Halloween Party

If Kaitlyn’s self-assessment of fatigue followed by her tucking herself into bed and falling right asleep is any judge… then the annual Halloween party this evening was a huge success. Although we do have a couple dozen juice boxes left over. I guess the kids weren’t as thirsty as I thought they’d be. Maybe since it was hovering somewhere in the upper 30’s, they just didn’t need to guzzle as much as they would have had the party been held in, say, August. Which would have been a stupid time to have a Halloween party. But… I digress.

I may have bought too many drinks, but my pumpkin was just right. Kaitlyn and I carved it yesterday after school. I tried to get her to wait for Bill to come home, but she was too excited. Not that he really cared; he hates pumpkin carving. That’s my department. I did get her to sit with me while I drew different eyes, noses and mouths and she pieced together the face she wanted. It had to be a witch. I asked her how people would know the pumpkin was a witch. I shouldn’t have asked. The answer meant I spent Saturday morning making witch hair out of green ribbon and taping it into the witch hat Bill made out of paper. We accidentally left her broomstick (made from a cardboard tube off a hanger and more construction paper) at home. That didn’t matter. We won the “most creative” award… as voted by our peers. That was kinda neat. I’ve never actually made one of my creative endeavors actually work out before.

The party included some kids games… a ball toss modeled after the one on the old Bozo show (which none of tonight’s contestants remember)… a pumpkin seed spitting contest (Kaitlyn was frighteningly good at it)… and a modified apple bobbing. Instead of trying to grab the apple out of a bucket of water, the apples were hung on strings and the kids had to get it from mid-air. Kaitlyn liked it, but couldn’t do it. And once she did manage to get the apple, she wanted a different one. So I ate the one she’d gnawed. The hostess had figured out how to make some caramel dip for the apples. That was so good I briefly considered bobbing for an apple myself to have more, then decided against it.

The kids also marched in a little parade… so that we could see all their costumes. This year, Kaitlyn was the only princess. The girls costumes included a witch, Laura Ingalls, a chef, an Indian and some rock stars. Among the boys, there were a lot of super heroes or warriors from Star Wars and a handful of pirates.

Instead of a parade, there was a contest to try to get the adults to dress up. I fretted all week about a costume then realized Bill wouldn’t wear what I had cooked up (I wanted him to go as the pizza truck… ) and I was so busy trying to think of something for him I didn’t think of anything for me. Kaitlyn said I needed to be a cat, which was a lucky choice because I do have some cat ears and a tail. So that was pretty easy. Bill went as a skier but everyone just thought he was himself because just tossing on a ski jacket is not enough for a costume. The hostess dressed in a kimono and her normally red hair was dark black. How long will that last? She said she didn’t know… however long regular hair dye stays. Hope she likes it! (It looked cute) The winner of the contest was the guy who went as the “pampered chef”…. a chef wearing a big diaper.

I had offered to help out, so I ran the Bozo game for a while. I’m too nice, I let the kids have too many tries. But I wanted them all to have fun. After a while I did limit it to three tosses each turn. And a little later, the kids ran the game themselves, sticking to the rules and keeping each other in line. It was cute. Bill was the official photographer for the night. The only thing that changed for him was he took more pictures of everyone instead of just Kaitlyn. If we were expected to herd people into a special area for posed pictures, then we failed.

Kaitlyn says her favorite part of the party was the games. My favorite part? I’m not sure. Maybe those caramel apples.

2 Responses to “Halloween Party”

  1. Debbie says:

    sounds like a great party!

  2. D.A.D. says:

    Your creative efforts in the past indeed have paid off and been recognized. It was called news ratings and inclusion in a book.

    I went to a party and was complimented on my Pinocchio mask. I wasn’t wearing a mask.

    Love the idea of Bill going as the pizza truck. Can you describe how that would be executed?

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