Each year we throw an Annual Kids Halloween Bash at our house. Our kids look forward to it; I go overboard! My mom says I’m as excited as the kids, but I don’t know – I wasn’t the one dressed in costume a 7 AM this morning; my daughter was!
With young children, the focus is more on having fun with party games than on scaring the living crap outta the kids; though, I must say, this will one day be a highlight!
Last night I worked for several hours preparing a variety of games (see below) and treats. Today, we are putting the finishing touches on the kids Halloween snacks and the girls will spend a crazy amount of time wrapping streamers around every available surface in my home, so that I am still finding it at Christmas.
Want to throw a fun two-hour party? Here are some inexpensive ideas. Get the kids to help if they are old enough – it’s a good way to pass some time and get a little creative!
On the Menu
Wormy cupcakes
Chocolate or vanilla cupcakes,though you’ll need chocolate cupcakes or Oreos for ‘dirt’. Use a cupcake hole puncher to create a hole in the middle, from which you can stick the worm. (The kids helped with this and loved it!) Ice with chocolate frosting; then crumble chocolate cake on top so it looks like dirt. The kids did this part, too.
Pumpkin Cake Balls
Use leftover cupcakes and frosting and roll into balls. Don’t make the balls too big or they will be too heavy on the sticks. Refrigerate for several hours. Use lollipop sticks and candy melts to create the pumpkins. Prior to putting the ball on the stick, dab a little melted chocolate on the stick so it will harden and the ball will stick better. I get my supplies at Michael’s (gotta love the forty to fifty percent off coupons they offer!) but they also have them at Wal Mart. My daughter created this box for the sticks since I forgot to purchase a green styrofoam block!
Chocolate Monster Pretzels on a Stick
Sadly, I didn’t get a photo of these cute dudes, but I used molds I found at Michaels for the mummies. Melted orange candy into the mold and stuck a large pretzel rod into the candy before it hardened. These were a hit! I placed them in glasses and handed them out at the end of the party.
Cheese Doodles, because they are orange
Candy corn in a dish (aka Wolf Fingernails)
Chocolate eyeball candies
Fruit punch (aka Spider’s Blood)
Fun and Games
We played a variety of games; these seemed to be the most popular!
- Build a Monster: This was one of the kids’ favorites. I drew a picture of a fun Frankenstein-type monster on posterboard and then created pieces of him (bolts, hands, arms, legs, shoes) using various colored construction paper. Kids drew a ‘piece’ and got blindfolded, then had to place the piece on the monster where they thought it belonged. The other kids ‘led them’ by saying up, down, left and right. In the end, he looked nothing like he was supposed to!
- Witches Stew. This was one of the favorites. I cut out shapes of bats, ghosts and witch hats about the size of dimes. Ten shapes for each kid, two kids, so twenty shapes altogether. The shapes were scattered on the table. Each child also got a small cereal bowl and a straw. The object of the game: pick up the pieces of paper by sucking on the straw and holding the pieces against the straw until they were dropped into the bowl. The first person to pick up all ten pieces won! One boy won them all!
- Eyeball relay races. I found a bag of small chocolate candies that looked like eyeballs at the Dollar Tree. Outside I marked the driveway with two lines and the kids used spoons to hold the eyeball as they raced down and back. If the eyeball fell they had to stop, put it back on and continue the race.
- Ghost Tag. The ghost wore a white sheet. I outlined a section of the driveway and told kids if they went ‘out’ they were it. The ghost said “Boo” and, in Marco Polo fashion, the other kids yelled ‘Ah’ to let the ghost know where they were. Whoever got tagged by the ghost was it.
- Pumpkin bowling. This is always one of our favorites! Use a small pumpkin and several plastic water bottles partially filled. Bowl!
- Halloween Hopscotch. I drew the hopscotch with pictures of pumpkins and ghosts inside. The kids tossed pieces of candy instead of rocks.
- Candy Toss. Each kid got three pieces of candy and tried to toss them into plastic pumpkin heads.