your submarine!

Step 9
Add your rutters and propeller using double stick tape, or stick toothpicks into the pumpkin and pierce into the edge of the foamcore pieces.

Step 10
Wedge the plastic bowls into the carved-out circles to form the windows. Your pumpkin cooler is ready to go! Place it on your snack or water station, and fill with ice. Stick the periscope into the ice and add your water bottles! To learn more about NESTLÉ® PURE LIFE® and find the limited edition bottles at a store near you, visit nestlepurelife.com.

Show us how you use Nestlé® Pure Life ® 8oz bottles in your Halloween festivities with the hashtag #HydrateYourHalloween.

Thank you to Nestle® Pure Life® for sponsoring this blog post. All opinions are my own.

Sources:
1 Kenney EL, et al. Prevalence of Inadequate Hydration Among US Children and Disparities by Gender and Race/Ethnicity: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2009-2012. Am J Public Health. 2015 Aug;105(8):e113-8.
2 Stookey JD. What is the cell hydration status of healthy children in the USA? Preliminary data on urine osmolality and water intake. Public Health Nutr. 2012 Nov;15(11):2148-56.
3 Drewnowski A, et al. Water and beverage consumption among children age 4-13y in the United States: analyses of 2005–2010 NHANES data Nutr J. 2013; 12: 85.
4 http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nestle-pure-life-kicks-off-the-ripple-effect-movement-to-encourage-healthy-hydration-habits-among-kids-300143584.html