Happy Halloween!

I promised party pictures and I've got pictures.  It was a long day of prep(2 parties and all) so I abdicated the role of picture taker to Computer Genius.  Luckily, he loves to take pictures, and snapped some great ones.  Here's Snuggle Bunny all dressed up and ready for the party to start.

I sewed this costume for Whirling Dervish years ago and remember swearing a few times working with the gold lame` fabric for the quilted boots and belt.  Snuggle Bunny liked the costume so much that he slept in it(without the hooded helmet) and is still wearing it right now.

The first thing that guests do when they arrive is crawl through the tunnel behind SB and make their way to the mad scientist's laboratory(SB's room.)  That crawl through the tunnel is made icky because the yarn you see hanging in the tunnel has been moistened ahead of the party.

The resident Mad Scientist has been working away on crazy bubbling experiments.

One of WD's friends played the part of our Mad Scientist to crazy perfection.  Unfortunately CG didn't get a pic of him.  The Mad Scientist was assisted by Igor, standing by the plasma ball.

The Mad Scientist and Igor have just flipped the switch to awaken the creature they've been working on.  "It's Alive!!"

They will soon need to chain this monster up with the bogeyman in the closet.

Remember when I reorganized SB's closet in my first post here. Rearranging things so that he could reach all of the storage and could put away his own clothes left tons of space at the top of his closet to house this ghoul.

When guests leave the Mad Scientist's Lab, they pass by the Dining Room with the food tables set up.  Here's one of the food tables.

Alongside the bloody eyeballs that I showed you all here, I served brain cupcakes, spiderweb and tombstone cupcakes, bloody octopi(hot dogs,) nutty ghosts(stuffed phyllo dough,) meringue bones, mummy toes(puff pastry wrapped cocktail weiners,) cheesy bats(quesadillas cut to shape,) ghost pops, jello jigglers, rat pellets(mixed nuts,) vampire fangs(cheese triangles,) hunks of flesh(pepperoni,) crusty booger balls(a coconut, almond confection,) and frankenstein mousse cups.

Passing the DR, guests make their way through the kitchen that I showed off here.  This cheerleader needed to show off her costume before heading down to the haunted cavern that you toured here.

Behind her, you can see the archway we constructed to partition off the "business" side of the kitchen from the decorated eat in part of the kitchen.  We replaced most of our lightbulbs with flickering, red, or black bulbs, but I still needed to be able to see while working in the kitchen and the false stone wall was our solution.

Here's our Scariest Costume winner heading down to the Haunted Cavern.

Yes, our stairs are really that scary looking.  We have reclaimed wood treads that we plan on rebuilding the staircase with.  Look for that upcoming project sometime this winter.

The guests enjoyed several carnival style prize bucket type games.  Here's one playing the ball drop game.

 And here's SB first in line for the Bean Bag Toss.  WD was running this game.  He didn't dress up for the party, but will be donning a costume tonight to go trick-or-treating.

We played a number of larger prize-everybody plays type games, too.  Parents love watching the kids play Mummy Wrap.

I buy the cheap, scratchy toilet paper once a year just for this game.

They also played Pass the Pumpkin which is basically Hot Potato played with a pie pumpkin.

SB was the first one out of this game.  But none of the first kids to be bumped seemed to mind.

The pirate to the left of SB won the Judges Choice costume award.  His hat(not worn in this pic) had Jack Sparrow hair attached to it and was just a great looking costume.

Here are our other two costume award winners.  The kitty cat won Most Creative.  We felt that it was important for Most Creative to go to a homemade costume.  The ladybug fairy won Most Adorable.  My co-judge refused to vote for her because she's her mom, but as host I got to override her.  Because really have you ever seen anyone cuter?

The last big game we played was balloon stomp.  For those who aren't familiar with this game, it's very loud and chaotic and the perfect thing to do before sending the kids home.

The kids all had a great time and I think the parents did, too.  Here's a pic of everyone waiting their turn to hit the pinata.

After all of the kids left(except a couple who's parents were attending the adult party,) I made a quick wardrobe change and put out the food for the next party.  I was a "good witch" for SB's party and a "bad witch" for the later party.  Unfortunately I don't seem to have any pics of me in costume.  I had made more mummy toes as well as bones(ribs,) and bat wings(3-part chicken wings,) ahead of time that just needed to be popped into the oven.  I also put out the pumpkin swirl cheesecake and pecan pie tartlets that I had made ahead here and here, a crudite platter arranged in skeletal fashion, and shrimp in cocktail sauce molded into a brain shape.

My good friend was up from Manhattan for the weekend.  She came early to help out.  Normally a vampire, she couldn't find her fangs so came as Tinkerbell.

That's all I have from the evening, because when the last kid left, CG set down the camera and picked up a beer.  But it's really no big loss.  Kids in costume are way better in pics, than adults as Village People, rednecks, pregnant brides, etc.

Thanks for popping in and checking out SB's party.  I'm linking up to Kitchen Bouquet's Flashback Friday, Just a Girl's Show & Share Day, The Tablescaper's Seasonal Sunday, and Under the Table & Dreaming's Sunday Showcase.

*Editorial Note* I had a devil of a time getting this post out today.  WD had a lacrosse game today, then Blogger lost my whole post past the 2nd pic and I had to rewrite the whole thing and I'm not sure why the group pic is so squished, it looks normal if you right click on it.