Halloween Party

I hosted a Halloween party for the kiddos in my neighborhood this year and loved it. We ended up with fifteen kids and it was crazy but fun. I ended up burning my fingers right before the party so I didn't get pictures of everything I wanted (I was somewhat distracted) but here are a few pics.

Every good party starts with a good invitation. Since we only invited our neighbors we made three dimensional invitations and hand delivered them. I printed them on purple card stock then attached little popping figures with ribbon.


I decorated the mantle with my painting, a few Sandra Magsamen witches, some great glittered bats I found at Pier 1, and some cobwebs.



I painted this cobweb on a foam pumpkin with black fabric paint. I usually do one on a real pumpkin but figured since I do this every year, I should just do a foam one I can keep.


I drew a witch profile and put it in one of my frames on a bookshelf and I drew bats for another frame. I found the little Frankenstein and witch busts at Michael's on clearance for $1.00 each.



I hung glittered bats all over the house, from light fixtures, chandeliers, doorways, etc... I think this is the only picture we got of them.


I filled four plastic jars (old peanut butter jars) with candy and had them guess how many were in them.


We played lots of games and I ordered all sorts of prizes from Oriental Trading Company so I wrote their names on blank bags to grab before the games began. Everyone got a prize for each game and the winner got a bigger prize.
I drew this witch on a poster board for a "Pin the Nose on the Witch" game.
I blew up black and purple balloons with prizes and confetti inside and taped them to the wall for another game.
We played "mummy wrap" with toilet paper. The little ones didn't quite get the concept.
We played "hot pumpkin" instead of "hot potato." Then we played "musical ghosts" instead of "musical chairs."
I cut up little Halloween shapes and they had to get them all into a bowl with a straw. Saw this in Family Fun last year.
We also played a Halloween bingo game I bought from Oriental Trading then we turned on the fog machine and strobe light in the basement and the kids danced. We didn't get a good picture of it but they had a blast.
The table was centered with a Halloween gingerbread house we made with my in-laws in September. I made mini-caramel apples (the caramel was REALLY hot, I know from experience), purple and green jello jigglers, and my dear neighbor ended up making some melted ham & cheese sliders for me after I burned my fingers. I also had my three year old put pumpkin and ghost shaped Peeps on lolli-sticks and we put those out. I served green punch and everyone else brought other appetizers and desserts.
My awesome neighbor who finished off the food and dishes.
My other neighbors were awesome as well and headed up the games and controlled the chaos. I just snagged her pic because I loved her apron!

This little guy showed up as the solar system. Totally his idea. How creative is that?
And how cute are my neighbor and her son as The Incredibles. Everyone in the family went as a character.
It was a fun kick-off to Halloween weekend and if my son had actually worn his costume (and I didn't burn my fingers) it would have been darn near perfect! Since we moved this year and his Sulley costume from last year still fit, we just did Monster's Inc again. So, I wasn't too disappointed that he boycotted the costume all weekend. I got cute pictures last year. On Halloween night, I did put the costume on my one year old for a few minutes. It was too big but she sure looked cute!