Happy Halloween 2009

It's party-time!!!

I had been toying with the idea of hosting a Halloween Party for some time and when I mentioned it to the children you can imagine what their reaction was.

They had as much fun making plans for it as I did and they were faithful to the daily countdown of when the day of the party would finally arrive

Corynn constantly bombarded me with her visions for the party: every day after rest time she would have a new version printed out for me:

(A gnome hitting a pumpkin pinata with pumpkin moonshines for decorations. In case you wondered...)

Outside of the food and candy costs ( which seem always to be exorbitant-even when you make everything from scratch), I spent a whopping $6.00 on decorations ($1.00 for polka dot napkins (instead of using plain white ones which I had) and $5.00 for some orange lilies~which I broke my "no buying decorations" policy for and then didn't even notice the whole night! :-( SO not worth the guilt!)

Other than that, I used everything I already had on hand to decorate and I found the challenge not only fun but REALLY worthwhile too! The fact that I was successful says less about my frugal nature and more about my "packrat-ing" issues. I used glitter, glue, balloons, tablecloths and lots and lots of construction paper. All of which, I already had on hand.

The invitations were made of orange construction paper two, glued around the edges with an opening on top. The information was glued on a ribbon stem and could be read by pulling the stem up out of the pumpkin pocket. Of course, there had to be faces.




Matt chuckled when he saw me arranging "dead" things into old planting containers. It was fun (and very prickly) to gather all the things along the road and fields. I didn't realize how thorny fall plants were until I had to walk back and get gloves! I sed sand from the sandbox to hold the stems in place and weight down the containers. I set them atop concrete blocks for some added height. (I never said I was Martha, so don't harass me about my redneck "columns". Thankyouverymuch.)

No-I didn't find those four red roses in the fields. Those roses were these roses, long gone, but still perty. Especially in these 'dead' bouquets.

~Inside~

I made WEB doilies out of black contruction paper and glitter and scattered them atop a green tablecloth. I liked them a lot. (Just fold the paper as you would for making snowflakes and cut a swish mark on the end and follow with matching marks along the edges until you get about 2 inches from the point.)


The black candlabra was a birthday gift from my sister a few years back. I have always loved it-but it was given new life as a Halloween centerpiece and it TOTALLY fit.



And then~ the table with food~

Last year's trick or treating (vintage-looking) tins were used to hold peanut butter popcorn.
My colored glass cups and dishes were scouted out from around the house and used to hold soup garnishes, plasticwear, and dipping sauces.
On the menu:

Chili (garnished with sour cream and shredded cheddar)
A big pot of Cheddar Corn Chowder (garnished with bacon)
Soft pretzels with honey mustard dipping sauce (the Pretzels were the one thing I didn't make from scratch)
Brownies
Witches hat rolls
Breadsticks
Chips
and Peanut Butter Popcorn

My sister brought a FABULOUS taco salad dip which was gone before I got to enjoy my fill. :-(




Oh-and there were candles. P.L.E.N.T.Y of candles. The room was positively BRIMMING with them (and I didn't buy a ONE for the party). I just had them lying around: this fact and many others shows how much of a packrat I really am.

~The CANDY STORE~

A Pinata was DEFINITELY on the "party planning" idea checklist and the one that got my childer-two most excited. They have admired pinata's in sotres before and were anxious to be able to actually MAKE one. (You can DO that, Mama?!?!)

Of course you can! And who doesn't have flour and water lying around?!

The Idea for the party was to get/give candy in an unusual way-maybe even, dare I say it, EDUCATIONAL?!?!

Since money is a concept that we are working on with Corynn, I thought it would be fun to set up a candy STORE where the children could buy their OWN candy.

So, after we made our pumpkin Pinata, I filled it with coins instead of candy and set up a candy store in the front room using more cinder blocks and scrap wood. These red lights came in pretty handy too.


I bought several bags of candy and asked parents to each bring one to share. All in all, there was plenty for everyone. Except my poor kids who wound up with only tootsie rolls by the end of the night! (Oh well, candy is candy to them. But for me?! Whaaaaaaaaaaaa.)


The candystore concept was a good one, except there were lots of little bitties who didn't know a dime from a mime and the fact that there were 20 kids vying for the candy table all at once~it got a wee bit hectic there for a minute! :-)

I spied children playing store well into the night, long after the crowd has scattered.


(And the store is still set up in hopes I might get a few more chances to practice money with Corynn in a shopkeeper's setting.)

~ The Costumes ~



I didn't get a single picture of the costumes on "actual" Halloween....too busy being hostess.
These were taken the next day with slight variations on clothing (not that the children need to be asked twice to put their hats on again.)



This year I got to take it easy on costume-ing. They asked to be gnomes. The only request was that Andrew have a beard. Nothing else mattered, but the beard.



So I whipped up some gnome hats for each of them using fleece I already had on hand, a beard for Andrew and skirts for the girls. I used interfacing for the hats to keep them erect (though at times they began to fold flat making them appear POPE-ish instead) and since I used fleece, no seams to finish so it was easy peasy. I had to put ribbon on Miss Adele's hat though, because it was so big it kept falling backwards right off her head! :-)

I had plans to do the same for Matt and I but ran out of time. :-(

And now that I have posted all my Halloween costume DRESS UP pictures, I am not sure what to post for Friday.

MAN! I lack foresight, don't I?