Spooky Halloween 2012

Ok, I am just going to say--right off the bat...It has been a crazy couple of days.

Sandy has been terrible for our friends and family up North, but our area just kind of

got side-swiped...about the worse thing that happened to us was that we had to take

all the outdoor Halloween decorations down and inside..

but we got two days off work and school....

And probably the best news of all: Halloween, for us, wasn't cancelled.

May I present: The Queen of England and a gallant knight...(who forgot his shoes.)

The big Halloween party was scheduled for Saturday night and at that point, there was no rain

and that night it was like high 50s/low 60s...perfect weather for a party.

We had about 15 kids and 15 adults from the neighborhood over...

so, I did a little decorating...

I drew a spooky village on the chalkboard that we have in our kitchen and sewed some orange ric rac on a black table cloth...I LOVE ric rac...

I tried to make as much as possible but I broke down when I saw this 

and bought the skeleton wall cling giant sticker art..

(complete with moths and spiders)

And, an excellent idea--I might add,  because there is no way I could have made it myself

plus it added very nicely to the over all look of things!

L. I turned the entrance way into a bat cave and covered the walls with lots and lots of cut out bats.

(special thank you to Mercedes and Cecilia for their many contributions!)

R. As a way to block off the stairs
(and prevent the kids from swarming the upstairs),
I turned the staircase into a crime scene, 

complete with a creepily hanging skeletor--of sorts...lots of cheese cloth!

This is a bat pinata that I made...

I wish it showed up better; this was one of the best things I made.

I got the idea here.

ok...wait!! I take that bat--I mean, BACK...these jello worms are actually the best thing I made..

I served them on a bed of crumbled brownies--(you know, for dirt!) and they were a HUGE hit.

Got the idea from here.

L. For the party, we had some crafts on hand...skeletons out of dried pasta, anyone?  

I turned the living room into a haunted laboratory. 

I filled jars with all sorts of stuff: eyeballs, snakes, bones, spiders...a brain!

ok, well, it was really a cabbage in green milky water, but it looked like a brain!

So, this was the setting.  

Saturday night, we had the fire pit going in the back yard and all the kids gathered round while some kids took turns telling and reading spooky tales.

Earlier in the evening, we took the kids on a haunted walk down thru the park, where an occasional parent would jump out from behind a tree and scare the daylights out of the kids...it was so awesome.

There were lots and lots of treats...

and there was this really, really good apple cider/bourbon punch 

with lemon and ginger that Greg made.

You know... for the adults...

So, everyone, ahem, had a great time.

The hurricane definitely put a damper on things but we consider ourselves 

very lucky that we had such a great party and a fun halloween. 

I am going to go pass out now...