After realizing that all Halloween parties, carnivals, and activities would not be happening this year due to all of the restrictions that are still being forced upon us thanks to Covid-19 and the strict state that we live in, I decided to do something about it. It made me sad to think that our children would not be able to attend any Halloween function outside of trick-or-treating around our neighborhood and would not have the opportunity to wear their adorable and coordinated, Peter Pan costumes more than one time. As a result, I decided to break the rules and have a Halloween party at our house on the eve of Halloween. Since we have been frozen in Phase 2 since the summer, we still are technically not allowed to have gatherings at our house with more than five people outside the people with whom we live. But since I am so tired of all of these Covid restrictions and tired of the fact that so many other states in our country (whose numbers are way worse than ours) are now being allowed to do so many things that we are not allowed to do, I just decided to break the rules and do what I wanted for once!
After running this idea past Ron, I invited a few families who I knew would be on board with this idea to come to our house for a costume party complete with a potluck dinner and some Halloween games for the children. Luckily, four families said 'yes' to coming and the planning began. Since I knew that I would have limited time to plan and prepare for this party since so much of my day is now taken up with homeschooling three kids with a one-year old in tow, I decided to make things as easy as possible. I reused a ton of Lia's Harry Potter birthday party decorations with just a change in the color theme. I also came up with six different activities and games to play by recycling old birthday party games with a Halloween twist. After getting the kids' help putting up the decorations on Friday afternoon and making a stew for dinner and a pumpkin cake for dessert, I had enough time to get all of the children dressed in their costumes before the guests started arriving at 6 p.m.
Overall, the party was a total success and we had a great time. All the kids came dressed up in their costumes and everyone brought delicious dishes to share. We enjoyed a wonderful potluck dinner and then Ron and I led all of the kids in several games afterwards to give them something to do and to prevent them running wild through our house for over an hour since going outside is no longer an option with the weather. After the games, we ate desserts and hung out for awhile talking before everyone left around 9 p.m. so that we could put a very tired Emmett to bed.
One of the tables in the kitchen decorated with a cauldron, candle holders, confetti, and sparkly spiders from Lia's Harry Potter party with the Halloween colors of black, orange, and purple.
A shot of the two kitchen tables together complete with the balloons in the air.
A close-up of the other table all decorated.
The decorations at the entrance of our house complete with a sign done by Logan.
Just like with all of our children's birthday parties, I had a table set up with Halloween coloring pages and crafts for the children to do while waiting for dinner to be served. This turned out to be the perfect activity to keep them entertained since we didn't end up starting dinner until 6:45 p.m.
Three of the four families we invited have girls who are good friends with Lia. Although they are much older and mature than the rest of the children, they were all good sports and participated in all of the games after dinner. Here is Lia posing with Mollie, Rian, and Elle at the foot of our stairs at the beginning of the party.
We managed to get a family photo taken before dinner started. All four kids are dressed in their Peter Pan-themed costumes and I wore my old Elsa costume that I wore five years ago when Lia and I went to Disneyland at Halloween time. Ron opted not to wear a costume and just told everyone that he was a burned-out, football player.
A cute picture I got of several of the girls hanging out on the stairs while we were taking some family pictures in the living room.
The group photo I managed to take of all 12 children dressed in their costumes.
And, of course, we had to have a silly picture next!
The children enjoying dinner at the kids' table.
Although I only took pictures during two of the five games, here is a picture of Lia passing the "hot pumpkin" to Mollie. In addition to this game, we played "keep the ghosts up in the air" (using white balloons), drop the spider in the jar, pin the trunk on the pumpkin, and "Hide the little ghost." All of the kids really got into the games and seemed to enjoy themselves which I was grateful for as I just didn't want twelve children running wild in my house all evening long.
The kids waiting their turn in line to pin the stem on the pumpkin.
Spinning Elle around.
Rian pinning her stem on the pumpkin.
Lia and Rian posing for the camera.
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