Halloween in November

When Halloween falls on a Wednesday it opens up a second option for throwing a Halloween party.  It just so happened that the first weekend of November worked out better for our besties and so we got planning (i.e. I made invitations) and had a little people party in the afternoon (now that they're all at that age) and a big people party in the evening.

I like parties.  I think little kids parties are the best because the expectations are pretty low for all involved (unless you're a crazy mom....which I have been I admit).  Kids just want to play, they want to run around screaming and throw pillows at each other, some kids want nothing to do with the other kids because the toys are just sooooooo cool or some just stare at all the other little kids and think "Who ARE these people?"  Regardless they all have a grand time because they're doing what they want.

Our big people party had less than people than in previous years.  Some because of family commitments, some just because and....well that's about it.  :)

The theme for this year was literary characters.  The hubby and I dressed up as Daisy Buchanan and Zaphod Beeblebrox.  Other characters included....The White Witch, one of the 3 Musketeers, Wendy and Peter Pan, Depressed Android, and Jack Torrance.

Our parties are never really different than a normal weekend, but I love seeing everyone all dressed up (because everyone puts in an awesome effort) and it's fun.  :)

(Note there were other people at our party, it wasn't one of those parties, but I am hesitant to just throw up other people's pictures on the internet....weirdos and all :D )

Kids' Treats

I think it's great fun when kids get to bring treats to share with their friends at school.  Little Miss goes to a peanut-free school so homemade treats and anything peanut or possibly contaminated by peanuts is a no-go.  But that doesn't mean you can't dress up a lollipop as something really cute!  :D

I intended to make spider lollipops for both Monster Bean and Little Miss' classes.  Then I made 18 for Little Miss and decided I had to find something different to do for the next 23.  The spiders were a pain in the butt with having to cut them in half and twist them and they weren't balanced quite right so they kept falling over.  So while they were cute, they were a pain.

I also originally had put everyone's names on their tag but even though the class list said 13 I knew there were a few names that were missing and so I didn't want to miss anybody by name and decided to go with 18 and cut off the names and therefore nobody's feelings would be hurt.

My next batch were witch's brooms for Monster Bean's class.  They were time consuming in themselves, but not in the I'm going to pull my  hair out kind of way.  More in the If I accidentally cut this all up weird it doesn't matter so I can hack and slash all I want.

Personally I like the brooms a lot more.  :)  He'll be bringing them to school tomorrow so I hope they're a big hit!  :D

Spooks and Ghouls

This weekend we got our Halloween started with a party at the YMCA on Friday night and carving pumpkins and watching "Charlie Brown" on Saturday night.  The kids enjoyed playing their choice of games in the gym and getting treats.  We saw lots of sweet little pirates and witches and tons of heroes.  Monster Bean kept yelling "There's Captain America!  There's Hulk!"  And when my husband pointed one out and asked if it was the real Captain America, Monster Bean replied "No daddy, it's just a costume."  Duh :D

On Saturday night we had lots of fun.  We finally got to carving our pumpkins.  Monster Bean was very excited because he was allowed to carve his very own.  He of course picked out the Batman symbol, Little Miss asked for Hello Kitty and I drew an owl.

Once we were all done we lit them and then scurried inside to watch "Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin" with popcorn!