Happy Halloween!

I know, I know. I sucked at blogging this month. Quite a let down after the September of blogging awesomeness. I'm going to try and do better in November.

We had an awesome Halloween party at our place on Friday, complete with 13 babies in costume. Now that's scary! Here's a couple of shots from the party...

Kiddos and mamas

Good grief

What fun! The party was an absolute blast. Here's a quick run-down on what we did...

Theme: Halloween (duh).

Decor: I didn't want to do anything too scary, so we did lots of pumpkin decor with black and orange accents. I got some awesome 10-foot paper buntings on clearance at Michaels for $2.99 each, which we strung up all over the house. I love the whimsical look of buntings. They are festive, without being cheesy. They are my go-to decor item for almost any party.

Halloween buntings

I splurged on a black and orange pumpkin table cloth at Target for $14.99. I'm sure you could go today and get the exact same table cloth for pennies, but I just had to buy it for the party. It looked so cute on the table, and really helped set the mood.

Crafty and spooky

My mother-in-law, sister-in-law and I also made these really cool mason jar lanterns for the table center piece. They were really easy to do. We just covered mason jars with tissue paper and Mod Podge, then glued on paper faces and ribbon trim. They looked adorable on the table all lit up.

I also had my regular fall decor out and about, which was really fun to do this year. I have not one, but two mantles to play with at our new house! So I did maple leaf garland, pumpkins and candles on one mantel, and tall fall florals in hurricane vases on the other mantel. I think they turned out really darling.

Fall florals

Pumpkins and garland

The candles pictured above are flameless candles from Target. They look really real when they're lit up! They flicker and everything. I love that I don't have to worry about the hot wax or flame with Will.

Food: The food for this party was so much fun. For the kids, I did "frightening" fruit salad (mango, kiwi and grapes) and "jack-o-lantern" pitas (pitas topped with hummus and fresh veggies).

For the adults, I made lemon-rosemary chicken wings (my mom's recipe), mini pumpkin pies, caramel apple bites (bite-size apple pieces topped with caramel drizzle and toffee pieces), and of course the standard cheese and antipasto platters. A friend also brought a dairy and nut-free spiced apple cake that was an absolute hit. We served sparkling apple cider, beer, soda and water to drink.

Devilishly delicious

Favors: My mother-in-law had these little two piece pumpkins that snap together, so we stuffed each pumpkin cup with two animal finger puppets. Since the cups were free (thank you, Julie!), I only had to buy the finger puppets (20 for $9.99 on Amazon). Not to shabby!

Halloween surprise inside!

I actually forgot to pass out the favors at the party (of course), but I'll be getting them to the kids in the coming days/weeks. Will's really into finger puppets lately, so I hope they like them too!