Halloween Party -8yr- Mummy Wrap Game

Halloween Party - Here's my plan of our Halloween party.  It was a huge success even though Halloween isn't celebrated in Australia, it was a great excuse for loads of fun.  I used an invitation from Microsoft Home Publishing which said "There's a party at (surname)'s place."  Then on the inside it said "Come if you DARE!". 

We had the party from 6pm to 8pm as the kids were mostly 8 years old.  Dressing up was mandatory and we had a Mummy, Vampire, Witches, a Pirate and even a Spiderman.  To set the scene and get the kids in the mood, I decorated the front yard as a cemetery with tombstones (grey cardboard on garden stakes) and they said names like "Fran Ken Stein", "RIP" and "What's her name?".  Along the pathway that leads to our front door, I used old jars with tealight candles in them and painted simple pictures on the jars of pumpkins, black cats and skulls.  At the front door I put a whicker basket with a pumpkin and some dried flowers/greenery in it.  I tied a big black and white bow around the pumpkin stem which looked beautiful. 

On the front door I made a simple wreath using a pre-bought craft wreath and attaching simple party masks (like masquerade ones) painted in a single colours of orange, purple, blue and gold with matching glitter and hanging from the top of the door with black ribbon.  I also sprayed cobwebs around the door and attached little plastic spiders.  In the front windows, I stuck black silouhettes of witches which from the front yard, looked like someone was in the room.  Most of these things are lying around home or can be made from cardboard very cheaply.  In our front hall which is fairly long, I closed all the doors to the rooms and put black light globes in the hall lights.  I added more spray on cobwebs and spiders which made it very eerie.  In the main party room, we had orange and black balloons everywhere with black streamers plus from our ceiling fans, I hung orange and black stars made by sticking two star shapes together with a piece of curling ribbon between plus hanging white skulls.  We stuck cut outs of bats and haunted houses on the windows and continued this into the rumpus room where we held our disco. A friend of mine painted the kids faces - loads of black and white with blood and I painted fingernails black (for those who wanted it).  This was a big hit with the girls. We played the games outside so I decorated the back yard too. 

From our trees I hung some windsocks which were made using cone shaped party hats upside down painted black and attaching black steamers around the inside rim.  This is a very cheap and effective decoration.  We hung large ghosts from the clothes line using a balloon for the head and draping a sheet over tied at the neck.  Along the back of the yard, I had a grim reaper which was two garden stakes tied into a cross shape and for his face I used a skeleton plastic mask and then draped a black sheet over the cross shape to give him arms and a body.  I also decorated the garden shed and cubby house with more orange and black balloons and loads of black streamers. 

We played games outside.  One was "Mummy Wrap" - using teams of 2, 1 is the Mummy and the other the wrapper.  Each team gets a roll of toilet paper (use reasonable quality or it will tear) and the first one to use up all their roll and wrap their Mummy is the winner.  We didn't have a specific prize, but everyone who played got a bag of chips which went in their lolly bag.  Another game was "Revenge of the Slime Race".  I made up some slim using 4 parts cornstarch to 1 part water.  There are 2 teams and the object of the game is to grab a handful of slime and run from one end of the yard to the other where another pot is.  You keep going until you have transferred all the slime from one pot to the other.  Again, we didn't have prizes but this time got a lollypop for participating.  During our disco, we also had some tombstones (cardboard cut into that shape) on the floor.  When the music stopped you had to step on a tombstone and a name was drawn from a hat to match a name on the tombstone.  If you were on that spot, you were eliminated and got to pull out the next name.  This time, everyone got a chocolate.  The disco was loads of fun.  The kids loved dancing in the dimly lit room in their costumes. 

For the party food, we kept it pretty simple.  We had a sausage sizzle which is an Australian tradition.  It's a barbecued sausage in bread with fried onion and tomato sauce (ketchup).  We also had spooky cupcakes which were iced in creepy colours and decorated with little cardboard cut out bats and pumpkins on a toothpick with a black pipe cleaner wrapped up the toothpick.  We also hat "Witches hats" which are ice cream cones upside down on a cookie held on with icing and decorated with smarties and "spider muffins; muffins iced with a spider (a jelly lolly with licorice legs).  I made a fruit punch to drink which the kids helped themselves to and wrote their names on the cups so they wouldn't lose them.  I froze little black plastic bugs/spiders in the ice cubes and had them floating in the punch.  We used a black sheet as a tablecloth and in the centre of the table had a black wrought iron candelabra with ivy wrapped around it and orange candles.  We sat some of my son's creepy toys on the table - snake, huge spiders, bugs etc. 

After the food, to wind down, We went out to the back yard where we had pitched a tent in one corner.  I read out a scary story and during it, my husband was out in the yard making spooky noises such as rustling leaves, rattling a chain, hooting like an owl, and then he banged a metal spoon on a saucepan which made the girls scream.  We read the story with a torch under my face which looked really creepy.  I realize this sounds like a lot of work but I got my kids to help and we made things in craft sessions each weekend for a few weeks before the party.  It really helped build the excitement and they loved to be involved.  I did everything on the cheap but the results were fantastic.  All the kids were talking about it at school and I think we've got ourselves a new family tradition.