We really love Halloween. When I was growing up my dad went all out for Halloween, so I think my love for Halloween grew from that. It’s just such a fun and silly holiday! Here are some pictures of the spooky eats from a Halloween party we hosted a few years ago.

Nutter Butter Ghosts:  Simple to do.  Cover Nutter Butters in White Candy Coating and use black gel or chocolate to create ghost faces. 

This was a yummy pumpkin dip using pecans to make the jack-o-lantern face.  We used a bat shaped cookie cutter to cut tortillas into bat shapes.  Then we sprinkled with some cinnamin and sugar and baked them. 

These spider breadsticks were the perfect match for a caldran of chili.

These little cutie bugs were fun.  It was also simple (do you see a pattern here).  I always consider the time it will take to complete a certain party element to ensure that the impact to time ratio is good.  These were snack sized snickers, a tube of red frosting to make legs and some m&m’s for eyes.

More treats!  I love treats…especially for Halloween because there are a million ways to make fun Halloween themed treats.  Below there is a chocolate cake frosted with white frosting and a little black cake gel to make a spider web.  A halloween party must have is dirt!  This one always reminds me of my aunt Debbie.  This is a super simple crowd pleaser…well it always makes me smile.  Dirt = Chocolate Pudding, crushed chocolate crackers (chocolate Oreos work) sprinkled on top and then some gummy worms coming out of the dirt. 

Another worm dish!  This was apple pie filling in a baking dish toped with pre-made pie crust cut in strips and then layered randomly on top.

The food for this party was so much fun!  YUMMY!!

I am a very amatuer cake decorator…but it’s so much fun.  In recent years, I set aside my cakes because they are normally the element of the party that puts things over the edge from a schedule perspective.  This is a cake I did a few years ago for our Halloween Party.  It was a ton of fun and really big! My trusty family that always gives a helping hand for parties, was not happy that I took on a cake for this party – but I think it was worth it. It’s been a few years, but I think I got the idea and step-by-step instructions from First Magazine.

I am always looking around the web to find great inspiration. They say if you want to be better, surround yourself by people who know more than you. The great thing about the web is that we can surround ourselves with amazing talent from around the country and really around the world. There are a lot of people who are tremendously gifted at parties. My list is growing everyday of bloggers that I follow because they are amazing. Here is one I came across today: http://annaandblue.blogspot.com/

She was recently featured on Hostess with the Mostess Blog  which I look at EVERYDAY because of the amazing inspiration!!

Here are some photos from her current collection of paper products available on Etsy.com. You can buy this collection on Etsy and print yourself (love this) for only $7.50. That is amazing to me. What an inexpensive way to have professional touches at big and small parties.  Etsy is such a great source for amazing additions to parties by great artists. This Halloween party collection is so much fun!  There are cupcake toppers, food labels, gift tags, a happy Halloween sign and more…. 

Find all of the details on her blog:  http://annaandblue.blogspot.com/2010/10/happy-halloween-party-collection.html

As is everyone, we are trying to be smarter about our money.  We love to throw parties (okay mostly me), but they can really get expensive.  I have often found that I feel like I am on budget and then as the party gets into to crunch time I tend to lose track of the costs.  So…as we are becoming more fiscally responsible I have been challenged to keep the party budgets in line or we’d have to forego them for a while.  This Halloween party was my first attempt and not too bad.  A couple of other notes, as we were trying to keep the budget in line, we are also crazy busy. 

My favorite thing is the signature treat table, so that was definitely a must have.  Most everything I bought pre-made:  cookies ($3), mini  cupcakes ($3), pumpkin cake ($8), Halloween snack mix ($5), candy corn ($2), chocolate dipped pretzels ($4 – simple to do) and of course, dirt ($4)! I started with the a simple orange tablecloth and added black polka dot table runner (wrapping paper cut in half and to length).  This is one of my favorite accents.  I use it on treat tables, drink tables or dining tables.  It’s a great way to add color and pattern very inexpensively. I also added a vase full of eye balls (bubbles). As a centerpiece, I used a pumpkin that I had on hand.  

We had fun with drinks too. 

To keep it simple, I found fun martini mixes in cool bottles at Target.  They were $5 each and well worth it.  It made for a fun drink bar with no prep.  The mixes were Tropical Terror and Mango Madness.  I picked up a $9 bottle of vodka and they were yummy. 

I also picked up a winter mix of beers for $12.  We had a few kiddos, so I picked up some blue raspberry punch and added sprite.  Easy peasy & fun drink table.  We added a vintage silver ice bucket. 

Even though there were only a few kids there, I wanted a few activities for the kids because, well, that’s just fun. I had never had bobbing for apples as a party activity, so this was a great opportunity to do it. It was really a riot. The kids had so much fun!

Target had candy bracelet making kit. It was perfect for a wide range of ages and the kids loved making their own candy bracelets. It was only $5 and totally worth it. Simple and fun.

We kept the menu simple with chili, bread, veggies/dip and chips/dip.  Additionally, everyone brought an appetizer. 

Drinks: $31
Food: $29
Treats:$29
Activities: $10
$99

So this was a quick, easy and inexpensive party.  Even with all of those constraints, I think everyone had a great time.

When I was designing the Picasso Party, I came across this simple, inexpensive and fun activity. I completely loved them as soon as I saw them. Each Picasso Pop is its own unique creation – like snowflakes no 2 are alike. And the best part of these beautiful creations…they are really YUMMY!

