Here is where my overboard party planning comes in handy for you. Most of my ideas were things I could execute quickly and still look awesome. :)
Lets start with decorations. I kept it simple and cheap without sacrificing a super-scary looking house. For the windows, I found black fabric on clearance (you can also use black tablecloths, they wont block out the light but you will get the same eerie effect).
I cut the fabric to the width of my windows and long enough to hit the floor (with the exception of the kitchen window as shown in the picture). Then I cut jagged uneven lines all the way from the bottom to about 2" of the top. Basically I was cutting the fabric into shreds connected at the top. VERY easy and only took about 10 mins to do all of my windows. The hardest part was pinning the fabric (it was too heavy for tape) over my window curtains. As you can see I also put black garland and paper halloween signs (available at the dollar store) everywhere I could find a spot for.
I also used the fake halloween spiderwebs EVERYWHERE. On lights, corners, knick knacks. Everywhere. On my fireplace I put some tombstones for an extra effect- gotta love the dollar store! Decorations were probably the easiest part of the party planning.
The food was the trickiest. I wanted the food to look super cool without being a total pain in the kutuckas to make. (Yes, Im pretty sure thats a real word.) So I started by covering my soda bottles and food holders (dollar store cauldrons worked great on the table!) with custom made labels. I made my own, but you can print them off virtually anywhere. There should be some free ones from Martha Stewart if you go online. ;)
For the 'smores' I put chocolate chips in the marshmallows to make them look like eyeballs. And I made a special drink for the kiddos- just using a clear bowl, I put lemonade and green food coloring together with a bit of a swish, added some gummy worms and voila! The kids were totally creeped out. I also baked some potato halfs (with a bit scooped out of the middle), added sour cream and some onion faces. Super easy!
The best was the brain I made out of watermelon. It looks crazy- and I was totally reluctant to do this- but it really gave the food the final touch it needed. It honestly only took me 10 minutes and I am by no means a chef of any sort- well, maybe burned food counts somewhere.
Anyway, to make the watermelon I simply cut a flat part off the bottom so it would sit on the plate without wobbling. Then I took a potato peeler (seriously) and peeled off the outside green rind. I cut a deep gash right down the center (for the hemispheres of course) and then using a toothpick (I went through a few toothpicks I think) I drew the brain lines. This was fun and easy. Once I had the initial lines in I just went over them a few times to get down to the pinkish color and suddenly I had a BRAIN!!
Finally I decided on the games. We had a lot of games but I am going to go into detail about the favorites...of course there was bobbing for apples. I had talked to most of my friends and they (nor their kids) had never done this! I was shocked....so it was a MUST for my party. Do you have any idea how easy it is to fill a bucket with water and toss a few apples in there? Done.
The next favorite game (one kids still ask to play when they come to my house) is also super easy. I almost didnt do it because it seemed so simple and cliche. But seriously, we had Mummy Races, where the kids raced against each other to wrap themselves up in toilet paper.
We also had a spooky scavenger hunt, some coloring pages for the littles, and musical chairs done to silly halloween songs like "Monster Mash."
Over all, the party was a great success and really took very little effort to pull together. Cleaning up- now that is another story. I very much avoid cleaning up after any party, especially when you have 20 kids running around the house. ;)
HAVE FUN!
