If you ask me, I will tell you that Ingrid has been begging me for a Hallowe'en party for a long time. However, if you wanted me to tell the truth I would have to tell you that I have been collecting Hallowe'en "party things" for several years and this party was as much for me as it was for Ingrid.
I have been thinking about it for a while now and decided that three weeks after returning to work would be the perfect time to do it. No time like the present, right? So on Monday morning I started sending emails and texts to the moms of Ingrid's friends. Surprisingly, all but one were able to come on such short notice!
Derek and I worked all week in dribs and drabs to clean, organize and decorate. I kept it as simple as possible and got everything ready to go.
First we'll glitter some pumpkins. I was almost certain this would NOT turn out quite like the pictures in my head.
Ingrid tried very hard to help but pretty much the extent of what she accomplished was asking "How many more minutes 'til my party, Mom?" When the party is still 3.5 hours away that's a lot of asking.
Next on our party agenda was cookie decorating. I made my usual sugar cookies and cut them in Boo and pumpkin shapes. I planned to make my own icing, too, and dye it orange and purple but I lost time and energy. Derek came to the rescue when he brought home four tubs of ready made Betty Crocker. I should have coloured that stuff but I really didn't feel like whipping out the mixer at 1:00am and chance waking up some little people when I still had at least two hours worth of work to do.
Can you say excited?
The best way to tone down the excitement and make the day go a little faster is to give them something to do. Ingrid did a great job helping to prepare the fruit cups.
The calm before the storm.
And we're off! While Derek and Ingrid went to pick up Ingrid's friend Kiki, other guests started to arrive and within three minutes everyone was here and ready to go!
After a quick visit to Ingrid's room (why do little girls always want to see each other's rooms?) it was time to party.
First up, glittering pumpkins!
As I suspected it did not go according to my plans but they were remarkably controlled. Everyone told me I was crazy to give seven little girls free range with a few pounds of glitter and, I admit, I had visions of a fine layer of the stuff over our whole house for all eternity but that was not the case at all. They were very good.
Some girls were a little heavy handed on the glitter, though.
One of the best ways to get a bunch of girls to spill the beans is to get them busy. I learned a lot about what goes on in the classroom just from a few things they said. It was so fun to listen to them having real seven-year-old girl conversations.
Each and everyone of them was eager for praise and attention. If I complimented one girl's pumpkin I had to make sure I complimented all the others, too. They are so aware of everything.
I have to say, though, it was a little disheartening to hear how quickly they seemed to "go after" one little girl. One of the girls here today has a very different reality than Ingrid and some of her other friends. I won't go into details but I did witness some of it and let's just say, her life is on the hard side. She lives in a low-income rental with her mother and brother. She came into our house and ran around saying "I've never been in a house this big before!!" Immediately, one of the other girls picked up on that and said "You told us you were rich! How can you be rich and never have been in a big house before?" She brushed it off pretty handily but my heart instantly broke for her. I was so disappointed in that other girl, too. I know her hard-working and kind mother and she is usually such a nice girl. Maybe I'm just sensitive. Later, they all seemed to gang up on her again asking why she never went to their birthday parties. When Ingrid invited her, her mother contacted me and told me that she couldn't afford the presents so she doesn't go to parties. Of course, I couldn't say anything to the girls but I did my best to defend her, trying to deflect the meanness as much as I could. It makes me wary for my three little girls' future. It's going to be a rough ride, I think. For the record, that little girl is a very smart, sweet and charismatic little girl. She will go far in life, I am sure.
Anyway, back to the festivities...
We had one girl who only wanted to decorate one pumpkin and was done in 10 minutes making me wonder what the heck I was going to do with seven little girls for the rest of the day if they all followed suit. Everyone else, though, kept at it for a solid 45 minutes and I breathed a sigh of relief. We still had two hours and 15 minutes to kill.
Next on my agenda was cookie decorating but they wanted to go outside instead so... we did! We played witch hat ring toss and did some trampolining.
I loved this game! Regular $12 but I bought at Target's clearance last year for $2! I miss Target.
I didn't include a picture of anyone trampolining but it was a little overwhelming and quite a confidence boost for Ingrid to have so many little friends want to jump with her, "I want to jump with Ingrid! No, I want to jump with Ingrid!" and so on and so forth. It was a proud moment for me. Despite the things in her life that make her different, she sure does seem to have some nice friends who like her just the way she is.
They worked up an appetite outside and were ready for some snacks. I did not prepare enough. We had cheezies, fruit, cheese & crackers, yogurt, candy, juice and water.
They were a very good group of girls. Very entertaining.
What better time is there than in the middle of a Hallowe'en party to do imaginary snow angels?
Like I did last Hallowe'en, I rolled up the napkins and used those fake fangs as napkin rings. They were meant to be decoration only but OMG those girls reacted to them like I had given them each a brand new box of shopkins! They entertained themselves for a solid 30 minutes with them, pretending to be vampires, trying to eat their cheezies with them in their mouths...
Even Danica enjoyed them.
And for some reason, they all thought it would be a good idea to take their food to the floor, picnic styles. I don't get it but... whatever...
Soon enough they were ready to get their cookie on!
Elodie was as enthralled as she looks.
Danica sneaked her way into the mix and became an instant candy slot machine. I don't know how much candy she ended up eating but some of the girls thought it was cute when she would open her mouth and they could slip a candy right in.
It is no surprise that she is sitting next to Ingrid's friend Alexis. Alexis followed her around and carried her around for as long as Danica would let her and sometimes even when she wouldn't.
A couple of the girls thought it would be funny to eat the icing right from the bags! I know how they feel.
Note to self: Next time do not offer nerds. They are too tart for the sweetness of the cookies and icing. And, it's worth it to make your own icing. While this was easy and convenient it just wasn't as good as homemade.
The carnage.
Some of the girls ventured back out to the trampoline while others wanted to watch Hotel Transylvania or play upstairs in Ingrid's room.
Let me tell you... by the time three hours was up I was ready for it to be over despite some tears from our parting guests! You know it must have been a good time when...
A great time was had by all! Ingrid wants to know when the next party is. Sigh...
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