We tested it out at on Family Fun Night and later at the Picasso Party.


They are great to do with a wide range of ages. You can find the instructions for the Picasso Pops at Better Homes and Gardens. I am including a summary below.

Ingredients (Makes 8-10):
8-10 ounces colorful hard candy (any variety – we used Jolly Ranchers)
8-10 lollipop sticks

Resealable Bags (As many as you have colors of hard candy)
Foil
Meat Mallet
Cookie Sheets

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Line cookie sheets with foil.
3. Sort hard candy by color and place in separate resealable bags. Crush candy into large chunks with meat mallet.
4. Use the candy to create fun designs for your lollipop on the foil covered cookie sheets. They should be at least 2 inches apart and approximately 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick.
5. Bake 6-8 minutes until candy is completely melted.
6. Immediately place the stick in the lollipops and twist.
7. Cool completely on the foil.

To celebrate the big 5th birthday of some of my favorite twins, we of course had to get a bit messy!  Kids love to create and get messy, so I created this party for just that purpose.  This Picasso party was filled with bright colors and kids creating wonderful works of art.

We set the stage with these funky frames for the kiddos to display their works of art.

We stocked the tables with art supplies.

Set the lunch table with crayons and topped it with a paper covering and the kiddos names at each place setting. They could then personalize their spot anyway they liked with the crayons at their place setting.

We kicked off the fun with good old-fashioned Picasso style painting.

Next onto some ultra fun spin art!

Some colorful wearable art: sand bracelets!

Moving on to edible art, we created these fun Picasso Pops. I found this fun idea on the Better Homes and Gardens website. 

SUPER large white cupcakes were the perfect backdrop for decorating and eating. Yum!!

I think everyone had a great time and were completely worn out. I know I was!

This is something that I had never really thought about until a year or so ago when I came across this All Recipes recipe.  Whoopie pies?  Huh, it had never really crossed my mind…but I LOVE them.  They are so much fun and so YUMMY!  I really love red velvet whoopee pies, but you can use this recipe with any type of cake mix you like, so the possibilities are nearly endless. 

Here are some heart-shaped, red velvet whoopie pies that I made for an Alice in Wonderland party.

This is simple, inexpensive, crowd pleaser for any celebration!

So our littlest one was turning 1, so the fun decision becomes what theme do we select to celebrate this big event?  Monkeys!  As our 3^rd child, she is certainly our monkey!!  With this perfectly fitting theme, I was on my way to planning a fun party!  I had so much fun exploring all of the different ways that the monkey theme could go!  It was such a fun theme. 

The color palette that I landed on was green, yellow and brown.  Each table setting included a monkey mask for each of our little guests.  They loved the masks.  The local scrapbooking store had a great selection of coordinating papers and sheets of stickers that I used to personalize the table. 

This is one of my favorite treat tables.  The grass skirt was the icing on the cake for me.  Of course, there were plenty of candy bananas and banana flavored chewy candy.  I also found some great paper to use as wraps for the water bottles.  It was a very simple way to keep with the theme.  The monkey cupcakes were inspired by the cover of a Taste of Home magazine.  They were simple to make and oh so cute!!  I also used small treat bags, malted milk balls and topped with a monkey themed label.  Finally, I included the monkey cups as favors.  I found these cups on oriental trading and simply placed them in a treat bag and tied with a yellow satin ribbon.  They turned out cute and they were inexpensive and easy.  

We played a variety of monkey inspired games including the classic monkeys in a barrel. 

 What a fun day in celebration of our baby turning 1!

I have already shared that I have an obsession with treat tables and this is one of my favorite treats to serve at parties!  The great thing about this treat is that you can have so much fun with it.  There are almost endless possibilities of how you can personalize them to suit your party theme.  It’s also an incredibly easy and inexpensive to do.  It does take a little bit of time to roll and dip them all, but it’s very easy.

The recipe I found and have been using is one from All Recipes.  You can find the original recipe here. Let’s just say Bakerella wrote the book on cake pops…well they actually did! Check it out! Here is some eye candy to get you started!

Bakerella is the clear queen of cake balls and cake pops.  I can’t think of many things I’d like to be queen of more!  YUMMY!  If you are looking for inspiration this area, the Bakerella website is the place to go.

Cake balls and cake pops are a fun, easy and yummy treats for any party or celebration.
Enjoy!
Tara

As I am preparing for a Halloween gathering we are hosting, I am always looking for ideas to keep the kids busy.  I came across a few fun ideas from Martha Stewart.   The first one is simple and I know the kids will get a hoot out of it. 

Donuts on a String:  The goal is simple – eat the whole donut without hands.

Pinata’s are always fun.  Kids seem to love the idea of hitting something with a bat and then candy raining down on thier heads.  Hmm…

Lawn bowling is fun for kids and adults.  This just requires a little bit of work and it’s a fun, festive game for all!

Another cute idea is Pin the Face on the Pumpkin.  It’s a fun spin on this classic game.

Bobbing for apples is one that is an old standard for fall gatherings.  However, I haven’t done this at one of my parties before, so I am considering it.

Thanks to Martha for always offering entertaining inspiration.  You can get all the details these fun games here:  http://www.marthastewart.com/halloween-kids-activities#slide_1

Enjoy!

Tara