Oh, hey! Happy Halloween! Guess what? I’m baaaack! Cue the theme music. Haha! As promised, I’m here to share our Pumpkin Party 2014 details with you. You ready? Got something to drink? All comfy? Here, let’s start with this:
How cute is that tie? I tried to dress Jones in a pumpkin costume, because I mean, come on. But it wasn’t happening. He thought it was a plush toy to play with so we went with something a little less invasive. Want more cute? Try this one:
The hand holding gets me. Every time. We had a Popcorn Bar this year, Popcorn Olympics (click here for my inspiration), an epic Builders and Bulldozers game, the infamous chili bar (see last year’s how-to here), bobbing for apples, costume contests for the littles and bigs, a beer pong tournament and a crap-ton of fun! Here, let me shove some more pictures in your face:
HORRIBLE pictures of our popcorn bar, so obviously a how-to filled with terrible pictures is coming soon!
builders and bulldozers game = total freaking hit with the kiddos! thank you pinterest for bringing me this link, because the littles had so much fun playing and there was no catching any good pictures with all the action!
have you ever really considered how gross bobbing for apples is? each kid dunks their face in the same water and mauls the same apples over and over again. thank goodness it isn’t flu season here yet! and the kids? they BEG for this game! it’s always a hit and if we ever skipped it, they’d probably revolt…
we had a candy skull, dirty teacher and student, red riding hood and her warrior, darth vader and storm trooper, frodo and her ranger, mad max, carmen san diego, ariel, jesus and mary magdalene, gandalf the grey, a bunny, grew and his minion, beetlejuice and his bride, where’s waldo, a leopard, a witch, dorothy, a squirrel and many more adult costumes not pictured. we have some wicked creative friends!
me? i was a pirate. raided the kid’s dress up bucket and bought a $3 eye patch. oh, yea!
Because we do this every year and also because I pick up a few things after the holiday on sale, we had plenty of decorations this year. Enough that I didn’t even put everything out. Budget-wise, that’s considered free, right? The only money I spent this year was on the prizes, paper goods and the food, which brought us to about $300 to host a party for 60 adults and 15 kids. Cheapest Pumpkin Party we’ve ever hosted, I think… Here are some more numbers for you:
- about 40 hours of prep – with help (let’s not discuss clean-up time, OK?)
- a giant roaster of chili, two flats of macaroni and cheese, 32 hot dogs and buns, 48 sodas (we came up short, you’ll need much more to be successful!), a gallon of iced tea, 3 gallons of Kool-Aid, 3 gallons of water, 45 candy corn jello-shots (recipe here)
- 1 winner of 2 movie tickets in the adult costume contest (Mad Max, anyone?)
- 4 large full trash cans, plus our big city trash can
- 15 hula hoops and 15 mini pumpkins
- 5 gallons of popcorn
- 11 hours of party
- 1 broken toilet seat
- 1 drunken game of “Loaded Questions”
- countless costume pieces and a pair of shoes left behind
Pumpkin Party 2014 = SUCCESS. Every year has some of the same components, but it’s always different. And always a good time. Because that’s what it’s all about, right? I hope you all have a happy and safe Halloween. May your candy be sweet and your night be ghoulish!
