Kids Halloween Party

B has always wanted to throw a costumed Halloween party so we finally did it this year.  I don't know who had more fun - me planning, buying and creating for the party or the kids at the party.  :o)  When we got down to the wire, the hubs and I were pretty frantic right before the party started.  Thank goodness my BFF showed up to finish the cupcakes for me and one of the moms stayed during the party to take pictures.  I ran up for a shower 10 minutes before the party started!

The first thing I did was create a Halloween Party Ideas board on Pinterest.  I definitely did not use all the ideas that I pinned but if I did not have them all in a central location, I'd never remember them.  Although we purchased so many party items from our local Dollar Tree, the gas used during the repeated trips up there probably negated the fact that everything was $1.  LOL

I downloaded and printed the skull and candy corn invitations from Do It Yourself Invitations.  I would have preferred an invitation that was spookier or at least was mostly black and orange, but B liked this one the best, so we went with it.  I printed them on card stock, put them in manila envelopes that B decorated with spiders, ghosts, etc. and we hand-delivered them.  In addition to day, time and RSVP info, I put this on the cards:

We're having a party! We hope you can come.

Get dressed in your costume. We'll have lots of fun!

  

The party was in between lunch and dinner, so I only provided a few snacks and cupcakes.  B wrapped mason jars with white crepe paper and added google eyes for mummy glasses, writing each guest's name on the back.  I cut up carrots, red pepper and broccoli and served it with my go-to dip: bottled ranch dressing, a minced clove or 2 of garlic and dried dill weed.  Make it at least a couple of hours before serving to get the flavors to meld.  I also made Money Saving Mom's Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins (a fav in our house) and witch's brooms made out of pretzel sticks and cheese sticks I cut into fringe.

I made Joy the Baker's Brownie Bottom Ice Cream Cupcakes with cookies n cream ice cream and topped them with a dollop of buttercream icing instead of whipped cream.  I needed something more solid to hold the cupcake topper, The Partiologist's Stained Glass Pumpkins.  While I showered, my BFF made the pumpkins.

For the goodie bags, I was proactive and went to Walmart last month to take advantage of the back to school sales. I bought each child a box of colored pencils, a box of crayons and split 2 boxes of 20 pencils each among the 8 guests - all that cost $1 per child.  I know all the children had just bought supplies for school, but all those supplies were taken to school; these goodie bag items were for use at home.  I had originally planned to use a pack of goodie bags I bought at a yard sale for $0.50, but I could not fit the Honeycrisp Apples in them, so I got cute jack-o-lantern bags from Walmart for $0.97 each.  B filled the goodie bags and made tags for them with each guest's name.

Now onto the activities.  We checked Halloween CDs out of the library and had music playing when the guests arrived.  B held a Monster Mash dance party in the front room until everyone had arrived.  Then I had all the kids sit down for the mummy game.  I bought a bag each of Halloween erasers, vampire teeth, glow-in-the-dark snakes and bugs at the Dollar Tree and wrapped them up inside 3 or 4 rolls of white crepe paper.  I worked on that for 2 hours, while watching TV, the night before the party.  Sometimes there was only 1 foot of crepe paper between doodads and sometimes there was 5 feet between them.  Each child took a turn unrolling the crepe paper until they got a doodad, ripped off the crepe paper they'd unwound and wrapped it around themselves.  Then they passed the ball to the next child.  You can see B, above, with paper wrapped around his head and in his mouth are a pair of vampire teeth.  He had gotten sweaty in his Angry Birds costume while dancing, so I made him take it off to cool down.  Each child collected 4 or 5 doodads and then we put them in their goodie bags for safe keeping (that's why B labeled each bag with a name).

By the time the mummy game was over, Miss Lyn and Francesca, our face painter and balloon artists, had arrived and set up.  The kids were not interested in face paintings to begin with but they were enamored with the wonderful balloon creations the ladies made!  Snakes, horses, light sabers, a green pig to go with B's Angry Birds costume, an octopus and many more.  Anything the kids asked for, they could make.  Below you can see B's face painting - very sinister looking and exactly what B asked her to do - and holding his Angry Bird pig while in costume.

