Black and Orange Halloween Party

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A Halloween Party for Families
I was SO excited to get this party started and share it with all of you! My husband and I love to entertain our family and friends. I don’t know why, but we have since we’ve been married. Consider us the party people! {lol} And what a better excuse than a PRE-Halloween bash!?!

Okay, so the real purpose of our little party was actually to introduce our new babysitting co-op. I got tired of trying to find a babysitter every weekend and quite honestly, it was getting expensive. My dear cousin, Rebecca, gave me all the details of their babysitting co-op down in Arizona and I couldn’t WAIT to get started! No more paying for babysitters unless we are absolutely desperate. I immediately reeled in my sweet friend, Vanessa, and my brother, Collin, and their respective families. I wanted to start out smaller so that we could get it all figured out. Thus, the real purpose of our Black and Orange party was to introduce Collin and Vanessa’s families.

Babysitting Co-op:  How a co-op works is that each couple takes turns throughout the month trading off babysitting. We chose 2 other families with 2 children each. So when it’s our turn to babysit, we’ll take their 4 children plus our two for the Friday evening that we are scheduled. It’s a 4 hour “shift” with all of the kids (5pm to 9pm). Once the children arrive it is VERY scheduled for our sanity and so the kiddos stay out of trouble. They play for an hour when they first arrive, have dinner the second hour, with a movie at the end of the night. The gives each of us 3 couples 1 night of babysitting duty and 2 free date nights. After everyone is settled into a schedule, we might look to add more families. This is just a thought for those of you out there finding yourselves in the same predicament.
Scary Kari’s Evil Brew 
 
Mwahaha! These are actually Stewart’s orange cream sodas. I simply printed out “Scary Kari’s Evil Brew” onto orange card stock and placed it over Halloween printed scrapbook paper then used double stick tape to make the label. Super easy! Oh, and the “Scary Kari” name was something a peer called me in grade school. Nice that I can make it into a joke all these years later. Kinda catchy, don’t ya think?
This recipe was such a hit! It took a little bit of time to make, but it turned out adorable. Your kids will absolutely love the fish swimming around in there and the worm around the spoon.
Melon Brain
This actually was a little more time consuming than I thought, which I should have realized. Hello. Making a brain out of a watermelon? It’s gonna take a couple of hours to make something that awesome. The kids loved it though! They watched the entire time in absolute fascination. It turned out really good. If you click on the link about, Family Fun has an actual video that you can watch on how to make your own Melon Brain!
 Eerie Eyeballs
Dried apples, apricots, and raisins.
 Eyes-of-Newt
I’m going to go ahead and say this…these were NOT my favorite so I’m not even going to list the recipe for them. {LOL} I thought these would be cool, but honestly they were the most expensive dish I made, they tasted BLAH, and they didn’t turn out cute like Betty Crocker’s did. In fact. The majority of them were left over and we threw them out.
 
 Crusty Mummy Fingers
(AKA Sweet Potato Fries)
These are really good! Better than any of us thought they would be. Your kids will love them and so will your spouse. I would definitely put these on your list to make. Not to mention, they are really easy!
 
  Spooky Party Sandwiches
Okay, we all know that I am a Fred Meyer fan… and I love their bakery section. They have every kind of bread that your heart could desire and your brain could think up. It’s awesome! I found this de-lish bread there and picked up 2 different kinds of deli meat, provolone cheese, alfalfa sprouts, and stuck a tooth pick through each one. You can wrap up the leftovers in parchment paper and re-pierce them with the toothpick to send home with your guests.
 
 Ghoolish Goodie Bags
These were really fun for the kids to take home. I just grabbed some fun grab bag toys at Walmart (vampire teeth, ball paddles, eyeball glasses, etc). We divided those up with what candy was left over and voila! Fun bags for the kids.
 
 Spooky Candy
I found this darling idea off of eighteen25.blogspot.com. I loved how she set hers up, but I don’t have an endless supply of money to make mine that adorable. I just used containers that I already had around and made do. The kids loved having the candy on display, I think it adds a fun sense of wonder for them. Just typed up some cutesy labels and slapped them on some Halloween scrapbook paper. Nothin’ to it!
    
This is my family recipe that goes way back to my growing up years. The BEST part about this recipe…it’s addicting! I can eat the entire bowl without any assistance. I love it this time of year and I have many of my friends request that I make it for them. It is delightful.
¾ c. white sugar
¾ c. brown sugar
½ c. light corn syrup
½ c. water
½ tsp. white vinegar
¼ tsp. salt
¾ c. butter (add after mixture has boiled to soft ball stage)
8-10 c. popcorn, popped and de-seeded
Boil sugars, syrup, water, vinegar and salt over medium heat. Gook until it reaches soft ball stage (Soft ball stage means when you boil the mixture until it is syrupy then pour a ¼ tsp into a cold glass of water — You will be able to form a soft ball with the caramel at the bottom of the glass.) Add butter, then stir until well blended. Pour over popcorn. Make sure that you de-seed the popcorn! It is not fun to try and eat caramel corn and get corn seeds crunched in your teeth. Ouch!

I would just like to give a special thank you to my dear friend, Vanessa. Without her help this party would NOT have happened. I became very ill a few hours before our party started and she came to my rescue. Thank you sweet Vanessa for all your hard work! You are amazing!

Enjoy!

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Black & Orange Party Recipes

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Kari

I am a very outgoing person that loves spending time with my family and friends. I have a thirst for knowledge, I am completely at home in the kitchen, and my biggest passion in life is snow skiing. I've been married to my sweetheart for 15 years and we have 3 children. I also love to travel!

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Recent Comments

  1. So excited for you to get some FREE babysitting! Makes date night tons more fun when you are spending money on your honey, and not on a babysitter. 😉 Keep up the great ideas – Love you! (From a certain nameless cousin from AZ who just might be online while several kiddos are watching a movie next to me on a friday night!)

  2. Oh, Beth, I do understand that! That is a tough situation! Do you have anyone that you can switch with rather than do a co-op? I sure hope so! Any reason to get out with your spouse, right? 😉

  3. Oh, I wish we could find some people to co-op babysit with. But my friends have some very… "active" friends. And the ones that would really work out live FAR away.