Blake's Halloween Party

I asked Blake what he wanted to be for Halloween and he said, "a firefighter!" Almost immediately after that conversation the only thing he said to me was "can my friends come over in they Halloween costumes?" At first I tried to just say yeah sure maybe so and so can come over and you guys can play in all your costumes. That didn't work at all, he wanted all his friends to come over! Then I decided that it was a perfect time to have an actual Halloween party. (After all I would have an adult one every year but it doesn't seem to work out.) I ran the idea by Andrew and he agreed that it would be fun as long as I didn't go overboard on spending money!

I started planning for the party immediately. I looked at the calendar and picked the date that worked the best for us. It just happened to be a little over a week away, so super short notice for people to attend. I send out a mass text to all my friends with kids. I also asked Blake who he wanted to invite and he listed all of his friends (who I had already sent text to their parents). He also wanted to invite a few of his friends on our street who I don't have phone numbers for so I made these invitations. (Invitations are a love of mine!)

I only made 2 of these but I would make 20 if I needed to because making invitations and paper crafts is one of my favorite things to do! I added the fun spiders to the outside of the invitation which were confetti I found at the store.

I started looking at Pinterest for ideas to add to the few ideas that I already had. I was hoping for a day nice enough for us to be able to play some games outside but planned for an inside only party as well. (Turned out to be cool and wet so I'm glad I prepared for an indoor party too.) I had the party at a time that providing only snacks would cover the having food issue of parties. I put together a plan in my head and went to the store every single day last week because I kept forgetting what I was in need of. I wasn't 100% sure of exactly what I wanted to do until Thursday. I was also trying to figure out what I was going to dress up as and what Andrew was going to be. Blake also had a sudden change of idea about what he wanted to be so I was searching for him a final costume too. I honestly thought that I wasn't going to be able to pull this party off because I didn't feel prepared at all.

For the games I decided on ghost bean bag toss, skull/mummy bowling with a pumpkin, feed the spider, and bounce/toss the eye balls/glow bracelets in the cauldron. I used the ideas I found all over the internet to create games. I didn't want to make a bean bag toss game when I knew my parents had corn-hole and that I could use it instead. I just asked my mom to make it look like the kids were throwing the bean bags into a ghosts mouth. She did so good making the ghost! Blake wanted skulls and mummys for the bowling pins so I drew on the toilet paper rolls with a sharpie and highlighter. I had these sticky bugs that you could shoot that I found at target so I thought it would be fun to have a spider web and the kids could throw or shoot the bugs into the web. I made the web on a piece of poster board with puff paint. After all who says puff paint is only for fabric! I asked my mother-in-law to make the spider less than an hour before the party started because I couldn't wrap my head around making one stick to the wall like I wanted it to. She did so good on it. I found ping pong balls that looked like eye balls and couldn't pass them up! Tossing them into a cauldron seemed like the perfectly fitting game. I also put glow bracelets in with them because the ping pong balls were bouncing like crazy all over the house when Blake played with them. 

All of the kids loved the games. Even the big kids (adults) loved them! I didn't get many pictures of the kids playing because they were all moving so fast the pictures were blurry!

For the food I wanted to stick to simple snacks but when I saw those adorable mummy hotdogs I had to include those. I went with fruit, veggies and hummus, cookies, and mummy hotdogs. I saw a cute fruit platter that had a watermelon carved to look like it was throwing up fruit and I wanted to make it. I used a pumpkin instead of a watermelon and I love it even more than what I saw on the internet. Nothing special for the veggies and hummus except for putting a toy skeleton in them. I had planned on making skeleton shaped cookies but that attempt failed miserably, I don't want to talk about it. My dad saved the day by running to get some store bought cookies. The mummy hotdogs were so easy to make and they were good. I wasn't expecting them to be as yummy as they were!

The only thing I was sure about from the beginning of this whole party idea was that the food table was going to be orange with a black runner and things (spider confetti) sprinkled on it. I found the bat rings and love the color splash they added to the table. 

I wanted to have a place specific for staged pictures, ha! I made the SPOOKY banner a week ago and I love the way it turned out. I felt like it needed something else though so I (my mom and I actually) made the fabric garland. It gave the mantel the pop it needed for the photo area background. I really love fabric garland and could easily have one for every holiday.

I know we had a great time and spent our time the way we should when we don't have a picture of every single moment we spent enjoying ourselves. Here a few shots from the party.

Such a cute group of kids!

I am just thankful that we were able to have a Halloween party for Blake and all his friends. It was so fun to watch his face light up as each friend walked through the door in costume. Watching him show them where each game was in the house and how to play them was priceless. I absolutely loved every minute of the party and most importantly so did Blake and his friends! I think this might be a new tradition.

Special thanks to everyone who helped me put this party together. I couldn't have done it without your help!

Follow me on Instagram if you don't already!