Today we held our second annual Halloween party, and just like last year, we had a blast celebrating one of our favorite holidays. I really love planning parties and always put a lot of time and effort into them to make sure that everyone has a good time. The gathering was a little smaller this year, partly because of some last minute cancellations, which was disappointing but I think it worked out for the best. The house was less crowded, and the activities were a lot less hectic with a smaller group, so that's something I am going to remember when handing out invites next year!
We started out with a few rounds of Halloween bingo while we waited for everyone to arrive. I found some cute little bingo boards online that I printed out, and each of the kids had a tiny skull or cauldron filled with candy corn to use as markers. They were getting so excited at each bingo that it was hard to get them to want to move onto something else!
Once almost everyone had arrived we moved onto our Halloween themed crafts. The candy necklace making table was a big hit with the kids:
As was the magnet decorating, which I didn't manage to get a picture of. But the best table of all was the monster cupcake decorating! Kids or adults, it didn't matter - everyone wanted to be at that station. I got the idea for these cupcakes from the Martha Stewart Cupcake book, and they have been the life of the party every time we have made them.
We had lots of things to use for decorating; almond slivers for teeth, Air Heads for tongues, marshmallows for eyeballs, and so much more. With so many possibilities, it was really fun to see what everyone came up with.
Some kids just slapped a little frosting on and called it good, but most spent quite a bit more time on their spooky creations. These are Killian's, which I thought were so cool looking, especially the one with the huge marshmallow eyeballs!
Once everyone had a chance to make a cupcake and do some crafts, we started with the games. I had spent forever the night before finishing making these ghouls so we could do some pumpkin bowling. I think they turned out really cute - not bad for some old cans and a little construction paper!
The kids thought pumpkin bowling was the coolest thing ever, and at the end quite a few of them said it was their favorite activity. We had planned to do it outside, but with all the rain we had to set it up in the hallway. Luckily the kids went easy, and we didn't end up with any pumpkin guts on the walls. Killian was bowling a strike in this picture - the only one of the night!
Rowan appears to have her bowling stance down pat!
Our last activity was a little mummy madness. The kids split up into groups and then chose one person to be the mummy, and one person to be the mummifier. Then the madness began as they tried to wrap up their mummy with a role of TP. Killian and his friend Emmanuel had no problems at all:
But the younger kids did struggle a bit and needed lots of adult help. Especially the two littler boys, as they just could not get the hang of unwrapping the roll without ripping it:
The girls fared a little better, and how appropriate that Taylor was an dressed up like an Egyptian while she wrapped up a little Rowan mummy!
By this time the kids were famished, so we loaded them up with pizza and got them comfy watching The Nightmare Before Christmas. Coraline had been our first choice, but we couldn't find our copy of it anywhere in the house. I hadn't ever seen The Nightmare Before Christmas before...its sort of a strange movie. But the kids were glued to it, and seemed to really enjoy it, and it fit the theme so it worked out just fine.
When the movie was over the kids ate their cupcakes, and we sent them all home before their sugar rush could kick in - which I thought was excellent planning on our part! What we didn't plan on was having so much leftover in the way of cupcakes and candy. We certainly didn't need it sitting around the house tempting us, so Matthew and I sat down with the kids to decorate some cupcakes to take to our neighbors Dayna and Luke. They probably ended up picking off half of the toppings, since the kids didn't exactly use an easy hand while decorating!
Matthew and I had a great time, the kids had a lot of fun, and everyone left happy and exhausted. Another successful party, and enough great memories to last us until this time next year!
We started out with a few rounds of Halloween bingo while we waited for everyone to arrive. I found some cute little bingo boards online that I printed out, and each of the kids had a tiny skull or cauldron filled with candy corn to use as markers. They were getting so excited at each bingo that it was hard to get them to want to move onto something else!
Once almost everyone had arrived we moved onto our Halloween themed crafts. The candy necklace making table was a big hit with the kids:
As was the magnet decorating, which I didn't manage to get a picture of. But the best table of all was the monster cupcake decorating! Kids or adults, it didn't matter - everyone wanted to be at that station. I got the idea for these cupcakes from the Martha Stewart Cupcake book, and they have been the life of the party every time we have made them.
We had lots of things to use for decorating; almond slivers for teeth, Air Heads for tongues, marshmallows for eyeballs, and so much more. With so many possibilities, it was really fun to see what everyone came up with.
Some kids just slapped a little frosting on and called it good, but most spent quite a bit more time on their spooky creations. These are Killian's, which I thought were so cool looking, especially the one with the huge marshmallow eyeballs!
Once everyone had a chance to make a cupcake and do some crafts, we started with the games. I had spent forever the night before finishing making these ghouls so we could do some pumpkin bowling. I think they turned out really cute - not bad for some old cans and a little construction paper!
The kids thought pumpkin bowling was the coolest thing ever, and at the end quite a few of them said it was their favorite activity. We had planned to do it outside, but with all the rain we had to set it up in the hallway. Luckily the kids went easy, and we didn't end up with any pumpkin guts on the walls. Killian was bowling a strike in this picture - the only one of the night!
Rowan appears to have her bowling stance down pat!
Our last activity was a little mummy madness. The kids split up into groups and then chose one person to be the mummy, and one person to be the mummifier. Then the madness began as they tried to wrap up their mummy with a role of TP. Killian and his friend Emmanuel had no problems at all:
But the younger kids did struggle a bit and needed lots of adult help. Especially the two littler boys, as they just could not get the hang of unwrapping the roll without ripping it:
The girls fared a little better, and how appropriate that Taylor was an dressed up like an Egyptian while she wrapped up a little Rowan mummy!
By this time the kids were famished, so we loaded them up with pizza and got them comfy watching The Nightmare Before Christmas. Coraline had been our first choice, but we couldn't find our copy of it anywhere in the house. I hadn't ever seen The Nightmare Before Christmas before...its sort of a strange movie. But the kids were glued to it, and seemed to really enjoy it, and it fit the theme so it worked out just fine.
When the movie was over the kids ate their cupcakes, and we sent them all home before their sugar rush could kick in - which I thought was excellent planning on our part! What we didn't plan on was having so much leftover in the way of cupcakes and candy. We certainly didn't need it sitting around the house tempting us, so Matthew and I sat down with the kids to decorate some cupcakes to take to our neighbors Dayna and Luke. They probably ended up picking off half of the toppings, since the kids didn't exactly use an easy hand while decorating!
Matthew and I had a great time, the kids had a lot of fun, and everyone left happy and exhausted. Another successful party, and enough great memories to last us until this time next year!