Once everyone received a balloon creation, I herded the kids outside to decorate pumpkins while they took turns getting face paintings.  I bought 3 packages of 6 jars of paint, some brushes and 2 packages of glitter glue pens at the Dollar Tree and small pumpkins from a local farm.  The kids had a great time painting Count Pumpcula, Darth Vader, a Mincecraft Creeper, a fiery graveyard of zombies and more on their gourds.

Some of the kids finished their pumpkin painting early and we had a pumpkin roll game.  Two opponents had to roll their pumpkin across the yard using a broom.  It proved pretty difficult for all the kids except one - he dominated this game.  It didn't matter which pumpkin nor which broom he used, he just flew down the yard!

Once the pumpkin and face paintings were all done, I handed out cupcakes and we all went outside to eat them.  Then we all went back inside to wash up.  B had requested that his guests bring their scooters and helmets to the party, so after washing up, we all went into the alley out back and scooted some of that sugar off.  I had let all the parents know that we would be in the alley at the end of the party so they should come around back to pick up their kids.

Everyone had a great time and I'm so glad we did this!

Star Wars Jedi Training Academy Birthday Party

After sharing how I did B's LEGO Building Party for his 9th birthday, I realized I should also share what I did for his 6th birthday - a Star Wars Jedi Training Academy.  And it was a sleepover.  Once again, thank goodness for the Birthday Party Ideas website!  I was actually worried the boys would not enjoy being at B's party as much I enjoyed planning it. I mean I had so much fun planning and thinking and buying; it was amazing. I did not think I was that kind of party planner. I always thought this kind of attention to detail was the talent of a girlie-girl. You know?  Like only a more feminine woman than me could plan a party.  But I did it.  And each boy said several times that this was the best sleepover and the best birthday party they'd ever been invited to.  Now I know that meant until the next one they were invited to, but I took the praise anyway.  ;o)

First of all, I cannot take credit for the invitation.  I sent a computer geek friend of ours some pictures of B and the wording I wanted on the invitation and he created this masterpiece.  So, I cannot help you with the DIY on this.  But let's face it - in today's word, we all know at least one computer geek and if you cook for them they will make you an invitation.  :o)


So, this is what the front of the invitation looked liked...

And here's the inside of the invitation.  The wording says:


A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away… 

A boy of destiny was born. The Jedi Council named him B and knew that he was The Chosen One. In the 6 years that followed this youngling’s birth, he has been trained in the ways of The Force. Now Padawan Benjamin’s time has come to complete his training and become a Jedi Master. The Council has decided you are worthy to train alongside him. If you are ready to face your final tests as a Jedi, have your mothership (or fathership) deliver you to: 

Dock #{our house #} of landing bay {name of our street} on the {name of our city} moon of planet {our last name}. 

The Jedi Training Center will begin boarding at 4:30pm on Saturday, October 4, 2008. 

Your intense training will include an overnight stay. Should you accept this challenge, please ensure that you pack the proper overnight provisions and schedule a transport to collect you at 9:30am Sunday. If your home planet is unable to survive without your protection that long, your transport should collect you at 7:30pm Saturday. 

To prevent the location of the Jedi Training Center getting into the hands of The Dark Side, please leave your Jedi uniform at home. Travel in civilian clothing that is weather appropriate for venturing outside. 

“Look forward to seeing you, we do. May The Force be with you.” 
Master Yoda

Added this bit in the invitation - "If your home planet is unable to survive without your protection that long, your transport should collect you at 7:30pm Saturday." in case there were any boys that did not feel comfortable spending the night.  However, they all spent the night. 


We had another dad help us out with the party and he spent the night, as well.  We were so glad he was there to help, too!  I made Jedi uniforms for us adult party attendants and all the kid out of brown and black felt.  Here is me in mine.  As each child arrived, I stowed their overnight gear and had them put on their uniform.  The Star Wars soundtrack was playing in the background.  A friend of mine had given me some big Star Wars cups that were leftover from her son's last party and each child got to pick out which cup he wanted. They drank from the cups while they were here and then took them home with them.


