Halloween Party

Gabby and Daddy designed a Kitty jack-o-lantern 

This year for Halloween we decided to have an impromptu Halloween party.  First I got Gabby the pink leopard ready.  I put spots on her face and helped her get dressed in her costume (she really wanted to be a pink tiger, but it was impossible to find a costume so we compromised on being a pink leopard).  We invited her neighbor friends and her cousins to come for a party before trick-or-treating.  It was a small gathering, but it definitely h had flare.  The neighbors came over and participated in the planned fun.  Grandma was kind enough to buy dry ice for their witches brew.  All of the kids enjoyed seeing the smoke coming from the wicked concoction.  They all seemed super excited about their brew.

Dinner for Halloween

Next, we had a pumpkin hunt (actually gourds I couldn't find mini pumpkins anywhere).  First, I hid all of the 20 pumpkins and the kids found them.  They thought this activity was so fun that they decided to take all of the pumpkins they each found and hide them for the others to find.  This sounded like a great idea and they found some, but apparently not all of them! I found an old moldy gourd about a month later in Gabby's toy oven!

Our final (planned) activity was going to the box of unknowns and touching slimy things and guessing what they were.  The children who braved the box of horrors touched a monster heart, monster teeth, fingers, brains, witches tongue, and eyeballs.  The kids giggled and most peeked to see all of the foods I used to make the creepy "unknowns".  Gabby was excited but reluctant to touch them.

Then the kids just danced and played while we waited on the cousins to arrive and for the sun to begin setting.  Gabby cried for about 20 minutes before we got to leave mainly because of the witches brew which had red dye.  Once we got her to calm down Catie, Reagan, Molly, and Aunt Danielle were all here waiting for her to calm down so we could head out to trick or treat.

The time finally arrived! Gabby was calm, all of the kids had their buckets in hand and we were off to start trick-or-treating.  Gabby, her cousins, and Abby stayed together throughout the mile and enjoyed running from door to door.  After we made it home the girls all dumped their buckets out and inspected their collection of goodies.  Some of the girls ate WAY too much candy (Reagan should be singled out here for rolling around non-stop on the floor for at least 10 minutes) and others like Gabby tried two or three pieces.  The result was the same with all of the girls, they all had a sugar rush, which resulted in delirious, giggly, squealing girls running around for about an hour. We really enjoyed having the cousins join us for such a special Halloween and hopefully we can do it again next year!