Welcome Fall! -(And Parties!)

We call ourselves the 'Nik-Pak', 'Partners in Crime', '2 Peas in a Pod', 'Kindred Spirits'... whatever you want! But I have to blame her for this whole party-thing we did! Nikki Thacker wanted to do a "Breakfast with a Witch" party (that was somewhat cheaper than the one at Gardner's Village), but this is what all the planning transpired to....

Somehow we went from having the party in Claudia Pierson's barn... to MY house. (Claudia's hay barn would have been so much more cool - but cold!) So I was fine hosting it here (for warmth's sake.)

Kai and Keala helped me decorate (somewhat). But sat still enough for me to trace their silouettes for the 'Wall of Fame'. After calling the neighboring families we discovered that "Breakfast with a Witch" was the wrong time of day... so the party moved to the evening. (And early in the month, hence, last night!)

I called my mom laughing that perhaps people might not appreciate the 'Bishop's wife' serving kids desserts in shot glasses, but I couldn't resist, so I ended up making chocolate pudding 'samplers' anyways. And we loved 'em!  I love the cup size! (Just big enough to get a taste and move on to more!) (I know Meeja would appreciate the theory behind that too! I got cho back girl!)

After making 5 batches of bread sticks I had to sit down! But thank goodness everyone brought an array of delicious finger foods! We had an amazing veggie tray, caramel apples, chips and the BEST homemade salsa! We had 'Chicken Fingers' (that really looked like fingers), adorable chocolate spider cookies, chocolate cupcakes, pretzel snacks, jello cups, grapes, olives, (and bread sticks!)

Thanks so much to everyone who helped make this YUM and FUN!

We started a little after 6:00 and people just kept coming and coming!

And the costumes were adorable! This is Logan, and baby sister, Betsy. He regularly babysits my kids. But this week Kai got mad that I sent him to Gran'ma's while I went to a meeting because he wanted Logan, or 'a fun' babysitter. Hello!

Even the parents caught the spirit! Christina AND her husband both dressed up along with their 3 boys! Awesome! I noticed the smaller the kids... the cuter they looked! How does that happen!

I was expecting a big crowd so we moved all the crafts into the garage. (A big thanks to my honey for letting me boss him around all day to get the garage well lit and festive!)  It actually stayed pretty warm too!

Nikki brought the crafts (I did the food!) Here the kids are making skeletons out of dried spiral noodles and gluing them to black paper. They also made scary apple mouths with almond sliver teeth! Cute! At a 3rd table they decorated a Trick or Treat bag with google eyes and Halloween die-cuts!

If you weren't eating around the table inside, you could relax on the couch and have Nikki read you a fun Halloween story. (The kids prefered to run around outside!) But the adults didn't mind while we visited with each other inside.  I was suprised how well everything flowed despite the number of people here.

Keala and Kai showed up a little late. (Sometimes dads forget things.) But at least they made it, and had fun running around with the rest of the kids! So the total count: about 34 kids, 14 adults, and 1 dog. (And Maggie loved every minute of it! - She loves people, and especially crumbs on the floor!)

I love my Martha Stewart butterflies. (They are my favorite Halloween decoration -cool, but creepy too!) On the way out the door the kids took home a pair of 'Bones-Sunglasses'... whats a party without stories, crafts, games, food... and bones-sunglass-party-favors!  Thanks again everyone - for all the FUN and YUM!