Grow Me. Grow You.

Partying Made Easy

I love throwing parties in general and have fun throwing birthday parties for my kids but a lot of times end up overdoing it and feel overwhelmed.  Thought I would pass on some things I did differently that made it easier this time:

1.  Freeze.  I made my triple layered cake, cookies, cupcakes, and homemade frosting all days before the party.  One night, I did all the cakes and had fun making cookies another day with the kids.  I wrapped up the cakes with aluminum foil to keep their shape, then wrapped them individually in plastic.  I put the frosting in a tuperwear and the cupcakes and cookies in freezer ziplocks.  

2.  Unfreeze.  I frosted the cake the day before the party and made fresh frosting for it that day too.  The cake was easier to frost because it was cold.  I put it right on the cake platter and kept it in the refrigerator over night to keep its shape.  I took the frosting, cookies, and cupcakes out of the freezer the morning of the party.

3.  Dollar Store.  I found powdered sugar, decorations, table covers, candy, punch bowls (that were plastic but looked like crystal), and candy trays.  After spending a ton on candy at Albertson's, I got smart and bought some extra candy at the dollar store. 
4.  Clean up.  I put all our left over candy in a freezer bag (and put in the freezer) to save for our Christmas gingerbread houses.  Everything can be frozen and frosted another day or given to neighbors.

Halloween party activities:

1.  Danced to Halloween music.  I made wands last year by spray painting dowel sticks and putting ribbon streamers on them-so the kids waved them as they danced.  We acted like monsters and witches.

2.  Read Halloween books.  Got some from the library to add to we had.

3.  Decorated cupcakes and cookies.  Bath and Body works has some great Halloween "hanitizers" that we had on the tables.

 

4.  Painted Faces.

 5.  Ate monster cake.  I got the idea from THIS blog.  I did mine a little different-I made my hair a little messier-more matted looking and used large marshmallows for the eyes (much easier!). 

We displayed some of the kids' projects on a string of yarn as part of our Halloween decorations.  We'll leave it up and do the same for Christmas.