Handmade Halloween....And a Heaping Handful of Hardwork

Well another "holiday" is upon us, and almost behind us, so its only natural that I got swept away by all the fun and excitement and wound up overdoing it....again.  I think I might have a problem.  Do I regret it?  Absolutely not!  Am I exhausted and still recovering?  1000000%

We definitely wouldn't have been able to pull this party off without the help of both CJ's and my mom.  They both really got into the spirit of things, did a GREAT job interacting with the kids and my mom even broke out her scary witch costume that all of the kids LOVED!  I am certain that one day Abbie will look back on this party and not only remember how much fun we had preparing and partying, but also how great her Oma (CJ's mom) and Grandma Lily (my mom) were that day - its one of those memories that I think will take her through a lifetime.  I vividly remember my Grandmother at pretty much all of my parties and events as a kid, and now as an adult having those memories of her are absolutely priceless to me!  I am so so happy that Gracie is making those same kind of memories! Here's Grandma Lily and Oma in all their glory:

Halloween and celebrations started earlier than normal for us this year, which was totally fine with me.  We went to the store and picked out the perfect Elsa costume (of course) for Gracie.  But then we realized, ugh, we don't have her for Halloween.  What are we going to do with this costume now and how are we going to have some Halloween fun of our own.  I quickly got to the computer and started Googling.  Of course all the local Halloween festivals, etc. are on a weekend we also don't have Gracie.  Ugh.  But never fear!  The Steph-Mom is here!  We had decided we will have a Halloween party with Gracie's classmates. 

At first we thought we'd just have a pumpkin decorating party.  But, naturally, I quickly got carried away and started planning like a crazy person.  Because we couldn't  have just a normal pumpkin party.  We had to have something that hopefully all the kids (and most importantly Gracie) would remember. I have to say, CJ though did have the best idea for reigning me in a little bit - he suggested having the party at the local park instead of our home.  And I have to say, this truly was the best idea of the whole shin dig! For Real!

So, I quickly hit Pinterest.  I started pinning, and planning, and pinning, and planning, and pinning and planning.  I finally narrowed down my lists of games and treats, but by the time I had a plan in place we only had 2 weeks until the party.  sure, no problem.  ha!

Before I get into all of my Pinterest projects that I was successful with, I will say that I also had A LOT of major fails with this stuff too.  I mean major and at one point I wasn't sure if I'd even be able to pull this party off. 

Of course I had to start with the most perfect party invitations.  This should have been an easy task, but the options of Pinterest can sometimes be overwhelming and finding 'just the right one' took me longer than I'd like to care to admit.  But we finally wound up with the following from Lia Griffith at Handcraft Your Life (click on image to get to her incredible website / blog).  I wound up choosing her invitation because it was cute and SUPER easy to customize and print on my computer.  She also has a ton of other cute printables that I printed - but didn't wind up using because, well frankly I ran out of time.

Next were the envelopes.  Unfortunately the above invitations didn't come with a 'do-it-yourself' envelope (probably because most of the people who use her site aren't as cheap as me and will just buy envelopes).  So, I had to search out a way to make my own envelopes.  So luckily enough I found a template here.

Next up it was time for the menu.  I decided on Frankenstein Rice Krispie Treats (i put my own spin on them though),  Pumpkin Rice Krispie Treats (except I made mine with Gluten :) ), eye ball pretzels (my own creation, so sorry no "how to" link), tangerine pumpkins, banana ghosts, marshmallow pops, witch hats, monster munch, monster mouths and witches brew with gummy worm ice and a frozen red hand (by filling up a disposable glove with water and red food coloring and freezing it).   I'll be honest I tried a few other things but they were such big fails that I didn't even take photos of them, but you can use your imagination :) Here are some photos of our food spread:

  

   

Then it was time for the games! This is where I dug into my 'old school' archives and came up with some simple stuff we did as kids, found the cheapest crafts and come up with everything I could.  I have to say The Dollar Tree was my savior for this party.  I got all of our serving trays, decorations, etc super cheap there and they really made this party possible.  Additionally, they had games for, well, $1 when Target had the SAME EXACT games for $5 or $7.50 (ish).  The kids really LOVED everything we played and seemed to really enjoy being entertained.  We started the day off with toilet paper mummies, then did a doughnut on a string eating game, followed by mask painting, monster making, Pinata busting and finally ended with a competitive game of Halloween Bingo.

       

All in all I have to say it was an awesome day, with great friends and we made some lifelong memories.  We didn't spend much money at all, but it will be a fun day we will remember for a long time to come....which of course is always my goal with my Gracie.  She is amazing and special and deserves to have happy memories just as much as the next kid!  .... but I'd be lying if I said if I wasn't over Halloween at this point :)