Homemade Halloween Party Ideas

October is my birthday month.....and when I found out that I was due in November with my son.....I KNEW THAT HALLOWEEN BIRTHDAY PARTIES WOULD BE A PART OF MY WORLD!!!!! This was possibly the most exciting news ever!!!!!

I have been lucky enough that my kids LOVE halloween as much as I do...and totally support my craziness to make sure that it is a blast!

Collin has had two Halloween birthday parties, and we just may plan one again this year.  I know that it is a little early...but anyone planning a Halloween party this year is probably on the hunt for ideas already....and I love sharing party ideas.

I am sure there are a billion amazing ideas on pinterest now...but these parties were planned prior to pinterest.....and 100% homemade party fun!  While I LOVE pinterest....I do miss having parties where the ideas were all mine, and nobody had ever seen them before.

Collin's 5th Birthday Bash

We (meaning I made them and my kids just told me what they wanted and drew pictures of how it should look) made all of the costumes this year and I think they turned out super cute.  Kacey was Ariel, Collin was Batman, My dad was Robin, I was Captain Hook, Chad was Mr. Smee, and My mom was a witch!  I LOVE THAT EVERYONE GETS INVOLVED!!!!!!!

Collin was beyond happy that my dad and him had matching costumes again! 

I may or may not have pretended the party was my birthday party as well! 

Party Games: 

Crafts: Flower pens for the girls, and vampire teeth for the boys

Dance Party/Freeze Dance:  There are halloween radio stations on pandora that crank out festive tunes ALL NIGHT LONG!  

Spoon Race: I painted golf balls to look like eyeballs, and we broke the kids up into two teams.  They had a great time running back and fourth and cheering on their buds.

Story In GraveYard:  This was my favorite part of the night!  My mom was a teacher and seriously kills it on her witch voice!  You could hear a pin drop because they were all a little spooked out! ha!

We had crafts for the kids.  The girl's made flower pens (just wrapping a pen with washi tape to attach a fake flower) and the boys colored vampire candy teeth.  I try to always have a craft because it MAKES the kids sit down and get their shyness out so that they can get silly for the rest of the evening. Seems to work! 

Collin's all time favorite game....FREEZE DANCE!  We had halloween dance party music and there was a LOT of jumping and screaming.  Soooo stinking cute! 

Collin wanted to have spoon races with golf balls that I painted to look like eyeballs.  

Once it got dark, my mom sat in a rocking chair in our "graveyard" and read "There Was An Old Woman Who Swallowed A Bat" in her spooky voice.  THE KIDS SAT SOOOO QUIETLY AND LOVED IT!!!!!!! 

We passed out these bags of snacks for the kids to eat while they listened to the story.

Our graveyard. ha!  We used a tomato plant stand, a ball for the head, and just loaded it up with lights. 

Awful picture, but we saved milk containers forever and added lights and painted whatever collin wanted on them in black paint.  

Collin's 4th Birthday Bash

Collin wanted to be a bat...not batman...but a REAL bat! This was my favorite costume I have ever made!  These two crack me up! 

Kacey was Fashion Barbie and we sewed this entire costume together.  She LOVED the whole process, and so did I!

Before you could buy this costume, Chad and I made our own Where's Waldo gear!  Let's just say that finding a red turtle neck in Florida is NOT easy! 

This kid cracks me up!

I remember thinking how big he looked in this picture!  Now I am planning his 8th Birthday party WISHING I could go back and snuggle this little 4 year old! 

Party Games: 

Mummy Wrap: everyone grabbed a partner and tried to wrap them so that you couldn't see their costume at all. THIS IS NOT EASY! TOILET PAPER RIPS! 

Freeze Dance: Always a must for any of Collin's parties! 

Pumpkin Patch: I don't know why I can't find pictures of it....but we had a pump patch in the corner of our yard.  I purchased little pumpkins and let the kids each pick one and they decorated them with stickers, glitter glue, and ribbons.   I wanted to do paint, but it was a few days before Halloween and I didn't want everyone to ruin their costumes before the big night!

Dance Party: If there is Halloween music on....kids will dance!  We just let them break it down!

 Dance Party

Picking his pumpkins to decorate

My kids were so excited about Halloween that they were cutting and coloring pumpkins all month. We decided to tape them on the wall and and the kids LOVED it!

Bats....who doesn't want bats up their walls?! (it annoyed me then, but you can see that Kacey put her bat stickers on the wall as well....now it makes me miss my babies!)

 Halloween is the PERFECT time to let your kids have a party!  They are super cheap, the costumes are the best part of the night!  The music makes EVERYONE feel like dancing!  Parents have just as much fun drinking wine/beer and feeling like a kid again! Just do it......your kids will remember it forever!