We held our annual Family Fright Night this past Thursday evening. Outside of Sumemr Reading, it is probably the event that takes the most planning and prep work, but it's also the most fun!
Decorations were fairly simple this year, since I make ladders a bit too top-heavy:
Yards and yards of black cloth are invaluable.
This is where I sat to read stories to anyone interested.
This guy greeted people at one door, while a screaming ghost waited at the other.
Hooray for purchase orders and day-after-holiday clearance sales!
This is the beginning of the food-holiday-season, so we had fun with that:
Miniature Jack-o-lanterns (orange Oreos), Severed Fingers (pretzel rods) in a Delicate Earwax Sauce (queso), Dried Blood Drops (red hots), Honey Roasted Teeth (peanuts)
I was especially happy with these, but the fruit and cheese were the biggest hits! To drink we had Pumpkin Blood, Chilled Blood, and Goblin Goo (bug juice of varying colors)
We do ours as a come-and-go event. When trying to get kids into costume, it's hard to be anywhere at a specific time, so this has seemed to work best. There were two craft stations:
Make your own treat bag (which then gives you something to hold prizes in, so we tried to steer kids here first),
And Make Your Own Monster. I got big people shapes from Oriental Trading on sale, and just spread out some generic craft supplies.
Markers...
Yarn...
And imaginations.
There were some very friendly-looking monsters,
some absolutely adorable,
and some I wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley.
Notice the blood? I asked him what is monster had been eating, and the answer was something along the lines of, "Everything."
It was a popular spot!
Both crafts were presided over by Pirate Clara, who came here straight from work.
She is awesome at quietly keeping large amounts of children, glue, and stickers under some semblance of order, and very crafty. She is never allowed to grow up and leave me.
There were also three games to play as many times as you like:
Eyeball Bowling
See, I told you we couldn't throw those old cassette cases away, and that I would find a use for them!
You got to pick a prize for each one you knocked down. Prizes were a mix of candy and toys. This game was run by another one of our teens.
Her sister ran the Feed the Monster game:
Toss the bugs in the monster's mouth, pick a prize for each one that makes it in.
The most popular game, though, was run by Mr. Cliff. You had to stick your hand in a bowl of cold green Jell-O, and pull out an 'eyeball' (ping-pong ball).
The eyeball had a number on it, telling you how many prizes you could pick. S. was the first to break the surface:
followed by L:
Hey, I like this!
In fact, I like it so much, I'm going to refuse to pull an eyeball out, because then they will make me stop!
The sliminess did not deter many kids.
In fact, I was very proud of D., here:
She does not generally like to get messy, but kept going back to this game. She also brought me this adorable Rice Krispie monster, which so far I have not been able to bring myself to eat:
Of course, seeing all the costumes was the highlight for me. The shy soldier,
or the never-shy-a-day-in-his-life Scooby.
This young man was talking away to me, and I finally had to shake my head and say, "Honey, I can't tell who you ARE!" Awesome costume, Mom!
Definitely winning the award for attitude, though:
I love that these girls were discussing a book in the middle of the chaos:)
Cutest. Punkin. Ever.
These two friends got seperated at different schools, so they were happy to hang out here.
Costumes weren't required, though, and those without had just as much fun!
Huge thanks to all the parents who brought kids, and to the awesome volunteers who helped out (including the two who hadn't signed up to help, but took over when others had to leave - and then stayed to clean up!)
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