 They just played inside and jumped around in excitement until everyone arrived. Then we played "Who am I?"  I taped a picture of a Star Wars character on each child's back and they took turns asking questions of their fellow padawans and using their Jedi powers of concentration to figure out who was on their own back. They gave each other some great hints and were so happy for each other when they guessed correctly. In the middle of the game, we heard Darth Vader's breathing coming from upstairs. I looked up the stairwell and Darth Vader was coming down the steps. I screamed, which scared the kids. They followed my gaze, saw Darth Vader and ran away in all different directions screaming at the tops of thier lungs! It was HYSTERICAL!! As soon as the hubs got to the botom of the stairs he had to take the mask off; he was laughing so hard at our reactions and he was sweating like crazy under it.  I bought a Darth Vader mask and cape at Party City since the whole costume was too expensive, and the hubs just wore black pants and shirt with them.  After the "Who am I?" game was over, we headed outside for the obstacle course. 

My 6 year old baby!

I got a Yoda backpack off of eBay and each child wore the backpack for their turn through the obstacle course, just like Luke Skywalker did in The Empire Strikes Back. So, each child had to do: 

1. 10 jumping jacks
2. Spin around 5 times
3. A forward roll (on a blanket)
4. Run and jump over the Degobah Swamp (green towels)
5. Keep a balloon in the air for 10 seconds using a lightsaber
6. Pop 5 balloons with their butt. In 4 of them was a blank piece of paper and the 5th balloon had a picture of Boba Fett. They had to pop the balloons by sitting on them in order to "capture" Boba Fett before he flew away with frozen Han Solo
7. Hit a mylar balloon of Darth Vader with a water gun 5 times. The balloon was 10' off the ground, blowing in the breeze and was tied to a Geoffrey Giraffe balloon (B got his free one in TRU the day before) so you had to be careful not to hit Darth's hostage, Geoffrey, with the water

The kids were great with being patient during everyone else's turn. They cheered each other on and jumped in to help when asked, like when one boy was too light to pop balloons with his butt or by stomping on them with his foot and when another boy did not want to pop the balloons himself b/c he was scared of the noise. Then the kids just battled with the lightsabers while I got dinner on the table.

The foods I served for dinner and breakfast were: Chewbacca Chips with Kenobi Queso; Vader Veggies and Degobah Dip; Baked Mustafar (baked ziti that looked like the lava planet in Episode III); Galactic Garlic Bread, Wookie Water; Tattoine Trail Mix (popcorn, pretzels, raisins and M&Ms); Palpatine Pancakes; Bespin Bacon; Skwalker Sausage and Jedi Juice (OJ). 

Click on this tutorial blog post to see how I made the cake.

After dinner and the Death Star Cake I made, the kids got into their PJs and we watched The Empire Strikes Back. Then they all laid down in the living room to go to "sleep".  Most of the kids were asleep by 11pm.  B, of course, was up at 5:30am and the rest were up by 6:30am. Another Star Wars movie was put on to distract the kids while I got breakfast ready. They so wanted to go back outside to play but we would not let them out until 9am out of respect for the neighbors. 

When their parents arrived, they got their goody bags on the way out the door.  A couple of weeks before the party, a friend called and alerted me to a ton of Star Wars things at the Target Dollar Spot, so I got some goody bag things there to add to the items I had bought off of eBay. Each child got to keep their uniform and there was a graduation certificate in their bags signed my the hubs and me.

I don't know who had more fun, the kids or us adults. When I was putting the goody bags together a few days before the party, the hubs "chastized" me for going all out. He said we would never be able to top this party and what the heck was I going to do next year? At the time I told him I didn't think I could do this kind of party again. B could just invite one friend to do something special the next year. But after that party I was hooked and I knew I could and would do another themed party again.  


I'm sorry I don't have the amount of money I spent on this party like I did with the LEGO one.  It could have gotten really expensive if I bought all new stuff from the store instead of making things and searching for bargains and buying gently used items.  Whatever your budget, you can put together a great children's party they can enjoy and you can be proud of.