Halloween Party

This year I decided to host a Halloween party and invite our friends. I have been planning this party since September, except that I waited until the last minute to actually prepare it. My party was on Saturday; I finally figured out the menu on Tuesday and the games on Friday.

Josh had to work, but he thought he could still be there in time for dinner. But then that morning when he got to work, they said they were finishing in the current location that day, even if it meant working until 1 AM. Which they did. So in the end, I was a widow for the night. But surrounded by my best friends I didn't even have a chance to be lonely. I LOVE these guys so much.

I had so much fun setting up for the party. I decided to use my craft tables so we could all eat together in the front, which left the kitchen table to use as a buffet. And the kitchen counter. I had way too much food, but that's how you know it was a good party.

My first decorated table. Note the pumpkin salt & pepper shakers.

My second decorated table. Note the spider salt & pepper shakers. I don't even like salt & pepper, but both sets of shakers were too cute to pass up!

Our eating area.

One of the games was a memory plate. When the guest all arrived, all they could see was this dish towel covering something.

Then I pulled the towel off for a minute and they had to try and memorize everything on the plate. After the minute was up, I covered it back up and they had another minute to write down everything they could remember. Everyone remembered almost everything, but I think each person forgot one or two items.

Another game was guess the candy corn in the jar. The highest guess was in the 300's and the lowest guess was in the 140's. The jar had 177 to be exact, the closet guess was something like 154.

Our last game was charades where they acted out words like "tombstone," "bat," "witch," "haunted house," etc. I didn't take any pictures because I was in the kitchen finishing up a few last preparations for dinner.

My menu included:

Cider Cheese Fondue

w/ french bread chunks

& veggie trays

Cheese Filled Eyeballs

Creepy Crawly Bugs

Frankenstein Jello Salads

The Great Pumpkin Brownie

Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars

Gummy Worm Punch

Each person asked what they could bring, but I had a hard time delegating stuff out. I wanted my party to be perfect so I was scared to ask for help. In the end, I finally relented to to a few of them and let Randi bring the bread and Jessica bring the veggie tray. Then at the party, I had all of the girls in the kitchen helping me finish up the bugs and get the table set.

I am so in love with this serving bowl. The bread went in it perfectly.

Jessica brought two veggies trays. The first was just a regular one, with Ham Roll-Ups made by Andrew. I think Andrew, Brandon and I were the only ones to eat them. No one else could understand how they are a family tradition treat we grew up with. That was fine with me, it left more for me to eat.

Jessica's other veggie tray was shaped like a candy corn and it turned out so cute!

The Gummy Worm Punch looked pretty neat. But I wish I had bought a bigger package, so I could have draped some worms over the side of the bowl.

At the end of the night, we hadn't even cut into the brownie, we were all so full. Randi felt bad, so she cut a small piece out and Jessica had a small piece too. I actually took it to work on Halloween to share with my co-workers.

The Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars seemed to be the hit of the party. I'm not a fan of pumpkin, so I never tried one. But everyone else exclaimed about how good they were. When I read the candy corn jar results, Todd thought the winner should get another bar. I told him he didn't have to actually win, he could just have seconds.

The Frankenstein's were fun to make, but next time I would put them on plain colored plated because the cat whiskers on the plate make the jello look funny (at least to me).

I let the girls decorate the bugs and they turned out so cute.

In the bottom corner of the picture of the meatballs, you can see the blood sauce (marinara sauce) that went with the meatballs.

As I was setting up that day, I had a hard time picturing how I was going to fit everything. So I set out the serving platters and little sticky notes with the name of the dish on them. Then I just kept rearranging everything until I found a set up I liked. It seemed to work well. We started at the table, went down one side and then up the other side between the table and the bar. Like I said, I had prepared too much food, but it was so fun it was worth it. We were supposed to have one other couple join us, but they didn't make it. With then and Josh, it might have been just about right.

Jessica brought a hostess gift, which I loved. It was a small Halloween pail with some cupcake toppers. Looks like I now have an excuse to plan a party again next year.

Todd was a blindfolded knife thrower and Randi was his lovely, injured assistant.

Brandon & Kim were Gnomeo and Juliet. Which came made all by hand. I loved every one's costumes, but theirs turned out being my favorite. It made me wish I had actually gotten around to preparing prizes for night.

Jessica was an 80's girl. We gave her a hard time about buying stuff she used to own. Andrew was Kurt Cobain. Todd thought he would have looked the part better if there had been a white smug just under his nose.

After much drama over the last few weeks, I finally settled on being a scarecrow. I was worried about making my own costume, but it turned out so cute.

It was a great night with great food and wonderful friends. I can't wait until next year.