Halloween Party: The Costumes

Scott & I didn't dress up or really do anything for Halloween last year, so I wanted to make sure we did this year.  Costumes always make a Halloween party more fun because you get to see what people come up with.  I am glad that everybody who came, dressed up because it turned out to be great fun.

I made some voting cards for people to vote on their favorite costumes.  I bought prizes from the dollar store and made prize bags.  I'll say who won each when I show their picture.

 

Scott & I went as a Greek God and Goddess.  Scott had to do a lot of convincing to be able to wear that wig.  Turns out, everybody really enjoyed it and I figured that it's only for one night, so why not.

 Kyle came as House and Brianna was Rosie the Riveter.  Brianna won the 'Most Original Costume'.

Liz was Cruella Deville and Ben was the Dalmatian.  Ben won 'Funniest Costume'.  There was even a part of the costume that barked.

 Heather & Skylar were baseball and basketball players.  They won 'Best Looking Costume'.

Mitt & Ann Romney were in the house! Spencer and Teresa won 'Best Couple Costume'.

I didn't get an individual picture of Spencer & Teresa's son, Robbie, but he's the zombie and won 'Scariest Costume'.

Group shot! Ben is blinking, but it's the best one since the rest were pretty blurry.

The party was a blast and I'm grateful for those that came!  We played a few rounds of Mafia and the game, Curses.  I figured those were appropriate Halloween games to play.  Curses was a blast and we were cracking up the whole time!  I think that game is only great with the right people and we definitely had a great group to play that game. 

Scott & I both agree that the party was a success, although I'm not sure I would make this an annual party.  Throwing a party is a lot of work!  But it was worth it and I'm glad it happened.

Halloween Party: The Food

The food is actually one aspect of the party that I wasn't the most stressed about.  Scott might think differently, but I only started to have a "stress out moment" when the frosting for the cupcakes turned out weird and I was losing time to get things done.  Other than that, I think I made things simple enough to where I wasn't pulling my hair out trying to get things done or perfect.  There were a few people who weren't able to make it to the party and it seemed like there was a perfect amount of food. Well, except for the sweets...I feel like I'm going to be eating those forever.  Anyway, onto the food (I bet if you click on the picture, you will be able to read the labels of the food better):

It seems like Mummy Dogs are a popular Halloween food.  I didn't care to do those, so I went for the smaller version.

 Scott was awesome to find these special black & orange Halloween chips for me at Wal-Mart.  They were yummy.

The guacamole was completely gone when everybody left.  Scott doesn't like guacamole, but it's a great party food.

Whenever I throw any kind of get together and need vegetables, I always go for the already made trays at the grocery store.  It's just easier to buy and less work for me to do.

I had bought mini water bottles for a lesson on water for my 8th graders and had some left over, so I brought those home to use.  They turned out great.  I just printed off the labels and taped them on (they say Haunted H2O).  We also had warm apple cider to drink, but I forgot to get a picture of that.

This isn't the best picture of the apples b/c I was in a little bit of a hurry, but they turned out to be a hit as well!  While making the Spiderweb Oreos, I had melted too much milk chocolate and didn't want it to go to waste.  I remembered that I saw somewhere (pinterest or facebook) an apple slice with chocolate coating on the skin.  So, I took 3 apples and covered them in chocolate.  They sat for a couple of hours, the chocolate hardened and they sliced up perfect.  The chocolate and caramel combination was delicious! 

Whole table shot! Also, Scott had just bought me those flowers that day!

I made these Spiderweb Oreos last year for Halloween and they are a perfect combination of easy, Halloween-y and yummy.  I used Halloween special Oreos (as pictured below) and then put dollar store spider rings on top. 

These witches hats were another easy treat to make and I didn't have any orange frosting, only chocolate, so they turned out to be very rich tasting.  We teach youth Sunday School now (16-17 yr. old) and brought the leftovers for our first day of teaching.  Needless to say, our kids think we're pretty awesome. :)

I have also made these Candy Corn Cupcakes before and I think they turned out way better this time, except for the frosting.  I don't know what it is about homemade frosting that's so finicky, but sometimes I really dislike it and wish I would have bought frosting in a container.

Whole sweet table view!

Like I said before, I kept things pretty simple which really did make the whole party go smooth and feel more relaxed.  I think that what I've decided is the most stressful part about any party or gathering we have, is the food.  Now, here's to hoping I can keep it simple enough for Thanksgiving dinner!

Halloween Party: Decorations

I'm going to start off my Halloween party posts with the decorations.  I looked around pinterest a lot for ideas and realized that I didn't really care to go so all out with decorations.  I wanted to make sure that decorations were still obvious, but not overwhelming.

I started out with decorating the mantel.  I actually love that I have a mantel now to decorate according to the holidays and seasons.  It's more fun than I thought it would be.  The banner I printed out from a free download online (which I can't remember what website).  All the decorations on the right hand side, I borrowed from my mom and all the ones on the left are mine.  I made the mummy jars with free medical tape that Scott brought home from work and leftover jars from jam and grape juice.  The second picture shows the jars when they are lit up.

I like how it looks and now I need to get my own Halloween decorations (probably can't keep borrowing off of mom forever).

