Neighborhood Halloween Party

Last Halloween we hosted a neighborhood party at our house. We invited the families around us and some we've met through daycare, preschool, and elementary school as well. Lots of people helped out with games, goodie bags, etc and it was a huge success. For weeks afterwards, Aiden wanted a Halloween themed birthday party!

This year we decided to do it outside in the cul-de-sac and fortunately the weather mostly cooperated. No rain, sunny skies, but some pretty cool temperatures and a steady wind - it could have been worse. Not only did we have a bunch of games for the kids to play, there was a popcorn machine, a hot dog machine, a cookie decorating table and a small bounce house - a kids paradise!

Brendan in the center as General Grievous and friends. I love coming up with the games for the party - so fun! This was our spiderweb challenge, like my homemade spider web? It was definitely a challenge to make! The kids tried to throw stuffed bugs through the web.
Our neighbor girl and her friend did face painting for the kids, another very popular activity.
Brendan standing in the background watching his friend do the witches hat toss.
Like our Indian corn ring toss? Harder than it appears to be...
My graveyard cookie - very easy and very yummy.
The candy corn pizza... not so yummy. It was too crunchy and just not that good. I will definitely modify the recipe to make it again; I already have a better tasting plan in place.
Okay, Wellyn did an outstanding job on our pumpkin bowling lanes. We had some extra carpet left over from when we had the basement play area done and were planning to just cut it up and toss it. When we decided to do the party outdoors, pumpkin bowling sounded like a fun game, but I was afraid the pumpkins would just get pulverized on the road after a few tosses down the lane. So, why not repurpose the carpet we were getting rid of?!? Wellyn took it a few steps farther and spray painted the 'gutters' and 'Pumpkin Bowl' on them - they looked awesome! We decided to save them for next year... one less thing heading toward the landfill. :)

Next day, the real Halloween. Unfortunately Aiden ended up with the stomach flu early in the day, but was doing good enough at night to go get some candy.