Need Help with Party Planning

Body Part Jell-o Molds - http://www.yankeehalloween.com/qwiggle.html#prod5

Eyeball Instructions / Recipes: http://www.pumpkinnook.com/shop/eyeballjellomold.htm

You can make a sheet cake and decorate it as a graveyard but I prefer cupcakes at parties. You put a graham cracker gravestone on each one (you can even write on them w/gel icing tubes). Use dry ice in the punch for spooky smoke. Gummy worms coming out of dirt (oreo cookies smashed up) on top of some of the cupcakes.
- A fun game for teens to play is putting a post it note on each person's back of a popular singer/actress (Demi Lovato, Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, Hillary Duff, Zack & Cody from the Suite Life etc and have everyone have to guess who they have by asking others yes or no question. For example, I could go up to someone and ask 1) am I female? 2) Am I a singer? 3) Am I on TV or movies? etc. Then the move on to the next person to ask their 3 questions. First person to guess their person on their post it note wins. Prizes can be a $5 gift card to Starbucks or Target, etc.

Hi. I recently saw this on the martha stewart show. Freeze water in two latex (powder free) gloves along with a plastic face mask(the beige ones that have no facial features or anything like that) filled with water. Cover the eyes and nose holes with duck tape on both sides of the mask to prevent the water from coming out. you can sit the mask in a bin with something soft to rest on like bubble wrap or a towel to keep its shape. When they are frozen completely take them out of the gloves and mask and lay them face up in a large bowl of punch. This actually looks pretty cool when you see it. She also made icecubes with radishes frozen inside of them. She peeled them first and left a little of the pinkness on the radishes to look like bloodshot eyes, used a knife to cut out a hole, then stuffed each one with a half of a green olive (cut side out). Hope these help. Sounds like it's going to be a fun party!

I love Halloween! This year DH and I are throwing our 6th annual costume party. Our menu includes bug and eyeball pizza - we will order cheese pizza then add bugs - calamata olives with rosemary leaves for legs and eyeballs - small balls of fresh mozzerela cheese with a slice of pimento olive on it. To drink we will have shrunken heads in cider http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/shrunken-heads-in-cider?
a couple of my past favorites have been bone bread sticks - make (or buy frozen) bread dough, roll into sticks and tie knots in the ends before baking. Serve with blood (marinara sauce) Baked dip in a small pumpkin ( scoop the pumpkin out and bake until it's hot all the way through then add dip and bake) Worms in dirt - make chocolate pudding top with crushed oreos and gummi worms.
For decorations try michaels. I was there today and they have halloween decorations for 40 - 60 % off. Also, party stores generally start marking down halloween stuff about now.

Dry ice in room temp apple juice!!!! You only need 2-3 pounds of it. Use an oven mitt to pick up pieces and drop it into the apple juice and it will make lots of fog -- very fun to watch. We even did this with Hawaiian punch poolside for a "Twilight" pool party this summer using a clear pitcher. When I used to serve it at Halloween, I'd put the juice into a plastic cauldron. It carbonates the juice by the end of the night, making it taste like Martinellis.
The dirt cake is also fun -- you can make it into a graveyard. Basically it's like a pudding with cookie crumbs on top -- then you can use Milano cookies as headstones, add plastic spiders....
And a fun game for that age group is to tell a spooky story and pass around items -- in the dark.... like... Joe went for a long walk to the graveyard, but on his way he fell into an open grave... These are Joe's brains (and pass cold spaghetti), eyeballs (peeled grapes), Liver (can do the real thing - ewww!), these are the worms feasting on Joe's body (gummy worms), you get the idea. I'm sure you'll think of a better story!....

Hi Lisa Marie-

Try looking on www.kraftfoods.com for great recipes. I use the site for all kinds of recipes and they are always so easy.

As for games, musical chairs is always a hit at our house. For some reason the kids love it. Or do a 2 team shout-out game of Halloween or Twilight trivia. Also, you could do a version of Pictionary using large white boards (cheap at Wal-Mart) and have them draw Halloween themed pictures.

Good luck to you.
C.

At my daughter's 11th birthday party the kids really enjoyed the punch - pineapple juice/ginger ale/vanilla ice cream/raspberry sherbet. We also used spray fabric paint to decorate t-shirts. Good-luck. Michele

Lisa Marie,
When I was in college, I lived with two guys and we had tons of parties. One Halloween, we got extra large black garbage bags and cut them so they were one big piece. We stapled them to the walls and ceilings and put a strobe light in one of the corners. We hung apples from string (on the ceilings) and put them around the rooms. We also hung spiders, webs and skeletons.
It wasn't too expensive (college student budget) and it looked really cool!
You could also get dry ice and put it in a bowl of water to make smoke and put spooky music on as well.

For recipes, the old wet spaghetti noodles in a bowl always worked good for "worms," peeled grapes with red food coloring for "Eye-balls," etc. There is also the classic kitty litter cake. I'm sure you can find the recipe on google.
Hope this helps!

YOu can always check out the Dollar Store for cheap Halloween plates and napkins. There may even be large Halloween bowls or other decorating items. You never know until you look. I was watching Food Network and they have some neat and easy ideas for food. Check out foodnetwork.com

Hey Lisa - if you go to http://www.kraftfoods.com/kf/Pages/home.aspx
it has a whole bunch of stuff that you can make for halloween! I didn't look through everything, but there is lots of stuff on there that you could make for your daughters party that would be fun and easy! I hope that you have a great time at your party!

Here is a website for teen party games: http://parentingteens.about.com/od/birthdays/a/birthdaypa...

I also like www.partygamecentral.com which has games for all ages, indoor/outdoor, teams/individual etc.

Try this link. Adults will like this food as well.

http://www.tastefullysimple.com/Cultures/en-US/Recipes/Si...

You brought back a great memory of a halloween party my folks gave for us kids as teens. Some of the things you can do... peel grapes and put them in a dish as eyeballs... spaghetti cooked as worms. They did a haunted house in the garage... so it was dark and you would feel these things with an imagination. I remember we bobbed for apples. The best part though was my mom told this scary ghost story and my dad came in the back door quietly and hollered and scared the carp out of everyone. It was a great party. Thanks for the memories.

If there are no boys at the party, you could get a poster of the heart throb from Twilight and play a version of "pin the tale on the donkey". Instead of pinning, the girls at my daughter's 14 year old bday party kissed the poster. Sounds strange but they were laughing their heads off. You can also do some wierd "Fear factor" things by filling various containers with everything from gummy worms to roughly chopped cucumbers and daring them to put their hands in while blindfolded. If it's edible, they have to eat it, ie mini chicken apple sausages could be fingers. Gross but appropriate to Halloween.

Hi there, My dughter does a great party at Halloween every year. I will share some of her ideas.
1. get balloons from the dollar store they are a cheap way to decorate and are fun for the kids to bat around.
2. she makes those pigs in blankets only that night she cuts them much smaller and they becoem fingers ( I hate it but the kids love it) she also makes small hamburgers look like spiders.
3.We clean out a large pumpkin and use it for the punch bowl -- then it can be tossed out.
4. give each kid a pumpkin or have each kid bring one of their own and have a carving contest -- it keeps teens busy for some time and they have a blast with the stringy stuff.
Have fun, Nana( I have 5 children but I think being Grandma is the greatest thing everto our little ones)

Go online to Family Fun magnazine. They always have great ideas.