Spooky Halloween Invite and Party Ideas

We had a fabulous time at our Halloween party last weekend! So I was brave this year, and we passed out invitations to all 23 kids in my son's first grade class. We also invited some additional family and friends. Of course, no one rsvp's much these days, so I was worried about how many people would actually show up. We ended up having 40 kids there!! With adults, we had almost 90 people in our back yard. I am sure glad we live in the country or we would have never fit.

 

Here are the invites we passed out.

 

 

Your Presence is Requested

October 18th at 6:30

 

Come Hither, Come Forth

To the Greene Residence

To Celebrate Halloween,

We Need Your Presence

 

Please Come Costumed,

To Set the Mood

Enjoy With Us

Games, Crafts, and Snack Food.

 

If You Happen to Feel,

Extra Brave on That Night,

We Will Go On a Hay Ride,

That Might Give You a Fright!

 

I used brown Kraft jewelry boxes I bought on amazon. I took some plastic fingers and tied a black ribbon around them. The top of the box said, You are invited...Don't Forget!

 

I cut a ghost out of plywood for a sucker pull game. If you have not played this before, you have some of the suckers marked with black dots on the back. The kids walk up and pull a sucker. If their sucker has a black dot, they win an additional prize. If not, they just win the sucker still.

 

I also made a simple pumpkin can toss. Who knew it would be their favorite game.

 

 

I also cut out 30 of these candy corns out of plywood, sanded, and painted them. I used a sharpie marker to write the kids names on them as they arrived. They were our party favors along with goody bags full of Halloween treats!

 

 

We had kids crawling all over our playground area.

 

Baseball ghost

 

Statue of Liberty

 

Precious Clown

 

We forgot to bob for apples at the party, so my husband showed them how to do it the next day.

 

My little one was soaked! Cracked me up. They both finally got an apple. I hope you all have a Happy Halloween!!

 

Halloween Decor Ideas and Projects

I love it when this time of year rolls around and I can decorate for the holidays. It is not even October 1st, and I already have a lot of Halloween decorations around my house. Some are DIY Halloween projects, and others I picked up at the store. We are planning a big Halloween kids party this year and my sons are going to invite their whole class. I will share our invitation soon!

 

Here is our mantle and fireplace.

 

 

I bought this vintage postal scale at Antique Alley in Grandview, Texas last weekend. I love it and a pumpkin fit on top of it perfectly. If you have never been to Antique Alley it is twice a year and it is AMAZING!

 

 

Some old black shutters found the perfect new home on my buffet. I found a twisty tree branch outside, painted it black, and filled a mason jar with stones to hold it.

 

I love to place pumpkins around the house in little spots like this chair.

 

If you are looking for some more Halloween inspiration, here are some ideas and projects I created in the past. Surely something will be the perfect project for you!!

 

 

 

Click here to see how to make this fun sign.

 

 

 

Pumpkin bean bag toss click here for instructions

 

 

Monster tags click here for detailed directions

 

 

Witch yard art instructions here

 

 

DIY Monster pillow link here

 

 

Halloween Felt Cookies instructions here

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Candy Witch...Bye Bye Halloween Candy!

Are you wondering what to do with all of your child's extra or leftover Halloween candy?? It was about four days before Halloween, and I was already dreading the bags of candy the kids would be bringing home. They had already received Halloween treats throughout the month at various parties, events, and at school. They would beg each day to eat a few pieces of candy and I would have to carefully limit them to what I deemed a reasonable amount. The thought of a new endless supply of candy treats was dreadful!

 

That is when I dreamed up Clarabella the Candy Witch. If I was going to make this idea a success, I knew I would have to give it some gusto. I wanted to negotiate with my kids to give up the majority of their candy. Here is the little story I wrote. My boys received it in the mailbox a few days after Halloween.

 

There once was born a little witch named Clarabella. Apparently, each witch is born, and gifted by the Great witch, with a unique gift or talent of their very own. Clarabella was born with the sweetest tooth of all. She loves candy with every ounce of her body and she is happiest when she is surrounded by treats of all kinds.

