The Weekend in Pictures: Halloween costume party.

We had a little costume party for Evie and some of her friends. We decided to host one a little last minute, sadly a few of our friends and their kids couldn’t make it. Next year if we do another one, we plan farther ahead. It had been a little while since we had everyone get together, and all these kids are growing up much to fast. I love having our home filled with people, and especially all the noise that comes from there being multiple kids playing and running around. The night before I finished decorating some pumpkin shaped sugar cookies, and the morning of I made a rice crispy treat. You can make rice crispy squares festive for any occasion by just adding sprinkles in coordinating colours. I found ones that were orange and green with black spiders! I also made my hot artichoke and spinach dip. Jason said that it was my best dip to date, the perfect amount of spinach to cheese to garlic ratio. I think I have this recipe mastered now. I still love the fact that even Evie will take scoops of it and has no idea she is eating spinach and artichoke.

I have become a huge fan of paper straws, they are just a fun way to add some colour and whimsy to a party. (I’m currently on the hunt for fun ones for Evie’s 2nd birthday party, as well as cutlery… maybe bamboo cutlery?) We also just recently let Evie try juice for the first time. She’s had pure juice from fruit before, but never a juice box. I found these awesome ones from Extra Foods that are from their own product line. They don’t taste like pure sugar when you drink them, in fact they actual just taste like an apple squashed into a box.

I drew up a couple jack-o’-lantern pictures and set out crayons for the kiddos on our coffee table. I was really impressed with how all the kids enjoyed taking a break from playing with toys, and having a bit of down time by colouring for a bit. Then they’d be off and running again, but would always come back to colour. I guess kids and crayons really do just go hand in hand. Random side note… my Dad has this wooden table that is covered in our hand prints. Each birthday we’d get to trace our hand print onto it. I think I want a piece of furniture that my kids can draw on or trace their hand prints on and not get in trouble.

Toys of course were the big hit. It’s always fun for kids to go visit else where and play with different items. The kitchen set was a huge hit. I felt spoiled at the end of the night because my friend’s daughter didn’t want to put her shoes on and leave until she had put everything back into the kitchen and it was nice and organized. Oh bless her, that was such a little gift to me and she has no idea.

We learned from Evie’s birthday party to not have a bunch of balloons out, the kids went a little crazy over them. This time we waited til near the end and we put glow sticks inside these bright neon coloured balloons we found at Target. We turned the lights off for a little bit so they could see that they glowed. They loved shaking the balloons to hear the sound of the glow stick getting bounced around inside. The balloons were kicked all over our home.

As you can see there were of course costumes on all the kiddos. We had Elsa, Olaf, and Sven from Frozen. My friend Georgia actually made the Elsa costume, and modified a bear snow suit to be Sven. Brilliant, and so creative for doing a family themed costume. There was a super cute green dinosaur with a tale that wiggled when he walked. Evie picked between two costumes we have for her and went with Tinkerbell.

It was just a fun evening spent with friends, and all our kids. I really want to do more fun little get togethers more often. This party reminded me that all our kids are growing up really fast. I want to make more time to hang out with everyone too.

Evie’s face was covered with a permanent grin by the end of the evening, she did have a little melt down moment when we wouldn’t let her eat any more nacho chips with spinach dip, but that smile. That smile made it all worth it. The crazy race to make sure our home was clean, groceries were bought, food was made, all worth it. She was so happy to see all her friends. She loves all of them, and loves all her honorary aunties and uncles. She went to bed that night a very happy little girl.

I am now really looking forward to this Friday, having a family dinner and going out trick-or-treating.