Our Spooktacular Halloween Party

 Our party was a pot luck Halloween inspired party. It was a lot of fun and I admit less stressful! Okay, only slightly  less stressful because I was so busy all week that I was still getting things ready when the kids started coming. I don't have an extensive amount of space in my apartment, so I took my kitchen island (it's always against the wall and next to a counter) and covered both of them with a tablecloth
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  COOKIE
http://www.mrsfields.com/gifts/Jack-O-Lantern

My husband almost bought this cookie for our Halloween party when he saw it online.  Quite frankly I'm not a fan of Mrs. Fields online cookies. The one time we got them for Easter they were crumbling in your mouth (in a bad way) and just did not taste right. If I'm going to eat Mrs. Fields it must be fresh. I also knew that it was fairly easy to replicate this. I started by greasing a pizza pan. Then I cut open the package of Pillsburry sugar cookie mix (I had to change the cookie flavor because a girl at the party is allergic to dairy). I used a greased rolling pin to flatten most of the dough, then used my hands to shape it into a pumpkin. I did not take it all the way to the end because it WILL expand.
I baked it at a lower temperature (325) for about 15 minutes. It came out a nice golden brown. When it cooled I iced the cookie. I did not have any green icing, but I did have green food spray. I added orange colored sprinkles to the rim.

CAKE
http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/pull-apart-spiderweb-cupcakes/325ad00b-96d4-4e9b-8750-d219bbe53ce6?nicam4=SocialMedia&nichn4=Pinterest&niseg4=BettyCrocker&nicreatID4=Post

I started the cupcake cake by baking 14 vegan chocolate cupcakes. While they were cooling I took a cookie sheet and covered it in paper to make it look nice.  When they were cooled I arranged the cupcakes on the tray (they kind of looked like a snow flake). I took the orange icing and smoothed it all over the top. Now this is where I strayed from the original. I took a Betty Crocker pre-made icing tube in black and made the web. They made black rings and ran a tooth pick through it.

http://www.aturtleslifeforme.com/search?updated-max=2011-11-02T21%253A10%253A00-04%253A00&max-results=7

I'm now reminding people who don't visit often of two things: I don't always get the pins right because I don't have these objects on hand and 2) I do them from memory sometimes.  So, I made the green vanilla pudding yesterday morning. I set it into the green cups I had (it would have looked cooler if I had had clear) and after they set awhile added chocolate sprinkles to the top. Here is my mistake: I forgot to add faces to the cups BEFORE putting the pudding in so when I went to draw on them with sharpie everything was smearing because of the condensation.

WITCHES BREW:
http://pinterest.com/pin/195765915023710442/

I only got the idea from pintrest, I then saw that Target sold both the cauldron and two punch mixes for $8. All I had to do was add soda. Which fizzed all over the place when I mixed it (the girls thought that was hilarious) . Two days before I made the ice hands by freezing water in a glove. First, the glove didn't want to come off when I was ready to use it, then it didn't want to fit in the cauldron and I had to break the fingers. It fit after that.

The Veggie Skeleton Man

Mummy Dogs

Another angle of the food (you can almost see the witch wands, but not really.

Other foods we had: Orange and black tortilla chips, cupcake flavored goldfish, grapes, bananas, oranges, and Halloween Rice krispies:

GAMES and CRAFTS:

Angry Bird Bean Bag Toss:

 You can also just make a bean bag toss by having the kids throw the bean bags into caludrons or other trick or treat buckets.

Decorate a pumpkin

So like I've mentioned earlier we grew enough pumpkins in our garden to accommodate all the girls that were invited to the party. To make it fair we numbered each pumpkin and numbered pieces of papers in a bowl. The girls had to chose from the bucket and that determined their pumpkin.

Once everyone had a pumpkin they went back to the table where they added feathers, google eyes, glittler, marker, pom poms, pipe cleaners, or their Halloween masks. I was amazed at how long the kids took the decorate, but used hardly any of the stuff. Make sure the tables are covered with newspaper or something that you do not mind

 The girls being silly

Masks

All we dud was print the masks and have the girls decorate them however they wanted.

Find the mask here



Halloween Bingo (can be purchased at Target)
 If you don't buy it at the store it's easy to google search

Pin the nose to the Jack O' Lantern

Also bought at Target

"Who am I Halloween edition"

I took index cards and drew pictures of  Halloween things (Cat, Witch, Ghost, Jack O' Lantern, Mummy, Frankenstein, Spider, Candy, Skeleton, and Bat). You have the kids sit in a circle and you tape the  card to their forehead. They have to guess what is on the card by asking yes or no questions. Unfortunately I left the room twice and the girls all peeked int he reflection of the TV to find out what they were. Haha it was fun anyway.

"My Dear Friend Witchie-poo

Since they were still sitting in a circle I draped a black table cloth over their laps.Now, I don't know what this game is actually called. But I remember playing it when I was younger and it stuck with  me. I started by taking five bags and writing things like "Eye, fingers, skin, brains and hair" The kids have to feel the objects in the bag without looking and guess what they are
.I told the girls my dear friend Witchie-poo died and left me her remains. These were here eyes. I then passed around the bag that contained peeled grapes. Then her greasy  hair (cooked, cold spaghetti which had some oil on it), Her fingers (cooked carrots), her skin (cooked tortilla), and her brains (pumpkin guts). You have got to take pictures of their reactions- it's priceless.



Halloween Bowling

I took the toilet paper rolls and wrapped them in colored parchment type paper, tapped them and folded the tops and bottoms down like I was wrapping a present. Make sure they are flat because you'll need to stack them. Then added the faces I used Sharpie for the eyes:

A Bat ( Black paper, white eyes and pointed teeth) 

 a ghost  (white paper black circular eyes and an oval mouth

Witch (later turned into a zombie) Yellow eyes, orange hair or black for nose and mouth (like Jack's)

Jack Skellington (white paper, black eyes and nose, mouth drawn on with sharpie, 

purple monsters (purple paper, white eyes, jagged hair and "stitched mouth") 

and a jack o'lantern. We also are using a Styrofoam pumpkin instead of real one

The Erupting Pumpkin

We are very into science in our house. So it only felt fitting to have at least one science experiment at the Halloween party. We had seen an erupting volcano before, but a pumpkin? Oh this we had to do. Luckily we had grown well over enough pumpkins in our garden to accommodate all the girls at the party as well as the erupting pumpkin. Before the party I cut, scooped and carved it. While the girls' (all nine of them) gathered in the entry way of my kitchen I sprinkled a bunch of baking soda at the base of the pumpkin. Next we chose some green food coloring to add a little color- who wants white?
Then I added the vinegar and it began to foam. I really wish I had been able to get it on tape because the girls' were all amazed and it really was cool to watch it foam and go everywhere.

PHOTO BOOTH

To make the actual "booth" I took an orange table cloth and tacked it up against my door.

 .While I was at Target I happened to find a 4 pack of mustaches for $1 and thought they would go great for our booth. If you can't find it the easiest way to do it is: print the picture you want, transfer it onto cardboard, cut it out on felt.

Once it is on cardboard I pinned it to the color of felt that I needed and cut that out. I turned on my hot glue gun and let that warm up while I snipped the sharp parts of the kabob sticks off. For some added fanciness try wrapping the stick with ribbons. When the glue gun was ready I glued it all down.

Girly props

Then we added Halloween inspired:

all you have to do is make the lips, cut out the middles and add white triangle pieces for the fangs. Super easy!

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