Halloween Party

When NapNap lived at Hill AFB, she threw the kids a fun little Halloween party. It was a pretty simple idea but they had a great time. So when NapNap was here to share Halloween with us, they all wanted another party. Only problem is she doesn't have a house and her apartment, although beautiful, just isn't big enough for a bunch of rowdy kids.

So it made more sense to have the party at our house. Not only do I have the space, but I also have the pumpkins and we wouldn't have to worry about the kids being too loud. Plus, I could invite Tyler and Hailee too!

Not feeling so great the days leading up to the party, I didn't have anything prepared and I had to work the day of. But how hard could it be? I had a simple menu planned for dinner and only


a few decorations. I would have a solid 3 hours to clean, decorate, cook and get everyone in their costumes. I was even toying with the idea of dressing up myself.

I must think 3 hours is a lot longer than it really is because it was barely enough time to get the food prepared and glue a few bats to some ribbons to hang around the house.

I had the kids dress themselves, decided to not worry about getting them "made up" and ditched the idea of me participating at all.

I didn't have time to clean but my sweet Katie Lady had cleaned in the morning for me before going to a friend's birthday party. She really saved me! It wasn't spotless but it was good enough. Thanks Katie!!

I had to pick up Katie from said party one hour before our party was supposed to start. The friend lives just down the street so I decided to leave Justin and CiCi home alone for the first time (I've left them with Katie while I run to the store, but never just Justin and Ciara.), after all, the friend is just a block away. Can't take more than 5 minutes and then they could help with a few chores. Yeah, right. Wishful thinking, mom.

Although the friend lives only a block away, I didn't realize she lived in the Twilight Zone! I have never been to this friends house and Shawn dropped Katie off but I had the address so I was good. Or so I thought.

I go down the only possible street to match the address and there is no such house. I am circling this neighborhood for 20 mins as panic is starting to set in. I am not comfortable leaving my babies home for this long. Right then, I get a call from Justin. Someone is at the door. NapNap! Yay! Let her in and tell her I'll be right there!

I call Shawn for help. He is useless. And I say that with much love and adoration but the man can't give directions and just keeps telling me to look for a blue house with balloons on the pole in front. I see said house. I see said balloons. But this is not the right house.

I use the GPS on my phone, enter the address, it has me leaving the neighborhood completely and going downtown. That can't be right. Stupid phone.

I look on the invitation, there has to be a phone number....there it is! Call and get dead air and then it hangs up on me. Redial..same thing. Someone is there but not talking. Weird. Whatever. I'll drive around in the same circles , looking around the same "culdesac" that the house HAS to be in, by the blue house with the balloons on the corner. Still nothin'.

Call friend's number again. Someone actually answers.
"Is Katelynn there?"
"Yes."
" Can I talk to her?"
" Yes."
Silence .
I ask again, "Can I talk to Katelynn?" I nearly at my wits end.
"It's me, mom."
"Did you answer the phone?"
"Yeah."
" Why didn't you say it was you!?! Ugh. Get your butt outside, I can't find this house!"

More circle driving looking for Katie. Still no sign of her. Finally in the far away distance I see her.

I am not kidding when I say they decided to build a house BEHIND the culdesac circle, taking out someone's side yard to build a drive way. So this house was impossible to find unless you tapped on the magic bricks in Diagon Alley!!

All is good. I have my daughter. So what if it was 40 minutes later than I originally planned. I was so thankful NapNap showed up so my babies weren't by themselves. I am sure they were fine, but it makes this mama worry.

Get home just with just enough time to clean up my messy dishes from making "dinner". And thankfully, Jenn grabbed my webbing and put up some spider webs for me!

It's 5 o'clock and I am ready. Phew. I did it.

And no one comes. Char said she'd be over with Livvie at 5, never heard back from TJ about bringing Xander so I wasn't holding my breath for them, but Misty was originally going to bring the kids over at 4. I had to send a text a few hours earlier asking her to wait til 5 cuz i had to pick up Katie at 4. 5:30 and still no one else. :-(

Guess I rushed for nothing. All good. I can calm my heart a little.

Finally, at about a quarter to 6, Misty pulls up with her kiddies. :-)

That's enough for me, lets start this party! Turn up our Halloween playlist (thanks Spotify!) and lets eat!

Can you believe it? No one wanted to eat my food! I purposely made food the kids all liked. deviled eggs, little weinnies, mandarin oranges and chips and guacamole.



Apparently, when I Halloweenied the food, it became unappetizing. Lol. I thought they looked great. Maybe a little too great.



Deviled eggs and sausages with onions

Time for our Halloween Hunt! We have a scavenger type hunt with clues hidden throughout the house leading to another clue til they find there stash of hidden candy!



Treat bags for the hunt

This is a highlight for me. Each clue has an action (hop, skip, etc) and a sound (moan, cackle, growl) that the kids have to do as they run to the next clue! Makes it fun for them and entertaining for me! :-)

Charlotte and Grandpa Troy show up with Livie just in time to start carving pumpkins and Darrien is able to finally scare someone in this scarecrow costume by sitting in the front yard as they approached. :-)

Every kid is able to pick a pumpkin from our yard to claim as theirs.

Man, I hate gutting pumpkins. It's not easy and it's a disgusting mess. Luckily, this wasn't my first rodeo, I laid out a plastic tablecloth on the back porch (it nearly covered the whole thing) had the kids sat on the tablecloth with their pumpkins and it was time to go to town. I had to gut nearly every one. But I only had to help carve Ciara's. She drew her design with a dry erase marker and I cut it out for her. It was a pretty simple design so I don't need to complain too much. So including the one I carved for our guacamole, I only had to do two. Not too bad.

When everyone was done, I wrapped everything up in the tablecloth and into the garbage it went. In my haste, a few of the pumpkin "lids" were lost in the garbage but they still turned out cute.

By this time it was dark and everyone was getting tired. NapNap and the kids went home as did Grandpa, Boo and Livie.

Tyler's birthday is on Halloween day, but this year he is going to be with his dad and will be spending that weekend with him as well. So since they were spending the night, I thought that this would be a good time to have our own little celebration since we won't be able to see him. Ty is not a fan of cake
so he got to blow out candles on his favorite dessert, pumpkin pie (I had plans to make it homemade but when I started feeling so icky, plans changed...sorry Bud). And he opened our gift. I love it when I can buy a book for someone and they are as excited as if I had given them money or a video game!

House is clean, everyone is bathed and ready for church in the morning, and we get to finish off the evening cuddling and watching The Nightmare Before Christmas. And it was only 9:00!!!

Overall, it was a successful night and everyone had a lot of fun! I can't wait for next year!