16 September 2005
NOT the hostess with the mostest!

Ok guys, I need your help. My daughter has been doing exceptionally well in the transition to middle school--she's kicking butt on her several hours of homework every night, working really hard in class, and generally being a great kid all around. I'm very proud of her! So, when she asked if she could have a Halloween party, I agreed.

But here's the thing. I can't remember ever even BEING to a Halloween party, let alone THROWING one! Yikes! I know there are people out there who are awesome party-throwers who could probably give me a tip or twenty--if you're one of those, please do. I can't even fathom having 15 middle-school aged kids at my house, forget about entertaining or feeding them! If you've got any ghoulish recipes, scary decoration ideas, or freaky games to play please please share! If not, a little moral support goes a long way!

I promise eternal beauty and riches to any people who supply me with ideas!
Or at least pictures of the little hellions partying it up on Halloween...


posted by Julie at 2:25 PM 7 comments

7 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'd definitely try to get your hands on a blacklight and maybe a strobe light too (if none of the guests have a seizure disorder). Make a mix CD of totally goth music, like some songs from the Lost Boys soundtrack. In fact, if your daughter wants all her guests to watch a movie, that would be a good vampire movie to watch.

If it's a costume party, have prizes for the costumes, "cutest" "most original" etc.

Food is easy; teens will eat anything. Cans of all different kinds of sodas, maybe get a footlong sub or pizza. Popcorn, chips, and bowls of candy since they're too old to trick-or-treat any more.

You can have one halloween room that you drape in black (cut-up trash bags?) and have cobwebs and spooky sounds and crap.

Sounds like fun! You'll have to take lots of pictures.

Fri Sep 16, 05:27:00 PM GMT+1  
Blogger Cyn said...

Themed halloween parties are fun - even something non scary-ish since they are a little older. Or perhaps a murder mystery evening.

As for food I happened upon the latest from Kraft foods today and they ahve some awesome ideas on their website. I know I know... you're in the UK. lol But seriously... it's more the ideas really...
www.kraftfoods.com/halloween

Perhaps a grown up sort of party - ie murder mystery - to feed into their wanting to be grownup-ishness of teenhood, but fun halloween food to entertain their still kid side. (:

Fri Sep 16, 10:23:00 PM GMT+1  
Blogger Renee Nefe said...

Another cute and cheap decoration for the party is to get cheese cloth...stain it with tea and cut holes in it. This looks like really old sheets or something spooky.
spiderwebbing...the thinner you pull it, the better it looks. Don't dust for a while.

Throw sheets or plain slip covers over the furniture (sets the mood and eases clean up too!)

I have a pattern for a really cool ghost made from cheese cloth and fabric stiffener. You make a mold for the ghost with styrofoam & foil, then you get the cheese cloth all wet with the fabric stiffener. spread the cheese cloth over the form and let it dry. Pull out the form and
Tah Dah! you have a free standing ghost...great table decoration!

Sat Sep 17, 03:24:00 AM GMT+1  
Blogger Julie said...

D Bunny--good idea with the "black" room. We had planned on herding them into one room for most of the evening since it's much easier (read cheaper) to decorate that instead of the whole house.

Cyn--I checked out the kraft site--they've got some good creepy recipes there; thanks for the heads up!

Renee--sounds like you've done this before! I'm going to have to try those ghosts, it sounds easy enough that even I can't mess it up!

Sat Sep 17, 01:14:00 PM GMT+1  
Blogger Renee Nefe said...

Cheese cloth is soooo cool & cheap too.

I was just thinking about my yard decorations for this year. We have a problem with the kids being lazy and just walking threw the grass to get to each door. So for this year, I wanna make some large versions of the stiffened cheese cloth ghosts (just the head & shoulders will be stiffened) and run some fishing line along my property line to attach the ghosts to. So in the dark it will appear that we have ghosts floating in mid-air along the property line. Bwah ha ha ha!

Then I'm letting the flowers that I planted this summer die a natural death and I'll decorate them with spider webbing.

I've also taken one of DD's old sleeper PJ's and stuffed it w/ paper added one of those small stuffed bags that looks like a pumpkin for it's head and a pair of her old jeans to make a creapy kid to have setting on the front porch.

We're going to have at least two carved pumpkins (there are 8 in the garden, but probably won't have the time or energy to carve them all!)

We would also like to make the one front garden into a grave yard full of dead plants & headstones. Just gotta figure out lighting. And hope it isn't sleeting again. Don't want to go threw all this effort for barely anyone to see it. :D

Sat Sep 17, 04:29:00 PM GMT+1  
Blogger Jen said...

The cool thing about the fabric stiffener is that one brand is called "Stiffy." Hee hee. OK, I'm a juvenile delinquent in a 35 year old's body...

Don't forget Oriental Trading Company for cool and cheap stuff. There's always bobbing for apples, etc. One party I went to had plain doughnuts on strings hanging from the ceiling. We had to keep our hands behind our backs and eat the doughnuts, it's a lot harder than it sounds. :-)

Have fun!

Sun Sep 18, 12:35:00 AM GMT+1  
Blogger Lora said...

I'm not really a hostess at all, but for I have no dount your middle schooler has some definite ideas. At that age music and silly contests would be the most fun. Love the black light idea. A theme like a Disco or 80's prom might be fun for them too.

Wed Sep 28, 02:54:00 AM GMT+1  

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