Halloween Party!

Joshua really wanted a birthday party this year but I hadn't thrown a party for anyone else, so instead we threw a Halloween party! They were each able to invite a few friends and then help me plan the party. Joshua read a Geronimo Stilton book about Halloween parties that had lots of ideas, so we had fun researching and finding fun things to do.

Decorating was first, so we made bats and balloon ghosts to hang.

We started by letting our guests decorate their own goodie bags. It is amazing what kids will come up with (some glued candy corn to their bags)!

Then, we had a mummy making competition. It was really interesting to see how to two teams worked. One was speedy and creative while the other was slow and methodic. Fascinating!

Then, came lunch. Normally I wouldn't do lunch at a party but Joshua had many food ideas that I didn't mind, so we went for it. First, they made scary mouths out of apple slices and almost slivers. They were indeed scary. Then, they enjoyed carrot fingers! When you use real carrots and put them standing up in a bowl they really do look like scary fingers. And hey, who can pass up a scary carrot finger! YES, I served vegetables at a party and am unashamed! Then, they enjoyed the main course of pumpkin cut out peanut butter sandwiches and mummy English muffin pizzas (these were my favorite). By the way, using cheep white bread made spreading the peanut butter and honey very difficult--now I am ashamed for using white bread, but I thought it would be easier to use. Now I know that to be a falsehood.

After eating I set out a variety of craft supplies and asked them to make a spider. They could be scary, funny, creative, or just whatever they wanted. It was great! I was impressed by their creativity! At the end there were a few minutes left, so I let them go outside to play. Fortunately, we are stilling 50 and 60 degree weather here, so it was a lovely afternoon and they gladly went out to play.

We ended with these great cookies that James made. Yes, they look amazing and of course, they taste amazing. The ones with brown filling are Nutella! Mmmmmm. . . . He always amazes me with what he can do!

Now for the goodie bag! We made bats straws (bats taped on straws-but they were pretty impressive), orange play-do (yes, I made this too and let me tell you, if you cook your play-do it doesn't get hard when the kids leave it out. I'm not too sure if I like this or not), little halloween notebooks, and of course, a little candy.

This was probably one of my finest creative moments, so hopefully the boys enjoyed it, well, I know they had a blast, so it was a success.

We were pretty wimpy with costumes this year, so if you are trying to figure out how they are dressed, they are wearing brown and camo, so they are army men. Yes, they were clearance clothes at Old Navy, but the boys love them and now they have new clothes for the colder months ahead!

Oh, and I am sorry for the horrible pictures, but the camera hadn't made it home from James' concert, so you got ipod photos. But hey, they are better than nothing!