Halloween Party

 Today was our annual Halloween party for the kiddos and I woke up this morning with only a few vague ideas of what I could dress up as that was child/parent friendly.  Luckily, being a style blogger means you often have a lot of random things in your closet that you can pull something together with.

I went with gypsy, obvi.  And I even did my makeup!

As I've said, I do this party every year and we never run out of things to eat or do.  We usually end up with about 20-25 kids ages 4-12.  That's a lot of kids.  But we've managed to keep it simple, cheap and easy.  Here's how . . .

Snacks

Rice Krsipie Pumpkins

 Just make Rice Krispie treats as usual, but put red and yellow food coloring into the marshmellow mixture.  Then, shape into balls.  I put mine in cupcake wrappers to keep them in shape.  Then, stick a Tootsie Rolls (the little ones) in the top as the stems.

Popcorn "Hands"

 Pretty simple.  Get some plastic gloves, available in the cleaning section of most grocery stores.  Then pop some popcorn, I use cheddar for the festive orange color.  Then put some popcorn in the glove.  To be more festive, you can put candy corn in the fingertips for nails.  But I hate candy corn.  So I don't.  ;-)

Witch Hats and Bloody Bandaids

 I know, it sounds gross, but the kids totally got into making these (as you can see by the excessive "blood").  For the Witch Hats, you take Fudge Stripe cookies (I got the Spiderman ones because they were a cool red color).  Then you get some Hershey Kisses.  Put a glob of frosting on the bottom of the Kisses and attach them onto the cookies.  For the Bloody Bandaids, get some honey graham crackers and break them into quarters.  Use white frosting to paint the center of the bandaid on the cracker.  Then use red decorating frosting to add the drops of "blood".

Crafts

Paper Plate Ghosts and Dum Dum Ghosts

For the paper plate ghosts, you only need four ingredients: paper plates, markers, glue and tissue paper.  After you cut strips of the tissue paper, you just let the kids have at it.  The Dum Dum Ghosts use only four ingredients: Kleenex, Dum Dums, markers and yarn.  After you place the tissue over the sucker, the kids might need to help the kids tie some yarn around the bottom of the sucker.  Then, let them draw faces on their ghosts with the markers. 

Games

 I made these beanbag toss boards two years ago.  Though they are starting to show the wear of their years, they've held up pretty good.  I used the presentation boards from Wal-Mart, drew the outlines for the pumpkin and monster and cut them out with an Exacto knife.  Then, of course, I colored them in.

My mom actually made the bean bags.  She used dollar Halloween socks, filled them with beans and tied the ends.

Bobbing for Apples

 Classic Halloween game.  We got this plastic tub from Wal-Mart for like $5.  Then we filled it with water and, of course, apples.  Patrick likes to add dry ice for effect.  Plus, it adds an extra level of challenge for the older kids.

Mummy Game

 All you need is toilet paper here.  Divide the kids into teams.  Have one of the kids be the "mummy".  Then, the first team to use all their toilet paper making their mummies wins!

Scavenger Hunt

 The grand finale of the party is always the Scavenger Hunt.  We break the kids into teams with one or two adult leaders and go around the neighborhood looking for the items.  The first one back to to the house with all the items on their lists wins!

My team won this year!  It was my first victory in three years of these parties.  We got lucky getting almost all of our items from one house.  Represent yo!