Halloween Party

The kids were devastated earlier this month when we realized that Halloween was on Sunday and we talked about how we probably wouldn't go trick or treating on the sabbath. (There is a ward Trunk or Treat the night before that they will get plenty of candy) So it's not like they were going to totally miss out. But I still had pity on them and we decided to plan a Halloween Party so they could have their friends over. Because, hey, who doesn't love a Halloween Party, right? And honestly, call me crazy, but I started getting excited about all the fun possibilities of fun food and games, etc. Ok, I admit I did go a little crazy, but my kids were so excited and so sweet and grateful about it, it made it all worth the effort.

Here were the invites:

Our friend has DJ equipment that he was so nice to loan us for the sound for the movie, and a fog machine for our make shift cemetery, and Eric brought home the projector from work. ...We were set for an outdoor scary movie.

the guys setting up...

Our little make shift cemetery... Taylor made this headstone on the right. We had a smoke machine behind it to puff out smoke to try and make it 'spooky'

Our garden has a few lingering plants... so where we pulled out our watermelon and cantaloupe we put little headstones that we made from cardboard, and the little ones we found at the dollar store.

the food table... On the menu: Frito Chili Pie, Ghoulish Drinks, I think I forgot to take a picture of these. (I found these labels that go over the 2 liter soda labels that say, "Vampire's Blood" etc, etc.) We had cupcakes, buttered popcorn and candy corn popcorn, and lots of candy.

I made candy corn popcorn and put individual servings in the Halloween treat bags so they could grab and go. I found the recipe at my sister in laws AMAZING blog: The Swanky Pear. She has TONS of other great recipes. You take popcorn and lay it out on a parchment paper covered cookie sheet and drizzle melted candy corn over it. It's bright orange and very festive. Here is the recipe. I added semi sweet chocolate chips to the mix too so it had a little dark splash of color and added sweetness.

the patio table... I loved this tutorial that taught how to make the paper spider webs that I used under the votive candles and also put them on the votive so the light glowed through the spider web. You can find that here.

I loved this idea I found on the family fun website. I took milk jugs and cut out the back and stuffed them with a bunch of Christmas lights. I put them in the back flower bed for light and decor but they would be a great sidewalk border for Halloween night.

they looked really neat once it got totally dark. They were so bright, the kids loved them.

I took my empty #10 cans from food storage we'd gone through and covered them with paper bags and made a little Halloween label on photo shop and they were, "guess what your feeling" jars... We had Frankenstein's Fingers (sausages, that I bent like fingers and secured them bent with toothpicks) Monkey Brains (cooked egg noodles drenched in oil, so they didn't clump) and Witches Eyeballs ( frozen grapes). The tops were cut up trash bags with slits for their little hands to reach through without seeing whats inside.

The candy jars, so the kids could make their own candy bags to snack on during the movie.

I found these cute cupcake toppers and wraps at Micheal's and loved them.

The backyard entrance. Everyone came in through the back gate: Which was great because there were lots of kids and we were able to keep all the "fun" and mess outside. :)

The kids all decked out in their costumes. Brent-Batman, Taylor and Peyton- punk rockers. :) I made them matching applique rocker shirts. Taylor loves to have Peyton as her mini me. I've got to embrace it now, because I'm sure in a few years she'll feel differently.

Our friends, the Ellis kids. - Such cute costumes

Part of the party! The kids were so excited

Bobbing for apples... I cheated and kept the stems on the apples, so the kids got the hang of grabbing the stems with their teeth, saving their Halloween makeup from melting off their face.

Maddie
Jill getting read to make her move..

Conner, licking his lips, getting ready to dive...

Brent caught one!

Kaitlyn got one too!

Jonas, contemplating his game plan..

We had a relay race where the kids had to wrap a team mate up with the white fabric strips like a mummy and then run around the trampoline and back and then unwrap them and do it to another team-mate. The games were fun, but there were so many kids, it was a little chaotic.

Because they just didn't have ENOUGH sugar just yet, about half way through the movie we served forked eyeballs! There's just so many fun halloween things, I had to squeeze in just one more... I found this idea at the family fun website too. It calls for white chocolate to dip the donut holes in, but I burned the white chocolate as I was trying to multi-task the morning of, so I resorted to the extra white frosting that I hadn't dyed green yet. It worked.

I had a few of these ghosts, hanging from the trees. I don't remember where I found the idea, but you take a glow stick and put it inside a white balloon and then blow up the balloon and cover it with a THIN white sheet or fabric, and draw a Ghost's face on it. When it's dark, it glows. After the party was all cleaned up and I was finally going to bed in the wee hours of the morning.. I looked out in the backyard and saw this glowing thing in the tree. It kind of spooked me at first, forgetting how I put it there. Might be a fun thing to do for Halloween night.

We played the Disney movie "Halloween Town" on the projector screen and the kids all sat on blankets and ate their treats. Some of them would jump on the tramp or watch the movie from the tramp.

It was so much fun!