Neighborhood Halloween Fun

I have always had a hard time planning for Halloween.  I'm getting better at it though! Living in the Vortex helps. Plus I've figured out that All Hallows Eve is 5 out of 7 times a school night. Funny how that works. So that means a mad rush to get into the costumes that the Littles are so excited to wear, get dinner fixed and eaten, and get to trick-or-treating all before school night bedtime.  It's exhausting, and the children are manic to go through their candy (that they can only have a few pieces of anyway).

Enter Neighborhood Halloween Party!  This is a great way to either skip traditional trick or treating all together (some neighborhoods have very few participating candy giver outers these days) or add some extra time to leisurely be in costume.

I love my neighbors.  Truly.  And this collaborative effort for the kids (and, um, us adults too) was so fun.  Here's the recipe that makes it work:

Friends!

This party is potluck style...spooky treats, prizes, decorations and games provided by several neighbors, friends and family members.

Food!

Halloween can make preparing the food items so fun.  Just look at Tracy's skeleton vegetable tray.  She is the queen of vegetable tray art.

Individual cups of mandarin oranges get made over into Jack O'lanterns.  White paper bags become a ghostly way to hold popcorn or snack mix.  Also check out our (non candy!) favors and prizes in the Jack O'bucket.  Stickers, glow sticks, straws, tattoos, pencils...all good stuff.  None of it leads to maniacal children, so I'm a huge fan.

Hot dogs and crescent rolls make great mummies.  Be sure to make the spiderweb ketchup and mustard for dipping.

And just because there should probably be some form of candy, Reese's cups and pretzel sticks are perfect witches' broomsticks.  

If you want to go the extra step, especially if it's chilly out (you never know here in South Carolina) make a crock pot of soup or chili to serve with some fall ale and cider. 

Games!

If you're working with a group of friends, chances are that you all have some sort of Halloween game somewhere.  The spider web toss,

 a themed twister mat...the things that go on clearance and you impulse buy because it's cute. 

Even if you don't have those store bought games, here are some more fun activities the kids loved:

Toilet paper bowling...put a pumpkin costume on rolls of toilet paper and see if you can knock 'em all down.  You could also use orange solo cups.  Our kids love building and knocking down solo cups.  Best toy I ever bought ;)

Another brilliant idea of Heather's (and I hope you all have a Tracy and a Heather on your street for parties like this...they're the coolest) is marshmallow eating contests!  Heather drew ghoulish ghost faces on marshmallows with a food safe pen, and we strung them from the ol' magnolia tree.  Kids had to try to eat them...no hands!  That really kept 'em busy, let me tell ya.

One more quick and easy idea...chalkboard pumpkins!!  I swear, I will chalkboard paint anything that will sit still long enough.  A can of spray paint goes a long way, so I just picked up the craft pumpkins at Michael's and painted them.  The kids can make all sorts of Jack O'lantern designs on these.  So cute!

Just a few more pictures of all the (non school night, sans candy overload) fun.  I hope you'll think about adding a get together to the Halloween plans this year.

 

Party like a Padawan

I feel the need to throw a party, but since I'm not going to just yet, here's a great one to try for your little Jedi.

There's nothing like Star Wars.  Except Harry Potter.  But that's a discussion for another day.

Star Wars has it all.  Jedi's, good vs. evil, creatures big and small (who doesn't love Wookies and Ewoks??).  And there's Leia to give a nice feminine edge to the whole thing.  I was totally going to wear the gold bikini to throw this party, but ya know...it didn't seem the best for serving cake and helping with x-wing fighters.  Carrie Fisher has me beat on that one.

I was thrilled that my nephew was going to let me try my hand at an epic Star Wars party for his birthday.  The planning turned out to be incredibly easy.  It's helpful that Star Wars never really seems to go away.  I was able to find a lot of already themed items for decor and favors, and the color scheme of black, silver, and blue was easy to work with, too.

This party has very similar core ingredients as any party I throw for children.  You want some theme elements in the food, decor, and activities:

For the food, I just got creative with renaming a couple of favorites.  Drinks became Jedi Juice, Cheez-its became Darth Cheddar, cookies became Wookie Cookies, and snack mix became Ewok Niblets.  Super easy.  Even funnier, if you have something that requires a fork, please use the label "Use the fork, Luke" on the table.  That's just hysterical, right??  Also hilarious is to serve mini pizzas and name them "Pizza the Hutt". Oh my word, that's funny.

