Halloween Party

For Matthew's 5th Birthday we decided to do a Halloween themed party. His birthday is 2 weeks before Halloween. The year before I had bought a Frankenstein costume from Pottery Barn Kids for him to wear. I used it as my focus for the party. I asked all the kids to wear their costumes and some adults joined in the fun too! I decorated outside and inside the house. We had games for the kids to play; pumpkin toss, ghost bowling, mummy wrap & the pinata. Wait till you see that pinata! It's life like! Before it was hung in the tree it actually scared me twice because it looked so real!!! After the pinata we did cake and presents inside. Sorry this post is really long but it is mostly pictures. Also the pictures are all out of order, but it would have taken me forever to organize them...

The Frankenstein Cake!



This was the fireplace. I made this haunted house out of boxes and I was really happy with it. However, I didn't take a picture of it!!



We saved one present for the next morning because it was his actual birthday, but I included this picture because you can kind of see the haunted house back there behind him.

I stamped these candles.

all three candles on the candle holder with spider webs

I made the pennant banner with different Halloween papers and it said "Happy Boo Day Matthew"

I hung spider webs all on the ceiling in the dining room/ along with the spooky tree background

I got these Martha Stewart mice cutouts from Michael's, I loved how good they looked!

We have this chalkboard by the front door to write reminders on, so I wrote on for the party!

wooden bats hanging down as you go up the stair case

In the living room and the kitchen I cutout about 75 black bats from card stock and hung them with fishing wire from the ceiling

I decorated the downstairs 1/2 bathroom with spider webs, haunted houses, spiders & eyes on the wall. I also put black lights in place of the regular light bulbs to make it more spooky!

The blinking eyes & spiders {I also cut out by hand all of those spiders that you see on the walls!}

Spider webs

the vampire and witch that kept you company (pretty creepy with the black lights)

The haunted houses went all the way around as a border

the outside door of the bathroom

Frank in the kitchen

I made these scrap like pages and hung them on the wall. They showed Matthew's past Halloween costumes. I loved them & it was fun for everyone to see what he had been in the past.

I made these Frankenstein boxes and they held all the little party favors. {which included the home made Frankenstein tattoo}. Each child also got a motorized bubble blower & the boys got a lighted sword & the girls a lighted wand.

The cake table. I used cheesecloth for the table runner and had some colored spider rings all over.

I put candy in the mouth of the jack o lantern candy dish. My mom got the cake made at a local bakery & I made some mummy cupcakes. The cupcake stand was from Michael's. Matthew's aunt brought the witch cookies on a Frankenstein plate!

The Frankenstein pinata! Yes it is a pinata!

The backyard is where most of the party took place.

Mummy wrap game. We used rolls of toilet paper. The kids loved this game. I bought 4 rolls of tp at the $ store for a buck! Super cheap game!

My Biggest helpers!!!! My sister {the ladybug}, her friend Emilee {the bee} & my mom {the butterfly}

Ghost Bowling game! I just spray painted empty 2 litter bottles. {I'm not sure why I forgot to paint the 2 red lids :( }

Pumpkin toss! Just a carved pumpkin & my mom made me some Halloween bean bags

Decorations

The only picture of him in full costume!

The tree with the pinata

The cauldron had "fog" coming out of it, this was set up right as you enter the back yard

The food table

Here you can see more decorations on the fence along with Aunt Rosemary {her costume was so cute!}

On the tables I had 1 orange pumpkin jar & 1 green frankenstien with tea lights inside.

M&M Party

Carlos and I named our first child with the initials of MNM on purpose. {it's our favorite candy} HA HA! So when we were having Matthew we decided to do the same with his name. So I have always called him my little MnM. Well, once I started thinking about planning his 4th birthday I thought I'd ask for his input. Here is how the conversation went:

Me: "Matthew what kind of birthday party do you wanna have this year?"
Matthew: "A car's party!"
Me: "Ummmm, we did cars for your 3rd party...remember?!"
Matthew: "Yep!"
Me: "Well, we can't do it again!"
Matthew: "okay, an nnm party!" {and no I didn't type that incorrectly, he didn't say M&M correctly for a while...lol}
Me: "Really?!?! I hadn't thought of that! That just might be really cute!"
Matthew: "and I want to have a bowling party!"

So there it was! An M&M party at the bowling alley!! I went on my happy way and got after it! Now I NEVER expected to find actual M&M party supplies, but I did! I got it all on eBay! Of course! I do to much eBay shopping! Matthew's favorite color is green so he wanted the cake to be green and anything else that I could make green. I tried to tell him the green M&M is a girl but didn't care. The saddest part is I made these really cool "Personal Pinatas" for all of the kids & forgot to take a picture!! They took me soooo much time to make too! I made them round out of paper mache and they were about 6 inches big. They were all pull string. I painted them the colors of the M&M's so not everyone got the same color. Then I filled them with the party favors! The items that went inside were M&M notepads, M&M tattoos that I made, crayons, M&M stickers, a tube of M&M's and a few Halloween items {because his birthday is just 2 weeks before Halloween.} Oh they also got a bag of M&M cookies! Needless to say they went home sugared up! All they had to do with their personal pinatas was pull the strings at the bottom until they found the one that was the winner and opened the bottom to get all of their goodies! I am still so mad at myself for not getting a picture of those!

The kids got to bowl for an hour then pizza, cake & presents.

I made these centerpieces with these crate thingies that my sister in law gave me. I recovered them with M&M paper and then made those big M&M's out of colored foam paper.

Inside the crate was a M&M tin that I found at Michael's filled with M&M's.

My Granny made the cake, it was chocolate with mini M&M's baked inside! {My idea..ha ha} then I decorated it. I got that M&M dispenser free with something we ordered at work! I put some M&Ms in it.

See the ceramic plate in the background? Yep I made that just for Matthew to eat his cake on {just like I did his first birthday!}

The silver tins on the table had stickers that said thank you for coming to Matthew's 4th Birthday Party with the red and yellow m&m characters. Inside the tins was M&M's {of course} but they were printed on. They said Happy Birthday and Matthew is 4! I loved those personalized M&M's and they were a must for a M&M party!!

I couldn't believe I found those M&M candles and that there was exactly 4!!

I had a friend get my shirt at the M&M store in Vegas and then I made Matthew one to match! I loved his!!! I wish it still fit him!

I also made M&M characters to look like each child on m&m.com and made them into buttons to wear with their name on them. They all got them when they arrived and wore them at the party! You can see Matthew's in this picture and then Rylee's below.