Halloween Fun 2014!!!

Halloween decor for my entry way!

My sister and brother-in-law hosted a family + friends Halloween Party this year.  I helped with some fun and easy spooky decor, ghoulish appetizers, and hilarious Minute to (Hallo) Ween It games!!! 

This was so fun and easy to create.  A great backdrop to capturing everyone's Halloween costumes!!  First, we just hung two strips of butcher paper.  Attached to the wall with painter's tape.  We hung some fake cob-webs, plastic over-sized spiders, and a couple of black spider web decorations to create a great backdrop for photos.

Out of our small group that attended the Halloween Party, Wayne & Garth from Wayne's World was the hot costume of the year!  With myself and my husband as Wayne & Garth and another couple!!!

Halloween Food!!

Dirt Pudding

with green food coloring for a more festive, ghoulish look and gummy worms

I put the pudding mixture in a ziploc bag for easy transportation into the individual cups.  For easy transportation to the party -- I loaded the individual cups into muffin tins so no cups went spilling in the car on the way there.  

I didn't make these cute spider cookies!  But they look awesome!! 

Pumpkin Cheeseball

2 packages of cream cheese

1 package of Buddig Beef lunch meat

1/2 Cup chopped green onion

1 Ranch Dip packet

3/4 Cup shredded cheese

3-4 TBSP Worcestershire sauce

(orange food coloring for the pumpkin color)

*there is no pumpkin flavoring, I just shaped the cheeseball to look like a pumpkin.  i used a stem from a red bell paper as the pumpkin stem.  used some chopped green onions as a little garnish on the top.  and made lines through the sides to give it a more realistic pumpkin shape!! *

Minute to (Hallo) Ween It!!

This is a great way to add some fun to any party!  They are easy games anyone can do with a party of any size.  And to make things interesting, we mixed the couples up so that we weren't teamed with spouses!!!

Wrecking Ball

{baseball or softball in this case, inside of pantyhose.  knocking down full bottles of water with the baseball, without using your hands.  it's a lot harder than it looks!!}

What a fun evening being out of character for a couple of hours and playing some greats games!!!  There were lots of laughs and lots of fun to be had!!  I hope this becomes an annual party!  It was too much fun not to!!

New Years Eve 2014!

This year's New Years Eve party was more about comfort and family than sparkly dress and big party!

 I rang in the New Year at my sister's house with some of our closest friends and a whole bunch of cousins.  I wanted to give this small event a little surprise and an activity that gets better as the night goes on, so what better way to do that than a photo booth!  I created a DIY photo booth with props and a backdrop that was easy and a big hit to make the night more memorable. 

There are lots of ideas on Pinterest for DIY Photo Booth backdrops and props but I kept it super easy with just some butcher paper as the backdrop.  (see my Parties! board on Pinterest for more ideas) 

Out of all of the free printable props I found on Pinterest, I liked these by Erin of Strawberry Mommycakes for I Heart Nap Time the best! 

I just downloaded the files, printed, cut them out, and attached them to some wood kabob sticks I already had lying around the kitchen. 

These are our props that we ended up with!

For the back drop, we just taped up two sheets of butcher paper, which can be found in huge rolls at your local hardware store.  It was taped directly to the wall with masking tape for easy removal.  We used a sharpie to print our title of choice directly onto the butcher paper.  (we double checked to be sure the Sharpie didn't bleed through!  It didn't!) 

We kept it simple with just "Happy New Year" and taped up some gold metallic balloons at the top.  We also used the Sharpie to write 2014 on the balloons.  

 

I also used the butcher paper to cover the bar top (easy clean-up).  This way you can write fun things on the paper, the name of the event, or even have guests write on the paper throughout the night.  I used it to label the food items with arrows!

 

We played some group games!

My niece celebrated her first NYE!

But overall, the Photo Booth was my favorite part of the night! Other than kissing my hubby at midnight! :-)

 

Next year we might have to make the backdrop a little bit bigger!  Some of my cousins are a little too tall for this one! 

 

The fun thing about a Photo Booth?  The pictures get more and more interesting as the night goes on!

Our Stay-at-Home New Years Eve 2014 Slumber Party was a hit! And the DIY Photo Booth made it just that much more memorable. 

Cheers to 2014!