Our 2nd Annual Halloween Party

What started out last year as me saying, "let's stay home and play game instead of trick or treating, it'll be less work for me!" has turned into me scouring Pinterest for game ideas, decorating ideas and food ideas, weeks, even months before Halloween. But in the end, it's always a great time.
I don't do any decorating until THE day and once the kids have left for school. My mom pops over as my saving grace and gives me a hand. Thank goodness!
This year I got the hubby to make a version of our own grim reaper and I think he turned out fantastic!!

I downloaded some eerie sounds and music from the web, so I had a small boombox playing with heavy breathing, evil laughing and a scary voice as the kids came up the deck. Their reactions were priceless.

On the other side of the grim reaper I had a stuck upside down witch

then it was time for food and games

I had lots of fun with the food this year. The Witchy fingers turned out good. I used a simple sugar cookie recipe but one thing is make sure you roll your fingers thin as the dough does spread a lot. Next is the Bizzare Brain, it was pretty jiggly but tasty. The Punch was a hit. I had to add the frozen hand again and I also tried gummy eyeballs but they kept flipping upside down. The Phantom Hands on the chip bowl added a nice touch to the theme. Then we had zombie eyes (devilled eggs) but of course I didn't have any good food coloring so the red came out pink. The Jello worms turned out good but they are very tedious and make quite a mess with lots left over.

All the games I got from  Minute to Win It. They were so easy to prep for because most of the stuff needed is found in the home already. We had lots of laughs!

Face the Cookie - using only the face, move cookies from the forehead to the mouth!

Flip Your Lid- flip a cup at edge of a table onto a bottle.

Matchmaker-pick up one of eighteen cups on a center table and place the small candy from under that cup into one of three glasses placed around the outer rim of the room. Object is to get 6 of each colored candy into the 3 glasses.

Nose Dive-Player must transfer cotton balls, 1 at a time from serving bowl to another using only petroleum jelly on the nose.

Rapid Fire-Players must shoot rubber bands ( I found some skeleton shooters from walmart that worked perfect for this) to knock a triangle stack of 6 cups completely off a platform.

I love my sons face in that last photo.

Bucket Head- Catch 3 balls in a bucket on top of the head. These guys got quite creative.

Junk In the Trunk- Wiggle a box that is attached to your waist filled with ping pong balls until the box is empty.

Ka-Broom- Drop a broom onto a plate, catapulting a marshmallow into the air, then catch it in a cup.

Split the Uprights- Flick paper triangle footballs between 2 stacks of plastic cups and into a bowl. 

Wet Ball- Player must propel a balloon into a garbage can using only a spray bottle.

glow bowling. We put glow sticks into pop bottles and used small pumpkins as bowling balls. This game was really cool in the dark.

I made this dart board last year and it was such a hit. I write a "prize" on a piece of paper and put it inside a water balloon before blowing them up. The kids throw darts at the balloons to win their prize.

And the Grand Finale-the pinata!