Clarabella loved candy so much that she built her entire house of candy. She has chocolate bars on her doors, licorice sticks on her window panes, and sour straws to tie her shower curtain up. Each piece of candy serves as an important part of her home.

However, each summer the chocolate on her home melts to candy puddles. The licorice becomes sticky from the rain and falls off her window panes, and the sour straws become loose and her shower curtain falls to the floor. Her candy home usually only lasts one year and then comes tumbling down.

Clarabella asks each year for help from little boys and girls just like you. She desperately needs your candy to help rebuild her home. The best part is Clarabella wants you to keep some candy for your very own. Fill a jar for you to keep, and mail the rest to her to keep. In exchange for your generous gift, she will mail back your box with a load full of little gifts.

Now that Halloween is over, and your treat bag is overflowing…Could you help Clarabella rebuild her home?

Please mail packages to:

Clarabella Witch

2202 Candy Expressway

 

Please wait 3-4 days to allow time for Clarabella to receive your package and return your box with new treasures.

*********************************************************

 

My oldest (4 ) was already playing outside when I handed him the letter. He quickly asked me to read it. He had a puzzled expression on his face while I read it. I was thinking...oh no...maybe this is not going to work after all. When I stopped reading the story he looked at me and said, "Mom, do you think it will work?" I of course replied yes. Then he said, "I need a jar fast! I have to send her my candy!" He jumped off the toy he was playing on and ran inside.

I sighed with relief that it actually worked. He quickly filled up a box with the candy to send and kept a mason jar of candy for himself. Yes, the jar was cram packed with candy, but it was a LOT less then was in the cardboard box.

I "mailed" the box of candy off to the Candy Witch. The day after I "mailed" the box of candy they were already asking, "Now how many days until I receive presents back?" A few days later, my boys received their box full of treasures back. I used a bunch of garage sale finds, but you could easily go to the dollar store and pick a few fun things up.

 

My boys tore into that box like it was Christmas!

 

They were obviously excited with their new treasures.

 

There was definitely no regret in trading in their candy. They played with their new toys and read their new books all day.

Clarabella the Candy Witch will be sending another trade in offer next year for sure!

  

Here is another cute idea I saw about a Book Fairy by East Coast Mommy. Click here to check it out.

 

 

 

Potato Head Costumes

Do you have any fun Halloween costumes that you made this year? I had a special request for a Mrs. Potato head costume this year from my husband's cousin. Their children have Buzz Lightyear and Jessie costumes, and they wanted to dress up with their kiddos. I had my husband's Mr. Potato Head costume from last year, so they just needed the Mrs. Potato Head to go with it, to complete the Toy Story costume theme.

 

I went to the fabric store two days ago to buy some more brown, pink, white, red, and black felt. I was glad to find I was not the only one shopping for fabric for last minute costumes! The store was packed with moms. God bless all those last minute sewers.

 

Presenting...Mrs. Potato Head

 

 

This is an easy costume that anybody that can sew a straight line can complete. I chose just to glue the eyes, nose, and mouth on. (So much faster!) Oh and of course I had to make her a little purse for Mrs. Potato Head.

 

Here is Mr. Potato Head and I from last year...

 

 

I used small velcro pieces to attach the body parts so they were interchangeable like the "real" Mr. Potato Head. I was motivated and made a child version of Mr. Potato head last year too.

 

 

Click here to see the original post with more directions. I hope you all are finished with your Halloween costumes. Less then 48 hours to go. Our family is anxiously awaiting Halloween!

 

Spooky Dead and Breakfast Sign

Goodness! Only a week until Halloween. This month has flown by too fast. We had most of our decorations out by the first of the month, but I still feel a little sad the month is almost over. I love having the yard all decorated when I drive up after work.

 

Go figure it starts to get really cold here in Texas right before time for trick-or-treating. It was 80 degrees today and it will be 50 degrees by the morning. I am excited to be taking my 4 year old on a pre-school trip to the zoo tomorrow. I can't wait to meet all his little friends and their parents.