I happened upon a cupcake set at William Sonoma in a Star Wars theme and on sale!  That was a definite way to make things easy and affordable too.  

If I had not come across that set, I probably would have looked from something similar on Etsy.  I'm just a fan of using a themed cupcake pick; a nice alternative to a themed cake from a store.  While I love when people are talented enough to create adorable cakes, I do not love grocery store character cakes.   Oh, and one more way to stretch that set from William Sonoma.  I didn't need the cupcake liners since I ordered the cupcakes, so I used them to line clear plastic cups holding snack mix.  A quick way to use what I had and add to the decorations on the table.

The rest of the decorations also doubled mostly as activities.  Jedi training was a huge hit for the Littles.  I made scads of Jedi robes out of a $9 drop cloth. 

Displayed on hangers from a tree, it just takes you right back to Endor, no?  After being bestowed with the robe, each Padawan was given a light saber.  We made these from pipe insulation and colored electrical tape (far easier...and cheaper...to wield than a pool noodle). 

Now we play!

There were Stormtroopers to fight.  Just draw their weird faces on helium balloons.  This little course was so much fun.  It was even fun to watch the Storm Troopers float away through the neighborhood.

Next we made X-Wing fighters (aka paper airplanes...so easy, and the kids were so into it!). 

Winner of the flying contest got Jedi street cred.  Congrats to Emily!  She nailed it.

I made sure to meet with the birthday boy to make sure I had relevant and accurate things to use during the party.  He let me know that there was one element that was very important to include. "Lava.  I want lava like in Episode 3."  Oh dear.  Okay.  I'm thinking on the inside "Are you kidding me?? That's a terrifying scene when Anikan actually becomes Vader."  But what precious child wants, he gets.  The obvious idea was to just make it a game of "the floor is lava"! Always a classic, right?  Tissue paper to mimic the fire/lava and a wooden board from the garage to make it a bit of a challenge.  This silliness was actually the biggest hit of the party, as far as the kids were concerned.  They kept wanting to duel!

 

The part I liked the best was the Death Star pinata that the Hub made.  

 Ah-mazing.  Actually ridiculous.  It took the most man-hours and made the biggest mess of anything done for this fantastic party, but it was so worth it. Look at it.  It's amazing!  Just paper mache and some crazy dorky craftiness for us to create the crater, tape off the lines, add the glitter.  

Oh the glitter, what a mess. It takes a special man to agree to work with glitter in his garage.  It looked like Tinkerbell's lair for quite a while. 

Anyway, we packed it full with candy and treats.  Any pinata is awesome because for some reason kids love to hit things.  But to destroy the Death Star?!  Yes. The culmination of all the Jedi training we'd just done.  Epic! These kids weren't playing around.  

I'm pretty sure this homemade pinata was harder to break than store bought things like our Jabberwocky.  I could be backward on that, but I do know the Death Star was an brilliant prop hanging over the party and an even more enjoyable activity.  Kids love to destroy things ;)

One more activity, that's easy to adapt to a lot of party themes:  the red solo cups.  Build them into a pyramid, add some Star Wars figures.  Let target practice with Nerf guns ensue.  The same idea could be adapted to a water party with squirt guns.  This was the second favorite for the kids.  "Again!  Let me do it again!"  (I advise that you get a wing man to help you set up the pyramid over and over again. Just a tip, but trust me on that one).

Finally, I had a quick idea to try for this particular party.  Like I mentioned, Star Wars merchandise is still really easy to find.  So as my nephew's gift to take home, I bought and framed a Star Wars poster (seen in top picture) and used it as decoration during the party.  Depending on the theme, I think doing something similar is an excellent idea to add to the decor and provide a (non-toy!) gift for the birthday Kid. 

Off to dream up more parties!  May the Force be with you always.

Homey's Adventures in Wonderland

You can see the planning process and back story here and here. 

As previously mentioned in the other posts, it's a priority of mine to make magic out of a birthday.  That's doesn't have to be expensive!  You can use things you already have or buy ahead.  Can this sweet little dress from Target be an Easter dress?  Can she also use it during her Alice party if we add a little white apron?  Can she be Alice again for Halloween and "storybook character" day at school.  Yes.  It's done.

 Buy real clothes that lend a nod to the theme you have in mind.  It will serve you well!  Then delve into the story.

Wonderland is an intriguing, exciting, and magical place to be.  So let's pick apart a few elements and make them work to create a bit of magic for the children. 

