Halloween Party (7-9yr) Haunted Hallway

I just had a halloween party for my children ages 7, and 9.  We planned for kids of different ages from an age range of 3 to 11 

INVITATIONS:We planned to go trick or treating after having the party during the day.  I wanted to be sure parents stayed and helped instead of just dropping off their kids. So, I decided to print my invitation using Halloween clip art and card stock.  I instructed parents to dress up too and made plans to include them in the party fun.  I kept the invitations to the point and simple saying come in costume - parents too. I asked everyone to plan to bring a halloween themed dish to pass. A tip for others that I realized too late - be sure to put on there that families can bring siblings too and plan for extras when deciding how many to invite.

DECORATIONS: We sure had a lot of fun and I decided to get the kids super involved this year.  I purchased some big weaving boards online that had large halloween shaped cardstock thick wall décor and paper strips.  The children weaved the strips in and we used them to decorate the walls.  I purchased about $10 worth of plastic tableclothes in black, orange, and a few halloween themed too.  We laid them out and cut them in half.  I hung them on the walls alternating between the colors from ceiling to floor.  I covered up all my regular wall décor and gave the room the halloween colors I was looking for. I tacked the weaving board décor over some of them.  I bought a bag of ghost and boo stickers - probably about 100 of them and let the kids stick them on the table cloth wall hangings.  I also found some inexpensive sparkly halloween themed wall hangings that we tacked onto the table cloth hangings too and taped them to the windows.  It turned out to be super cute and the kids were really proud to show off their decorating. 

HAUNTED HALLWAY: In a hallway I took 1 big roll of crepe paper and hung tons of streamers from the ceiling to the about 2 feet off the floor - so you couldn't walk through it without touching a streamer. The kids and I spent hours blowing up about 200 balloons - give or take - I bought $6 worth of balloons at the dollar store. We put them all in the hallway - to a point where we could sit in them and just see our heads peaking out. Yes - I was dizzy and thinking this would have been a good time to own a balloon blower upper thing. I sprinkled a variety of halloween items like skeleton hands, snakes, plastic spiders around the floor under the balloons.

To make a barrier to keep the balloons in the hallway and not everywhere else I used the remainder of the crepe paper and taped it across the hall opening. I looked, but didn't find in time, for some police caution tape and thought that would have been a cute finishing touch to the barrier. The crepe was strong enough to keep them back and looked cool enough.  The kids made a keep out sign and hung it on the crepe barrier. We purchased 2 halloween signs that have the streamers hanging down so the kids would have to walk through it.  I put an inexpenive strobe light and disco ball in the dark hallway to make it spooky. Check oriental trading I think they have them there. The room was wall to wall decorated for about $25.

ACTIVITIES: HAUNTED HALLWAY: I let a few kid go at a time at first telling them the object of the game was to find some treasures on the floor while not breaking any balloons.  They were instruted to crawl and of course had to use their hands to feel for things.  I think it would be fun nextime to put more obstacles in the hallway like boxes for example. I told them to watch out for bugs and other spooky thing - depending on their ages. I later let all the kids (about 16)go at one time and they loved it! I was genuinly surprised they didn't immediately start popping all the balloons. After everyone found their treasures I told them they could pop all the balloons.  They went nuts sitting and stomping all the balloons and there was no shortage or fighting over any of them that’s for sure.

SCAVENGER HUNT: I was able to get the parents involved and all ages enjoyed this game.  I took pictures of about 75 things (accomodating 16 kids and their adults) I went through my whole house and found items like battery, paper clip, hair rollers, bobby pin, a bandaid, buttons, pens, anything small and about that size.  I printed the pictures out on card stock about 10 items to a page, and cut them out and put them in a basket.  I then hid all the items in one room (the one we decoratd) I put buttons on the eyes of skeletons, or on a scarecrow. I used shipping tape to tape things to the wall..I clipped things to curtains and tacked them to things too.  This game lasted a while which I liked!  Everytime someone found something I would give them a new card.  I made sure to hide some things really difficult and some easy for the little kids. After a while we all helped each other find the few that were left. Very fun!

GROSS OUT: I set up my kitchen table (for obvious reasons) to play the gross out game.  I bought a bag of small superballs.  I made about 6 hard boiled eggs and put them in a small container with a few balls in the bowl.  These were the eyeballs. For intestines I used a can of chunky tomatoes.  I used the tomato juice and water for blood. I made a box of spaghetti noodles and mayonaise for worms.  I used a can of corn and mixed it with mayonaise and called it vomit. I made a package of jello for the brains. I covered it with a plastic table cloth and cut slits in it trying to make sure the kids couldn't see inside the bowls.  I made cards saying, intestines, worms etc for the kids to draw out of a basket and taped labels to the tablecloth in front of the bowls so they would know where to stand. They were instructed to reach in with their eyes closed and find a super ball to take home. I stood next to the table with a roll of paper towels and the kids went straight to the sink to wash their hands and balls when done. Ewww!! I was grossed out just making the stuff. :O)So, then we ate dinner.

After dinner we let the kids decorate canvas halloween themed bags using fabric markers and told them to go outside for the pinata.  We let the little kids go first and when everyone had a turn the pinata was not yet broken so Instead of having them complain they didn't get a 2nd turn I broke it open dramatically. They gathered up the goodies and put them in their bags. We then went trick or treating.  When we returned it was getting dark so we passed out the glow stick necklaces and finger LED lights. We used a 50 pack of glow bracelets and the adults threw them off our deck to the kids below.  They had a blast trying to catch them and would throw them back at the adults. We let the kids use the swords from their costumes to catch them. We realized the glow bracelets make for a good ring toss game too - which could be played safely indoors our outdoors. 

COSTUMES: Because it was a halloween party everyone came in costumes.  I had a backup costume items in case someone forgot - which came in handy because someone did come not in costume and was able to join in and not feel left out. Our costume ideas for this are a sweatshirt that said FBI on it, a snuggly, A white sheet to be a ghost, hats, wigs sunglasses, boas, fake jewelry I had them by the door where people hung their jackets.

PARTY SNACKS/CAKE: I asked everyone who RSVP'd to bring a dish.  I made a list ahead of time of what we needed such as chips, buns, deserts, salads etc. I told each parent to bring an item and told them to get HALLOWEEN creative if they wished. The result created a fun halloween themed food display and it saved me a ton of time and money! I made a punch using grape soda, orange soda, and diet 7up.  I used and washed well, 2 plastic gloves and filled it with water, cinched it tight and made two hand ice cubes to float in the punch bowl.  So, it looked like black water with hands floating in it. This was the center of our buffet style food display. I had the halloween paper plates, cups, and napkins to serve. I gave the kids some glow straws to sip their punch with. Very cute!!

FAVORS: They took home all the things I mentioned above and it was fun because we used the favors during the party too. So they got candy, pinata filler toys, skeleton hands and other halloween themed things like bugs and spider rings, glow sticks and glow necklaces, and glow straws, Halloween themed stickers, LED finger ring lights, and whoopie cushions.  The Halloween printed whoopie cushions gave the kids plenty of entertainment when the party was over" for the adults to hang out relax and have fun ourselves."