Hallow'een Party!

We had a brillinat time yesterday with our Hallow'een party. We invited Harry's NCT buddies(3 other children, J, E and A) and their parents. This included baby S who is only 7 days old today! So tiny, I can't even remember when my snuggly little bear was that tiny and it was only 5 months ago! We also invited our next door neighbour, G who is 16 months and came with his daddy.

The older toddlers had a grand old time playing with balloons and toys in the lounge, they were really good and as there were lots of adults we were able to take playing with them in turn. Meanwhile other adults chatted in the kitchen, eyeing up the buffet!

We decided not to do any organised games this year, as, in my opinion they are a little young at 2 1/2. We did, however, have sparklers (for the adults to hold) at the end of the evening and they enjoyed a run around the darkening garden.

On to the food...
I made spooky spider chocolate cupcakes with a minty buttercream icing:

Pumpkin cupcakes - these were supposed to be ACTUAL pumpkin cakes from the hummingbird recipe book, but I failed at making roast pumpkin puree so they were vanilla with orange glace icing and a small green buttuercream stalk.

Gingerbread skeletons - recipe courtesy of Mama Owl and including baby skeletons decorated by Ian!

 

Shaped sandwiches (ham bats, tuna spiders and cheese ghosts)

Sausage spiders - These are simply half a sausage taken out of its skin and rolled into a ball with half-twiglets for legs! I used to make these as a kid and they are really effective!

We also had spooky crisps and some un-spooky pizza, breadsticks and other bits and pieces.

The party was a great success, Harry was so excited to be dressed up, even though he is usually extremely reluctant to do anything like that. We bought some light up balloons and sent the children home with one each as well as some baked goods (I fear I made have over baked!) and it was great to catch up with all the NCT group. I was pleased that we didn't invite too many more people (although I would have loved my friend's lovely girls H and J to come - unfortunately they were away). I think the number we had was a great number for our house!


I definitely hope to have another Hallow'een party next year! It is such a fun celebration to enjoy with your kids. Maybe I have posted this in time to be some inspiration for someone - have a great Hallow'een!

Cakes

Another of our favourite activities is to make cakes - this is a dual purpose activity - we can make them AND eat them! Harry particularly likes using the new 'cement mixer' - KitchenAid. Let's hope he doesn't try to make actual cement in it :-/

First there is the measuring. I like to use recipes in cups because I think it's a little easier to understand. Harry can read all of his numbers up to 12 so he can help to read the recipe now which is lovely. He's not that dextrous at getting things into the bowl though, as you can see from the picture...

 

I did have a picture here of Harry licking the paddle (another key part of cake baking, I'm sure you all agree) but being the camera novice I am I couldn't figure out how to rotate it!

Once the cakes are in the oven, it's time to do some washing up...

...and to clean down the side. I'll be honest, I had to do it again after he'd finished, but he did a good job for a 2 year old and it kept him busy for the 10 minutes they were cooking!

Finally time to scoff a cake (and gloat at the baby who isn't allowed one...)