Pumpkin Carving Party

Hey hey! I’m so glad you Squeezies are happy to see the mice again.

Well. Most of you. ;)

We hosted a little Halloween-themed shindig this weekend I wanted to tell you about in case you want to throw one together yourself this weekend!

I’ve wanted to have a Pumpkin Carving Party for years and always put it off because of the huge mess I imagined it would be. I didn’t really want to do it inside, and our back yard wasn’t really set up for it.

But with the addition of our our patio this summer we have such great entertaining space, so I wanted to take advantage of it! It was PERFECT for this little party!

I planned for this for months – I think I bought most of the stuff back in August. (Thank you, retailers, for bringing out the Halloween goodies so early!) I know myself and know I wanted to be as non-stressed as possible when it came to putting this together. I wanted it to be fun for the kids and the moms – including this one. ;)

So I planned early and made it VERY low-key.

The drinks were soda and water for the moms and Ghooooul-Aid for the kids. (How fun is that?) I added some Halloween ice cubes from Crate and Barrel:

I just served it as a punch in a bowl from Target:

The kids LOVED the black drink. OH so spooky. :)

The food was crazy easy – on purpose. I made my little cookie sandwiches with Halloween icing and ready to bake cookies:

You just sandwich two together with icing, then roll the sides in sprinkles:

They are SO yummy. I especially love these with the sugar sprinkles (for a little crunch), but I was using what I had.

The rest of the food was Halloween-themed snacks in individual bags:

I got two big boxes of these at Target and Walmart – I think they were $5 each? One box had cookie bags and one had chips and Cheetos.

This was not a healthy Halloween party. :)

The bowls, plates, napkins and cups were all from the Dollar Tree – can’t beat that!

It was all set up on the DIY potting bench Dad and I made this summer:

The table cover was a few yards of fabric from Hobby Lobby, on sale back in August. Score! (I even threw it in the wash after and it held up great!)

I didn’t plan any games or activities for the kids (other than the pumpkins). I was a little worried they would be bored.

But what am I, crazy?? They just…uh…played and had a blast!:

Imagine that. :)

We set up the pumpkin carving on the deck. I picked up carving tools here and there on sale over the past couple of months, but asked people to bring some if they had them:

Other than that, the only thing I had guests bring were their pumpkins.

I plan to do this again next year and may have smaller pumpkins for the kids to paint and decorate on their own, because of course the Mommas did most of the carving work:

Eww. :)

The hit of the party was this “gutter” I got at Walmart:

It attaches to the drill and makes quick work of getting the goo out of the pumpkin – it rocked! (Click the photo above to see it at Amazon.)

The party was low stress and BIG fun. :) We ended up with some cuties:

(Some of the pumpkins didn’t make it into the pic, but they were all super cute!)

We had such a great time and I can’t wait to do it again next year! I only invited a few close friends this year, but when we do it again I hope to invite even more and put up additional tables so everyone can spread out.

The best part was that I wasn’t running around like a crazy woman beforehand – I was (mostly) chill. ;)

Do you host a Halloween-themed party? Is it for the big kids or the little ones? What do you do to keep it low key and easy going (for YOU)?

 

**Don’t forget I am answering any and all DIY questions over at the True Value Facebook page this week!