Candy Crawl Historic Downtown Concord 2012

This was the second year that we attended the candy crawl in downtown Concord, NC. All the downtown businesses handed out candy to all of the costumed kids. The event started at 3pm. So we decided to get the kids out of school early. Last year we got there a little after 4 and some of the businesses had already ran out of candy. This year I wanted to get there right at 3 when it would all start.

Started the candy crawl off at the court house, of course! The Cabarrus County Sheriff's Office had Detention Officers and Deputies handing out candy. The Sheriff himself was even there! I wish they had a few of the DARE officers out there. Kids would have loved that!

The kids got candy, popcorn, balloons, and of course business cards. The kids even got to play a few games. This is a great way for the businesses to get  involved in the community. I am more likely to support a business if it is a community minded. 

After walking the downtown we went trick or treating at the historical downtown homes. Most of the homes had incredible decorations up!

The kids had a blast! Can't wait for next year!

 

Trick or Treating at Cross Country Campground

This was our first year to go trick or treating at a campground. Our family friends invited us to Cross Country Campground in Denver, NC. We live about an hour away so I didn't know if it was going to be worth the drive up there. Turned out to be the BEST Halloween event we have been too!

First we went all around the campground trick or treating. Most of the campsites went all out with decorating!! The kids loved it! They also loved riding around in a golf cart. Earlier that day the campground did a golf cart parade. We didn't get there early enough for that. 

All that riding around made us hungry so we went back to my friends campsite and had some of her chile that she had been cooking all day. She cooked it in a cast iron camp oven for 6 hours! Oh my was it good! 

For the end of the night celebration the campground had a Halloween costume contest at their activity building. They had music, dancing, and everyone from the campground brought finger foods to share.

We got on the dance floor and had a blast dancing with the kids. Then they had the costume contest. It was done by ages. Bryson who is 5 years old got in the top 10! He was a punk vampire. The cutest punk vampire I have ever seen! :) 

Bethany made top 5 in her age group. And Bryan won 3rd place for his age group! 

Wish I had video of him dancing! First he was walking like an old person then broke out dancing! One of the funniest things I have ever seen!

Here are a few of my favorite photos from that night.....

We will be going back next year!

Brianna & Bryson's Spook-tackler Birthday Party

We had a Fabulous time at Brianna & Bryson's birthday party. I have to say it might have been the biggest party yet! There was a total of 14 kids all dressed up in their Halloween costumes. Almost to the point of overwhelming, but not. We had good food, great cake, and some really fun games!

I allowed Brianna and Bryson both to invite 7 friends each. We had a problem with Brianna's school not letting her pass out her invitations at school. Even if we did pass one out to everyone in her class, policy says no. So I asked Brianna to get phone numbers so I could call the parents. But just imagine getting a 6 year old  getting phone numbers with names, didn't work. So ended up with her secretly handing them out on the bus and before school. 

A lot of the party ideas came from Pinterest. Love, Love, Love that website! All kinds if game ideas, food ideas, and decoration ideas.

 

When the guest arrived Bethany and her friend, Cami, would take them to the "Guess how many candy corn"   table so they could guess how many candy corn was in the bottle. I used a big coffee creamer bottle. Worked out great! 

Next we ate bbq, mac & cheese, crackers, cheese, cheese balls....can you tell that my kids LOVE cheese? I bought the big container of cheese balls. I painted a pumpkin face on one side. I also bought orange soda, took the wrapper off and painted a pumpkin face on them too. I was super cute and super easy! Looking back I wish I would have had grapes. Or some kind of fruit or vegetables. Oh well, it was a party right?

Next game the games! Found a potato sack race game at party city. Kids really enjoyed doing this. Even the big kids! (talking about the husbands) 

The winners got to pick out of the Halloween treasure box I got from oriental trading. Well worth the money!

Next game was pin the nose on the pumpkin. Found at walmart for $.50. Kids enjoyed this game, but took forever to get through all the kids. It was hard to choose just one winner, so I just let all the kids pick out of the treasure box.

We of course had to have a pinata! I found this at goodwill! I'm a bargain  hunter, and found that if I look at goodwill and party city at the end of September I can find some great deals! Everyone enjoyed beating the candy out of the ghost! :)

CAKE TIME!! I did a flat cake with a gingerbread haunted house on top. I also make cupcakes and put a topper kid zombie topper on them. Turned out really cute! My kids enjoyed doing the gingerbread haunted house.

After the kids filled up on the cake and cupcakes we did presents. This was a very hectic time. I wanted to get a picture of the Brianna and Bryson with the person who gave them a gift. Its a lot easier when one child is opening gifts. I will have to find a better way to organize this part of the party. 

   

For the thank you gifts we handed out a little bag of marshmallows that looked like ghost and the guest also got a big balloon that we had hung up in the tent for decoration. Killed two birds with one stone! 

All in all it turned out to be a very fun, Spook-tackler Party! I'm sure this is going to be a party that the kids will never forget!

So super excited to share Bethany's 9th birthday party that we are going to have this Friday! This is going to be so fun for her and her friends. It's a "Spalicious Party" We are heading to Cassandra's Family Salon and Day Spa in Concord, NC. 

The girls are going to be treated to a fabulous two-hour private spa fête, including hair jewelry -- think feathers, tinsel, or extensions -- a glamorous hairstyle, an express facial, a manicure with choice of color and design, plus karaoke or an open dance floor, and party music! What more could a little girl want! Makes me want to have my 39th birthday party there, lol! 

The only thing that I have to do is provide the refreshments and  cupcakes. How easy is that! Well anybody that knows me knows that I just can't do the bare minimum. So I came up with some great ideas for refreshments and party favors.  

First I thought that Bethany was going to have a sleep over. So I bought some tie-dye drawstring backpacks that came with the matching eye mask. Very cute and found at a great price! Bethany and I headed to the wonderful Dollar Tree store to get some other goodies. We found little blue plastic tubs, 4 for $1, fun glittery glasses, lip shaped whistles, and a pedi/medi kit.Spent right under $15 for all those items. (not including the backpacks) Gotta love the Dollar Tree store! Oh I also found chap stick on clearance at Target, (another favorite store of mine) . And came across some silly bands when they went on clearance that I threw in there.

Items that went into the basket. Also had lip whistles that are not  in the picture. 

Used the eye mask to hold all the goodies in the basket.

Can't see the backpack, but it is in the bottom.

I came up with a label to go on the gift baskets. That was super easy, used microsoft office to create it. I had card stock on hand to print it out on. It's nice when you already have some supplies like the card stock and ribbon I used on the drink bottles. Let me show you the drink bottles. Found this idea on pinterest.com. So LOVE that website!

This is Bethany's favorite drink! 

 I must pat myself on the back for how darn cute they turned out!  

And I'm so darn excited to get everything else together and ready for Friday! I will for sure be blogging more about how this party turns out. I must say that it is so much fun being a mommy!! Best blessing EVER!! 

Till next time Blog World!