We had a great time hosting a Halloween party for Olivia and her friends this weekend.  You know I love a good party – and I love Halloween!  It has always been one of my favorite holidays.  I hope by having fun get togethers for Halloween that Olivia will grow to love this holiday too.  She is intrigued by the thought of Halloween this year.  She is starting to get the idea, but not really sure what to make of it.  She loves asking people what are they going to be for Halloween.

Ok – let’s get to the party!

 

 

I made the invitations.  I found the picture of the witch in the cauldron online and I just loved it.  The font is called CRACKED and it is perfect for Halloween.  I decorated the envelopes with stickers from A.C. Moore.  And believe it or not- they stayed on even being delivered through the mail!  (Yes – I asked people when they RSVPed!)

 

I used the same image and font for the menu cards – which I printed on labels then affixed them to some YUM Halloween cardstock.  I attached plastic spiders with glue dots for a little something extra spooky!

 

 

Healthy Halloween Snack Ideas I got right from Pinterest… I wanted healthy options for the kids at the party – and I found all of these creative ideas right on Pinterest.  All were incredibly easy to make – and were show stoppers at the party!  I joked with my guests that I feel that I was more creative before Pinterest!  I used to think about how to make parties creative – now I cheat and just search it or google it.  It’s like Cliff Notes! (showing my age with that reference!)

 

 

We had three “bars” at the party.  A kids’ bar complete with fun plastic cups with googly eyes, orange and black striped straws and soda with Halloween bottle liners.  Martha Stewart has printables for these bottle liners that you can DIY and craft and make really cute – or you can do what I did and buy these from Party City and just peel the stickers and slap them on the bottles!   The two adult bars were a witches’ cauldron full of “brew” and a Hot Butter Cider station.

Here is my delicious recipe for Hot Buttered Cider:

I gallon apple cider, 1/3 cup brown sugar, cinnamon sticks, allspice, cloves, 1 ½ cups rum, butter, apple slice

Heat cider, rum, brown sugar and spices in a pan on the stove.  Keep warm throughout the party. Pour in a cup, add a pat of butter and a cinnamon stick.

Pumpkin Dip served in a ceramic pumpkin bowl and a side ceramic candy corn dish.  Here is my Pumpkin Dip recipe – a yummy dessert like dip:


1 (16 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
1 (5 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
1 (15 ounce) can solid pack pumpkin
cinnamon and nutmeg

In a large bowl, mix together instant vanilla pudding mix, pumpkin and spices. Fold in the thawed frozen whipped topping. Chill in the refrigerator. Serve with Vanilla wafers and Ginger Snap cookies. 

Green Sparkle Pumpkin Centerpiece from Target.  Olivia picked it out!  I also used pumpkin erasers to help decorate the table.

I took all of these pics before guests arrived and then was so caught up in having fun at the party – I didn’t take any pictures of all the cute kids in costume!  But we had a range of adorable outfits: Ladybug, Mouse, Pop Star, Princess Fairy, Iron Man, Rapunzel, and Minnie Mouse.   They did a fun holiday craft of painting trick-or- treat goody bags and making paper bag pumpkins and witch faces.

No party is complete without party favor bags, with matching labels and stickers.  Gift bags included candy, Halloween stickers and bookmarks, pencils, game booklets, plastic spiders, and topped off with more candy!

Thank you to everyone who came out to Olivia’s Halloween party!  We had a great time and hope you did too!

Happy Halloween everyone!