The next set of decorations were these milk jug ghosts.  I found the idea here.  I collected milk jugs over a few weeks from milk I bought and then milk that I bought for school food labs.  I thought they turned out pretty well!  I guess it was windy that night because when we went to church the next morning, they were spread out all over the yard.

Maddie photo bombed both pictures.

Next decoration was glitter spider webs.  This was the easiest decoration to do.  I just taped two pieces of wax paper together, drew on my spider web with a sharpie, went over it with dollar store glue, then poured glitter over the top.  I think the webs look a little crooked, but they were fun table decorations.  Here's the process:

Another decoration was with the chandelier.  I found the idea here, however Scott was actually the first one to mention it to me.  I thought it was a great idea and turned out real cute.

The last decorations were carved pumpkins and the door.

Owl & Kool-Aid pumpkins!

I am so glad with how all the decorations turned out! Next post: The Food!

High Five for Friday!

Here is my top 5 post for the week!

1. We had our first snowfall of the year this week.  I didn't get to take a picture of it, but it was only about an inch or so in my area.  Hopefully the snow won't come back until after Thanksgiving.  I hate driving in snow. Blah.

2. My Halloween party is tomorrow!!  I'm excited and will be a nervous wreck until it starts, but I'm sure it will be a lot of fun.  There will be lots of posts coming up about it.  Sneak peek of a decoration:

3. My dad is coming out to visit in one week!  I'm planning on all of us going to a piano dueling bar one night.  I've never been to one, but I've heard that they're a lot of fun and the one I'm having us go to is a non-smoking bar, so that will be nice.  Hopefully it will be fun!

4. It is hard to get anything done with this cute girl snuggling up next to me on the couch.

5. Life is going in a really great direction right now and we are being very blessed. To quote One Republic "This has gotta be the good life..."  It is just so surreal how awesome life is right now. :)

Stuffed Pizza Rolls

Another pinterest recipe update!  So, Scott loves pizza.  Like, really loves it.  He had it a lot when he was single, so he still craves it quite a bit.  When he wants pizza and I'm okay with having it, we either make home-made pizza or order out.  On Friday, I had the day off of school, so I knew I had plenty of time to make the pizza dough and let it rise.  This time though, I wanted to try something different and while looking through my pinterest dinner recipe page, I saw these Stuffed Pizza Rolls, from Our Best Bites.  It was the perfect thing: pizza in a different form.

Now, I've also found the perfect pizza dough recipe.  Seriously, it is fail-proof like it says.  I love that it's easy to shape once risen and is quick to make.  I do use bread flour like it says and maybe that is what makes the difference in home-made pizza dough.

I stuffed the dough with pepperoni, pineapple and cheese.  They turned out great! I enjoyed that the pizza rolls aren't as messy as pizza (in clean up) and that it's a great finger food.  I'm glad that I can add this to my ever-growing collection of recipes that we enjoy from online websites.

The Usual Friday Post

1. This roasted broccoli recipe was a success again at school.  I was like a mom and made sure that all the kids ate their broccoli.  I didn't want to see any broccoli thrown away and luckily they listened to me or I would've been upset. :)  I used the leftover broccoli from school and made it at home with this bourbon chicken.  It was a great dinner.

2. We are almost done with yard work.  I finished weeding today and then we need to finish planting the tulips.  This hard work on the yard better pay off come spring.

3. We finally got the futon frame from Grandma Omer!  It was my Uncle Steven's and had been sitting in her garage for 10+ years.  Scott's family is coming in for Thanksgiving and all we have for sleeping arrangements is a twin bed.  This futon will work great for sleeping and for a couch in Scott's "man cave".  We had to take it apart and it took a couple of tries to figure it out, but we got the futon to fit inside Scott's car!  We have fit so much stuff in his car (that seemed otherwise impossible), it's crazy.

All we need to get is a mattress!

4. Scott and I were worried when our summer T.V. shows ended that there wouldn't be anything on for us to watch.  Boy, were we wrong.  I am loving having so many shows to watch!
New shows: Revolution, Chicago Fire, Nashville (this one is all me), Arrow
Regular shows that are back on again: Castle, Amazing Race, Dancing with the Stars (all me again), How I Met Your Mother

5.  Crafting today and tomorrow for my Halloween party!

Witch Hunt

Yesterday after violin lessons, Rebecca and I took her kids to Gardner Village.  I had never been there before, but it is a place with a bunch of shops (antique, fabric, etc.) and a few activities here and there.  Rebecca had heard about this witch scavenger hunt that you could do there and since it is their turn to drive up for lessons, she decided it was a perfect time to do it.  Apparently Gardner Village does a lot of things with witches, in October, since you can have breakfast with witches or there is this witch's night out, where a bunch of women dress up as witches.  That isn't really my kind of thing and I definitely wouldn't go do anything at Gardner Village without kids.  It was pretty crowded for being the middle of the day on a Tuesday, but the kids had fun and turned in their hunt for a chocolate chip cookie for $.35.

He was more excited about the ducks than he looks.

There was this random bell that was in the middle of the village and the kids heard it ringing.  Of course, they had to go over and ring the bell themselves.