Halloween/Birthday Ideas?

I am getting to throw my DSD birthday/halloween party (on my own-no DH) so I am looking for some fun simple ideas...

Party ideas and finger foods - the party starts at 7ish

I have the marshmallows, apple or donuts on a string (or apple bobbing - not sure)
Making popcorn balls (DSD loves to make stuff)
They are wearing costumes and all the girls are sleeping over (5 of them - 6 kids total)

I am kinda nervous throwing my first kid party for a 12 year old and her friends ;-)
I think it will be a good bonding experience but I dont want go crazy overboard but that is soooo my nature!

Ideas? Quick easy recipes
I wish I could find dry ice that wasnt expense to make a smoking punch

The biggest hit at our Halloween is always a disgusting feely box. It has four different holes cut into it that the kids reach into without being able to see.  We put in a bowl of olives which we say are "eyeballs", a bowl of cold cooked spaghetti we call "intestines", and a bowl of pumpkin slime we call "brains".  If they survive touching all that stuff then in the last hole is a bowl of candy and they get to take one.

Good luck with the party!

The biggest hit at our Halloween is always a disgusting feely box. It has four different holes cut into it that the kids reach into without being able to see.  We put in a bowl of olives which we say are "eyeballs", a bowl of cold cooked spaghetti we call "intestines", and a bowl of pumpkin slime we call "brains".  If they survive touching all that stuff then in the last hole is a bowl of candy and they get to take one.

Good luck with the party!

That's what I was going to say! You could do a pumpkin carving and/or decorating competition with prizes for the scariest one, funniest one, etc. (Decorating might be easier and less messy, you could get some googly eyes other cheap things from Etsy or a craft store, and some paints, etc. and just make crazy faces on them.) Halloween cupcakes would be great... I don't know if you know this, but Martha Stewart is like the queen of Halloween decorations, recipes, etc. Here's a link to her Halloween Central website which has loads of ideas on it and stuff you can make, etc....

http://www.marthastewart.com/photogallery/pumpkins

Oh yeah, obviously, you could do an awesome Halloween-themed birthday cake!

Oh, here's an idea for the pumpkin decorating thing using candy...

http://www.marthastewart.com/photogallery/kids-halloween-crafts

Man, her site has so many cool ideas and crafts and stuff on that you can do. Very cool!

I saw something in a magazine at my Mil's house (so no link) which was a plate of fish fingers with an almond stuck on the end with ketchup to look like horrible bloody fingers.

Thank you all!
Ohh I love the boxes of stuff! I would have to do so my DS kids won't know either...
5 - 12 year olds and 2 - 8 year olds all sleeping over in out little house! Should be CRAZY!

Thank you all!
Ohh I love the boxes of stuff! I would have to do so my DS kids won't know either...
5 - 12 year olds and 2 - 8 year olds all sleeping over in out little house! Should be CRAZY!

You'll have to take lots of pics to post up for us! I wish we had a printer so I could print off some of those templates, etc, to do a bit of decorating around here for DSS. I'm sure I will figure something out.  

Make a batch of rice krispies treats and use red food colouring, it ends up looking like brains...or that's what my mom used to do...I have a birthday fairly close to halloween as well 

Will you tell ghost stories to the kids?  Watch a scary movie? 

Twelve-year-old girls usually love karaoke too.

Oh I will do pictures for sure

The party has grown by 1 more 12 year old! lol That is more then the limit for a sleepover
8 kids in this house ohhh it will be fun!

I forgot rice krispies treats! - good one WebyJ

Here is what I am planning so far...
1. Put donuts or marshmellows on a string and hang it from the clothes line on a ring so it will slide <evil laugh>
2. Popcorn Balls - DSD really wants this
3. Gross Box
4. bloody Rice Krispies treats...might form this stuff into something for the boxes too!
5. I need fun spooky songs to play
6. I actually thought about a scavenger hunt around the back here and rope my neighbor into it too!

Then she wants to watch movies on the sofa sleepers...Karaoke would be fun!

Oh I will do pictures for sure

The party has grown by 1 more 12 year old! lol That is more then the limit for a sleepover
8 kids in this house ohhh it will be fun!

I forgot rice krispies treats! - good one WebyJ

Here is what I am planning so far...
1. Put donuts or marshmellows on a string and hang it from the clothes line on a ring so it will slide <evil laugh>
2. Popcorn Balls - DSD really wants this
3. Gross Box
4. bloody Rice Krispies treats...might form this stuff into something for the boxes too!
5. I need fun spooky songs to play
6. I actually thought about a scavenger hunt around the back here and rope my neighbor into it too!

Then she wants to watch movies on the sofa sleepers...Karaoke would be fun!

Do you have a Playstation or wii or 360? If so you could set up Karaoke from there.

Music -
If you have a laptop  then download this program here http://www.spotify.com/uk/get-spotify/open/ - it lets you stream music for free over the  internet, then click this playlist and it will load the track list in Spotify -

http://sharemyplaylists.com/halloween/

Also it will allow the girls to choose their own music as it has millions of tracks on it.

CB - you rock for that playlist!

Nope no wii or PS (its on my xmas list) lol

What about getting some nail stuff in halloween colours from Barry M, it's always nice to have a quiet absorbing activity for kids to do when you want to quiet them down towards bed time, they could also do it during movie time, the black nail effects stuff would work really well over an orange for halloween and my nieces were totally in awe over it!

http://www.barrym.com/make-up-tutorials/video-tutorial.asp?vid=107
http://www.barrym.com/products/product.asp?id=155

Barry M's are pretty cheap as well, about £2-£3 a bottle You can get them online or superdrugs/boots.

Or maybe get some eye makeup and do this Twilight make up, bit more glam then just zombie make up
http://www.barrym.com/make-up-tutorials/video-tutorial.asp?vid=86

Then Montagne Jeunesse face masks which are about 99p and good fun

Are you doing Bobbing For Apples? I don't know why I think of that as a Halloween activity (in the Autumn I guess), but I do. You could even cut a hole in the bottom of a garbage bag to wear over their clothes - keeps (some of) the water out and their arms in.  If it's a black garbage bag, they could even change out of their tops into the bag and not get completely soaked.

I also think of goldfish tosses as being a Halloween party activity, but I'm not sure the other parents would appreciate you sending their kids home with pets, however low maintenance.

Have you made ghosts with cheesecloth, glue/paste, and balloons? You soak squares of cheese cloth in paste then drape them over balloons, hang or prop them up so the cheesecloth drapes and let it dry. Draw faces on with a sharpie and then pop the balloons and you've got ghosts! This would be something to do ahead of time, not an activity, but would still be fun to do with your DSDs.

You can also make witches' heads out of apples - but you need to start now: peel an apple but don't remove the stem!  Carve out eye sockets and a mouth and then tie a string to the stem and hang the apple somewhere less-humid. The apple will shrivle as it dries, making it look wrinkled and hag-like. You can add teeth with rice - poke holes with a toothpick and insert the rice.  I'd wait a week or two before doing this so you know how the mouth is shaping up - otherwise you get that lamp-fish from Finding Nemo. Put raisins/small dried fruit in the eye sockets as they shrink and then glue some yarn on as hair.  If you're feeling ambitious you can make a witch hat out of black construction paper and a dress from a black paper napkin or scrap fabric.

If you find a paper skelleton you could play pin the brain/heart/lungs/whatever-to-the-skelleton. You could even have the girls draw their own internal organs or make up a bunch of different ones and then see who can get it closest to where it belongs 

Um...You don't by chance need other adults to help you run this party, do you? I have out-of-town guests that weekend but I don't really like them...