party question!

[halloweenfreak]

ok we're having our annual halloween party and this year it is for the kids. i usually buy one of those BIG sandwiches from walmart but coop wanted to make sandwiches this year. big bag of rolls and some lunch meat, works for me! i bought some crafts from OTC and we're having a pinata, but i have no clue what else to do. we've only invited 5 boys, but most of them have siblings and at that age the parents will most likely stay so we're talking about quite a few people to entertain. thoughts?

[Edna_E]

What kind of age span? Some of my faves when I was a kid include:
Bobbing for apples
"John Brown's Body" - I'd have to look it up, but I remember using peeled grapes for his eyeballs and spaghetti for his intestines and there was some sort of recited story
Playing "Murder in the dark"
Relay races with goofy stuff like an egg in a spoon, transferring a lifesaver on toothpicks, an orange carried under the neck, etc.
Ghost stories are always good
Home-made rootbeer with dry ice is pretty cool, so is good hot spiced cider in a crockpot or coffee pot.

[PaulaMM]

Oooh OOooh, have I got an idea for you!

For the past couple of years, I have made creepy goody bags for my son to take to school. I made peanut butter balls dipped in white chocolate and covered the ends with colored white chocolate and placed upside down chocolate chips for pupils. Take a fine paintbrush dipped in red food coloring and trace veins and Viola! You end up with creepy yet delicious blood shot eyeballs.

Use any leftover white chocolate or white almond bark and make little mini bones.

Find a recipe for Witch Finger cookies and make those. I found my recipe from Recipezaar. They are some uber freaky cookies.

Once you have all these freaky treats, take some plain ol' Ziploc baggies, lable them as CSI evidence bags. In each bag, put a couple of eyes, as many fingers as you choose, and some bones.

The names I use for my victims are:

Dee Cease
Van Pyre
Frank N. Stein
Ima Goner
S. Kelly Ton
D. Ed Mann

You end up with a bag of tasty body parts labled as crime scene evidence. How sick can ya get? heheh

These are a HUUUUGE hit. Once, I gave one of these baggies to my nephew. He yelled, "I ain't eating that! That's GROSS!" and threw it across the room! LOL

[inneedofhope]

if you have little kids coming, you can add some paper legs to black balloons to make spiders, and then you hang them at various lengths and let them whack the spider with pool noodles. Pumpkin bowling is fun for all ages. use a small round pumkin for a ball and 2 liter soda bottles filled half way with water for pins.

[Neeley]

We do a Halloween party every year for our kids and ALL of their friends. The guest list has been as many as 120 and the largest turnout was around 70-80. On average we have between 40-50 kids. We started doing it when the kids were 7 & 5. Some of the things we have done are....

~ NEEDLE IN A HAYSTACK~
Gotten a few bales of hay, piled the hay up in a stack, hidden candy in it and let the kids find the candy. We also take a one foot long piece of a broom handle, painted it yellow(this is the "needle") and hidden it. Whoever finds it gets an extra prize.

~TREASURE HUNT~
Hidden differnt clues in the backyard, one leading to the other. The first team to find their hidden treasure gets a prize.

~KARAOKE~
Made a stage on one of the decks, run the fog machine, strobe light and the bubble machine while different kids use the karaoke machine and entertained us all.

~BUBBLE GUM GUESS~
Take a big jar, fill it with bubble gum, kids have to write down their guesses throughout the party. At the end of the party the jar goes to the one who was the closest.

~BOBBIN' FOR APPLES~
We use a huge galvanized tub, fill it with ice water and apples. (Keep towels close by - they need them)

~SILLY STRING FIGHT~
We get 1 can of silly string per expected guest (plus a few extras). Take the kids outside and let them silly string each other like crazy.

~COSTUME CONTEST~
We always ask that everyone come in costume and everyone gets one vote for best costume, scariest costume and funniest costume. Prizes are awarded to each.

~WITCHES BREW~
Use dry ice and water in a seperate cauldron to give the smokey effect/ male a red punch / freeze water in the non-latex medical gloves - tear the gloves off and float the "hands" in the punch.

~MUMMY RELAY~
Teams of two take toilet paper and one person has to wrap the other like a mummy as fast as they can. Then the mummy has to run across the yard and back. First team to complete it wins a prize. It is funny to watch them try to run with their arms wrapped to their sides and their legs wrapped together.

We usually have a few adults stay and they seem to be entertained by just watching the kids have fun. Plus, we always serve everyone hamburgers and hot dogs so they are eating some of the time.

[halloweenfreak]

the boys my son invited are 5 and 6 year olds, but most of the siblings that will come are all younger. i was going to try to keep most of the party outside, (due to past party experiences) this has been the best solution.

regarding the ghost stories, my son sooo wants to do this, anyone know where i can find not so scary stories for little ones? we have a fire pit so i thought marshmallows would be good too. i didn't think about the orange under the chin relay, i could use a small pumpkin instead to keep it halloweenie.

these are some good frugal ideas, keep em coming!