Happy Halloween!
Yes, I was a rabbit. But before you go thinking I’m a total (boring) cliché, let me clarify: Will was a magician. Get it? GET IT?!
To clarify, we didn’t just dress up, put red light bulbs in our lamps, and run around the house for no reason this weekend. We had our first party in our new house with 40 of our closest friends! We decided that a party would be perfect since we haven’t acquired a ton of furniture yet, nor have we put much thought into wall art. Since our house still has plenty of open space, why not invite some peeps over to ring in All Hallows Eve?!
Unfortunately for poor Will, I decided to get crafty for our Halloween party and continued to involve him in festive projects leading up to Saturday’s big event. Finally we decided that he would be in charge of the real food while I got to handle anything that was fun and creative. Worked for me….since I now had a reason to stalk Pinterest!
Check out some of my favorite ideas that ended up making an appearance at our house—maybe you’ll find some ideas to use next year!
Puking Pumpkin
I know, it’s kinda gross but I loved it! I’m a huge guacamole fan to begin with, and I thought this was the best way to add a bit of the Halloween flavor to our table’s guac tray. I carved the pumpkin a few days beforehand and stuck it in our second fridge so that it wouldn’t get all wrinkly. Then, I put an LED tealight inside of it so that the real flame from a candle wouldn’t set my food on fire. Easy enough!
Bandaid Crackers
Again, I know, it’s disgusting—but SO AWESOME! And super easy, which is totally up my alley. Basically, you’re looking at crackers, cheese, and a small amount of red gel icing. In retrospect, I totally could’ve used sriracha and that likely would’ve made more sense, but whatever….no one seemed to complain about the sweetness and these were the quickest to disappear off the table.
Healthy Snacks
I have a handful of friends that are focusing on weight loss and didn’t want to totally derail their efforts (not to mention, I probably didn’t need to eat a dozen cupcakes!) Regardless, I threw together these easy fruit-based snacks that were spooky while avoiding tons of extra sugar and calories that I know my friends are trying to avoid. The pumpkins were crazy easy—literally just peel some clementines and put a small piece of celery on top for the stem. The bananas were equally toddler-friendly since I just cut them in half and wrote on a face with some black gel icing. As the house filled with people and started heating up, the icing began to run, creating even better faces on my ghosts.
Rats
I absolutely hate rats and they freak me out—so gross and dirty! Naturally, they seemed like a great decoration to add to open areas in our house, but I wasn’t sure how. I shopped around but couldn’t find anything, so I finally decided to create my own wall art. I traced a rat from an online printable and cut out 50-60 rats like you see on the wall. I taped them throughout the house in sneaky places, culminating in the back with a horde of them on the wall. Seriously disgusting (And seriously, I never want to cut another rat out again!)
Candy Corn Cupcakes
Y’all, these were my favorites, and so easy. I just used a basic white cake mix from a box. After mixing the ingredients, I added in a ton of yellow food coloring to make the cupcakes yellow (although in retrospect, I’m sure I could’ve just used yellow cake mix!), Then, I decorated the top of the cupcakes with a little orange icing, followed by some white on top, just like a candy corn. I decided to add the actual candy at the last minute because I was worried no one would get it. Luckily, everyone loved ‘em!
Spiderweb Cupcakes
Since we had white cupcakes, we obviously had to have some chocolate ones, too! Again, I went with the ever-easy box cake and made 50 chocolate cupcakes with a festive paper wrapping. Instead of using a fancy decorating tip, I used a simple butter knife and frosted them all with plain white frosting. Then, I used the black gel icing to draw concentric circles on the top of the cupcake, just like a bullseye. Lastly, I took a toothpick and light drew a line from the center of the circles towards the outer edge, dragging the gel with me. It was way easier than I was expecting and actually looked pretty cool!
If you want to see more photos of people in costume, check out Lauren’s recap from Monday!
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If you haven’t already, don’t forget to enter the giveaway for $100 to Road Runner Sports!
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Are you dressing up this year?
How do you feel about Halloween—love it or hate it?
20 Comments
wow you were busy! I can’t believe you cut out 60 rats, I would have quit around 10. Love all the fun party food!
I did debate quitting 🙂 Luckily, I became smart and realized I could cut out five at a time!
I love the rabbit costume! It’s not too racy and just the right amount of cute. That’s a really cute couples costume. Some of them are so tacky! I’m not dressing up this year.
Ha, yeah, I don’t do racy so well 😉 Gotta be able to groove!
So freakin’ cute. I must admit I can’t remember the last time I dressed up or attended a halloween party. It’s been years! But halloween is definitely one of my fave holidays.
I’ve had a lot of fun this year. Some years I’m not interested but this year was different 🙂
These are really awesome Halloween party ideas! The bandaids are hilariously gross and definitely my favorite.
They were pretty gross but oh-so-perfect!
Those are some creative elements for a party! I love the candy corn cupcakes. I don’t usually get too much into Halloween, but I did wear a costume to work today. I’m a backpacker! Unfortunately, I live in an area in which being a backpacker is kind of an anomaly so it’s the perfect costume!
You went to SO much effort! I’m really impressed. The bananas are brilliant, I’m going to do those next year for my little boy!
He is going to his party tonight as a cheese. Cheddar on his body, Swiss on his head. I am going as a mouse. Oh the glamour. I don’t like Halloween at all but apparently, when you have kids and you live in the US (we’re brits), it’s impossible to ignore.
Your party was amazing- I was so impressed!! Can you do one every year?? 🙂
All of the food was DELICIOUS too. Everything was so great- but I REALLY loved those little tangerine pumpkins. 🙂
Oh- and I also loved all of the SUGAR I ate (in the form of “dirt,” cupcakes and candy. Yes, all of it.)
I think the plan IS one every year! 🙂
Ok I can never have a party again. I can’t handle this – I want to just put out plain old chips and salsa! Your party was so stinking cute. I love how you thought of your friends focusing on weight loss – so considerate! One of my BFFs is in the same boat so we try to have veggies and stuff out when we do parties.
Oddly enough, I had so much fun with the decorations! I used to be artistic back in the day and while that talent has disappeared, my crafty side rears its head from time to time!
Yay for housewarming parties!!! Sounds like it was a hit! And all that food you made looked fantastically creative!! Now….if you’d just put that much effort into decorating your house, maybe you’d have some stuff on your walls beside rats! lol.
Ok, so here is why we have no decorations– Will has too much taste 🙂 We agreed that we wanted his photography on our walls, but since it is his art (and he likely will show pieces in various galleries), every single item has to be of gallery-quality. So, that means a canvas that you can print for $40 at Walgreens will cost us $600…. times however many different prints we do. Needless to say, the art is going to take a long while to get sorted (and paid for!)
I LOVE Halloween! Such a cute costume idea and those cupcakes are super cute 🙂
Love it all!! The puking pumpkin is awesome!!
Looks like a great party!!! That guac looks so good.
[…] great costumes but of course I didn’t take photos, apparently I’m a sucky blogger! Lauren and Heather both have a slew of photos if you’d like to check them […]