 

In the meantime, here are all of our yard decorations. I saw this fun idea on bhg.com. This sign was a cinch to make. I cut the main sign out with a jigsaw from bead board. My husband made the post to hang the sign off of. (I love my husband so much when he gets sucked into my craft project ideas. Not quite sure he feels the same. Oops!)

 

I used a black sharpie to write Greene's Dead and Breakfast. Vacancy...

Then I used some dark black stain to antique it just a tad.

 

 

Next, I used one of our old wheelbarrows filled with dirt and body parts from the dollar store. Ha Ha. I was super entertained by the sign combined with a few extra extremities.

 

Add a few pumpkins, mums, and spooky spider webs...

 

And before you know it...

(some orange and black tights stuffed later)

 

Our RIP grave yard light up grave stones...(instructions here)

 

 

Oh, and I almost forgot our trick-or-treater witch yard art we made last year...

(instructions here)

 

 

We have a full yard of characters that is for sure!!

 

 

 

Halloween Party Games, Food, and Fun

We had the best weekend! The boys had a little Halloween party for some of their friends. My four year old helped with a lot of the planning and it was so fun to watch him get excited about setting up the party. We had set the date a few weeks ago, but we did not get around to planning until the week before. Apparently,we do our best work last minute. We had a 10 am party so anyone that had other Saturday plans could hopefully make it.

 

We started out by having the tables inside set up with Ziploc bags full of foam sticker crafts for the kids as they arrived. It was so adorable to see them all in their Halloween costumes in the daylight. They also decorated some white treat bags with spooktacular Halloween stickers. This kept them busy and away from all the games until everyone arrived.

 

 

 

I think the biggest game hit was the pumpkin pop game. My husband helped me adorn a piece of plywood with treat filled balloons. I filled orange and black balloons with candy, Halloween rings, and prizes. We attached the balloons to the plywood with push pins. (It took a hammer to get them in)

 

 

The kids walked up one by one and carefully selected their balloon. They took a push pin and popped the balloon of their choice.

 

Even the little ones loved it. They hardly jumped as the balloons made a large POP!

 

We had enough balloons for each child to take two turns. They were jumping up and down in line to go again. Ha ha! Precious.

 

 

The night before the party, I decided to make pumpkin name stakes for all the kiddos. With the porch light on, I cut out these little cuties with a jigsaw, painted them, and wrote the kids names on them with a black sharpie marker.

 

I had a large stack of monster masks from oriental trading in my Halloween storage tub. The kids put them on and walked around and danced in a circle to some monster music. We would stop the music and they had to freeze in their monster poses. (This would have gone much better if I had showed them how silly to be first.) However, the parents all got a kick out of taking pictures of their kiddos in the funny masks.

 

Our next game, was a ball toss into some ghost buckets. Each game had a separate "participation" prize. We handed out mini Halloween puzzles, Halloween bubbles, Halloween books, and Halloween activity pads. I tried to stay away from too much candy because we had desserts and a pinata to go still.

 

After a round of different games, the kids played outside while lunch was prepared.

 

 

Pumpkin Toss Game (make me)

 

I filled a medical glove with water and hung it up in my freezer with a clothespin. It made the perfect floating hand in our vampire blood (Kool Aid).

 

 

I also made a batch of red jello and filled syringes with it. I think it was my husband's favorite. It made me giggle to see him act like a big kid. These took only minutes to make the night before.

 

 

My sweet friend Melissa brought these adorable monster puddings with Oreo cookies crumbled on top. (These were my favorite!)

 

These precious orange pumpkin cups were a find at the dollar store. We labeled them with each child's name so they would not get mixed up.

 

Everyone is standing around anxiously awaiting the pinata.

 

Here is my little pirate giving it his all!

 

 

We ended up having just as many helpers on the rope side as we did in line.

 

Now off to the hay ride...a huge hit!

 

When we announced it was time for the hay ride the kids took off running. I never expected them to be quite that excited.

 

 

We had hung some fake spider webs through the barn and some Caution tape. As we rode through the spooky all barn we realized there was already plenty of natural spider decor.

 

What fun things do you have planned for a Halloween party??