In this particular case, there are clocks, mirrors, decks of cards, hats, roses, and many beautiful quotes.  When you get past the gimmicky silliness of most "theme" parties, you can make a more in depth personal magic for the children.  Just got to get started a little bit earlier.

Here are the details for Alice:

There has to be a tea party (also known as: the children have to eat).  For the menu, we did a simple little spread: 
Sandwiches cut to look like cards in a deck (shapes cut out of fruit roll-ups)
Heart pastries (palmiers from Trader Joe's)
Lemonade for "tea"
Assorted fruit to round out the lovely snack
  

For decor on the kids tea table, I pulled from what I had with a few small additions.  A vintage table cloth, in Alice blue, worked perfectly.  I added some cake plates in varying heights to hold the food.  We made color copies of a vintage Alice in Wonderland book (text pages and illustrated pages), cut with shears and tied together with ribbon to make a table runner.  A Mice on Main figure as the dormouse sleeping in a teacup round out the decorations. 



Like a lot of children's parties, there was a significant adult presence, so we had a separate food table for us grown ups.

Setting up the other food table up inside, is another chance to bring the "world" we've created to life.  Along with showcasing the birthday cake (away from bugs, heat, and little adorable grimy icing-hungry fingers), the indoor table is perfect for more quotes, decorations, and nods to Wonderland.  It spreads the magic and gives the adults a chance to take advantage of the air conditioning and grown-up conversation.  At a 6 year old's birthday party, those are both huge.  Speaking of grown-ups...

I had a brilliant idea right before this party.  Literally the day before the party.  I went to the local beer and wine store to find a lovely beverage to tie into the theme.  Even asked the guy working there if they might have a label that featured a caterpillar with a hookah.  Maybe I went a little to far on that one.  But look what he did find...are you kidding me??  Who knew there was Mad Hatter IPA?!  We'll take it.

In true "we're all mad here!" style, I tend to get a little, um...specific for my cake orders at the bakery. For our party in Wonderland, I really wanted a cake similar to the Disney version. 

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It's a time honored family tradition to get a cake from Strossners, a local bakery that tickles your senses the second you walk in the door.  The smell of sugar and the artfully done cakes and pastries provide a magical place to spend time taking home special treats or ordering the annual birthday cake.  I think they may dread seeing me walk in the door during birthday season, as there's a tendency to turn the order sheet over and draw what I want the cake to look like.  I really need to let go sometimes.  They did a great job putting my scattered ideas together for this!

I find that it's easy to get caught up in the pretties of the party, creating the landscape, perfecting the menu (simple as it was).  For a child's birthday party, I suppose the children will want, well, activities.  Games and shenanigans to burn off the excitement and sugar.  Keeping in mind that this and that most of our parties are equally split between little girls and little boys, I couldn' expect a tea party to tide them over for long.  So let's play!

One of the main parts of the Alice story is croquet.  Not everyone has croquet handy.  Honestly, I wouldn't have if we hadn't acquired a vintage set from a family member.  Since I like to take it to the next level, I figured I could mimic the card figure wickets by adhering inexpensive cards to our wire wickets.  Cute, no?

There was also the chance to play dress up, Mad Hatter style.  I collected various hat and headbands...flower headbands for the talking flowers, Tweedle Dee/Dum whirly-gig hats for the fellas, and various other fun hats in a hatbox I usually store scarves and purses in.  With a little mirror and the fun quote from the Caterpillar "Who Aaaare You?", it created a fun pretend play area for the littles.  Plus, these little adornments were part of the take home favor.  Kill two birds with one stone?  Yes, please!

Lastly, and most proudly, is our pinata.  I think the pinata idea is a great idea for most parties.  Plus, I've decided that these days they can be adapted to most themes.  There was an epiphany moment while deep in the Wonderland of brainstorming that I decided that we should Slay the Jabberwocky.  Fantastic!  It lends a slightly darker, less girly angle to the party.  And for the kids, it's really just a great reason to beat the dickens out of this papier mache dragon.  Great fun!

 Finally, it's time for favors. 

 They've picked their hats to take home, but a few more trinkets never hurt anyone.  Since it was everyone else's "un-birthday", I chose that quote for the favor bag label.  The bags included silly straws, pocket mirrors for girls, decks of cards for boys, and Pepperidge Farm chess cookies.




We may all be mad here, but this was a fun and magical party.  Full of Wonder like it was intended to be. 

*Special thanks to Grammy for lending her backyard and house since we had some unfortunate house repairs come up right before Go Time*