me and my husband, dressed up as Napoleon Dynamite and his brother, Kip
Man oh man, am I exhausted! This last week and weekend was such a whirlwind of party prep and birthday fun, I feel like I’m in some sort of semi-functional coma right now. It’s one of those weeks where you find the milk in the dishwasher at the end of it all. But I dare say it was worth it, because as far as I could tell, everyone really enjoyed themselves. Especially the kids! They had a bounce house, pumpkin roll game, goodie bag sweets table, bobbing for apples, a bucket of extra costumes to dress up with and, of course, pumpkin carving. Adult’s indulged at the bloody mary bar, filled up at the chili bar and snuck more than a few treats from the sweets table. There may or may not have been a beer pong tournament. Here are some stats from the big day:
- 60 adult guests, 18 children
- 7 bags of candy corn, 2 big bags of M&M’s, 3 kinds of licorice, 2 pounds of orange sugar candy, 1 huge bag of reeses/kit kat candy mix and 1 bowl of gummy worm soup ( TIP: don’t leave gummy worms in the sun. They melt!)
- 3 tripped circuits, 1 blown breaker and 1 trip to Ace Hardware
- 5 first place winners for our costume contest (2 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Casey Jones, Shredder and Reporter April)
- 36 s’mores bites and 45 chocolate dipped pretzels (ALL GONE way before the end of the night!)
- 3 gallons of apple juice and 36 sodas
- Countless cases and six-packs of beer
Here was our menu (in case you are wondering):
Chili Bar with hot dogs and corn bread, 7-Layer dip cups, Costco snack mix (really, the best), Bloody Mary Bar (with meats, cheeses and shrimp cocktail), macaroni salad, cheese ball and crackers, veggie tray, chips and dip, Sweets Table. Plus the extras that guests brought as hostess gifts 😉
And our schedule:
3:30: families with kids arrive ~ bounce house, pumpkin roll game, raiding of the Sweets Table
4:15: pumpkin carving
5:20: bobbing for apples
6:30: dinner
7:30: kids only costume contest (hooray for our boxing champion!)
8:30: adults only costume contest
9:00: bounce house pick-up
Here are some pictures from the big day:
chili bar
sweets table
candy corn cups, s’mores bites, candy and goody bags to be filled!
bloody mary bar
sweet garden gnome (our niece, Lily)
serious pumpkin carving by our nephew, Dax
Mercy, AKA Merida, was this year’s pumpkin carving contest winner!
bobbing for apples!
costume contest winners: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
I have to admit, now that it’s all said and done, I’m sorta feeling the after-party let-down. You know what I’m talking about, right? For all of our Pumpkin Party prep, check out this post. And this one, this one, this one and this one! Stay tuned for the Chili Bar and Bloody Mary Bar how-to’s.
In the meantime, what do you have planned for this Halloween?
