Happy Friday!! I am just getting ready to head off on a weekend shopping trip with one of my girlfriends and I thought that I would leave you with some Halloween party ideas.
Last year we ended up having two Halloween parties on back to back days – one for each of the boys. I’m not really sure what I was thinking when I planned this but I am now going to stick with a one party maximum! In case you are planning a party of your own this year, here is a recap of some of our party ideas…
INVITATIONS
I love coming up with fun invitations and think that it really helps to get the kids excited for the party! Here are Matthew’s coffin invitations.
And I made little Frankenstein invitations for Connor’s party. The hair folds up for the party details.
DECORATIONS
I didn’t do anything too fancy for the decorations other than move around some of my Halloween decorations to add to the tables. I bought the felt treat bags from Target and filled them up with some Halloween goodies. Ghosts for Matthew…
And Frankensteins and Pumpkins for Connor.
I made this tiered stand and planned to make a cheese spread with some crackers. Since I ran out of time, I just plopped in some pumpkins and added some pumpkin candies. My favorite little yarn spiders guarded the pumpkins.
For the cups, I added some vinyl to jazz them up a bit.
I love these striped paper straws and added a cute ribbon bat to the top {idea from Lisa Storms}.
FOOD
FOOD
Food is definitely one of the most important elements in a Halloween party and there are no shortages of fun food ideas out there! The food was a little different for each party but I basically used the same decor items for both.
Witches’ Brew
This is my kids’ all time favorite drink! Just mix together raspberry sherbet and some cranberry pop {or you could do some cranberry juice with 7Up}. It fizzes up fabulously and looks just like a witches’ brew. I put it in a witches’ cauldron and dished it out with a black ladle.
Witches’ Hats
Using some icing, place a Hershey Kiss on the middle of a chocolate covered digestive cookie, pipe some icing around the kiss, and add some sprinkles. Super quick and easy!
Mummy Cookie Pops
Cover Oreo cookies with white chocolate, add some eyes, and pipe white chocolate overtop. And isn’t everything always more fun when it is on a stick? {idea from How Does She?}
Witches’ Eyeballs
I found these little witches’ cauldrons at Michaels and filled them with grapes. To make them a little more tempting to my junk food loving goblins I added a peeps ghost on a stick.
Chocolate Dipped Marshmallows
Dip some marshmallows in melting chocolate and add some fun sprinkles. Place in a mini cupcake holder and add a stick.
Worms In Dirt
Worms In Dirt
Again, another fast and simple dessert that is a big hit with the kiddies! {I even remember having these when I was little!} Fill clear cups with chocolate pudding and add some crushed Oreo cookies on top. I just added one worm to the top but you can also layer your worms into the pudding.
Veggie Plate
I always try to have some kind of veggie plate on hand at the kids’ parties. Usually it is just the carrots that end up getting eaten anyways so this pumpkin plate works out great. I did stack a few cucumbers on each of the eyes as Connor loves cucumber {and I think he was the only one that had any}
Ghost Sandwiches
Use Halloween cookie cutters to cut out fun shapes for the sandwiches. I was planning on adding a little detail to the faces but, again, ran out of time!
CRAFTS
I always try to do a craft or two at our parties for a {somewhat} quiet activity. It’s always a little more challenging with the little guys but worked great for Matthew’s friends.
We bought some mini pumpkins for the kids to paint and found some glow in the dark paint {which the kids loved}. We also made these really easy paper plate ghosts.
You just need to glue the streamers and some arms onto the back of a paper plate, glue another plate over the back of the first paper plate to cover up all the mess, and add a face. For the younger kids, you can cut out the eyes and mouth from black cardstock and just have them glue them on. Older kids can cut out or draw on their own faces. You can also do a face on both the front and back of your ghost depending on where you are going to be hanging it.
GAMES
GAMES
I didn’t end up playing any games at the little kids party as they were having more fun just playing on their own. We did three games for Matthew’s party to burn off some of that crazy “7 year old boy” energy {this was definitely needed!!}
Pumpkin on a Spoon Relay
Pumpkin on a Spoon Relay
We used the mini pumpkins that we were going to paint as our pumpkins and used some large mixing spoons to place them on. We set up a little obstacle course in the yard that the kids had to run around without letting their pumpkin fall off the spoon. Lots of fun to watch!
Toilet Paper Mummy Race
We divided the kids up into two teams – one child was the mummy and the rest got a toilet paper roll. Be prepared for some toilet paper fights afterwards!
Spider Web Bulls Eye
Although it was a lot of work, they were fun parties to host and my kids still talk about them. We will be having another one this year but will try doing a combined party!
If you are looking for more party inspiration, here are a few other fabulous Halloween parties that I have come across…
I love this turquoise and orange color scheme featured over on Sweet Designs.
Happy Party Planning!!!
This looks like such a cute party! It seems like the kids just had a blast and how could they not?!?!
The party looks really nice. I like the food table. You put a lot of effort in it!
Such great ideas! 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
Love all these fun ideas Jenn! I’m ready to party now 🙂
Hope you have a fun and safe Halloween!
This is AWESOME!! What a fun party!
Thanks Kara! The kids had a great time!
Thanks for the great ideas! I LOVE the bat straws!