Hi Guys...thanks for ALL your great and helpful suggestions. We had our party yesterday. The weather was Sunny and 'nippy'...but just right!! The kids enjoyed the 'haunted' shed and the outdoor graveyard in the field. We even gave them 'hay rides' in my husband's tractor cart that was filled w/hay. We set up benches and a iron chiminea and they toasted marshmallows. I had a pumpkin hunt, hid 48 of them while my friend read Halloween Stories to them. The candy corn jar was a hit. The adults were really competitive with the guessing, as well as the voting for the Best Carved Pumpkin. The first prize in the kids group,was a 3 1/2 yr old. SHE actually painted a cute face on her pumpkin, and was so proud. We didn't get to play any other games, because they were having too much fun doing different things. So, all in all, it went really well. I had made goodie bages for all the kids, and also for the adults. I had collected some vines from my yard, and made small wreaths (15) and hot glued some small autumn fruits and berries and orange organze ribbon (from Michaels),and placed them over - glass votive holders that were 3 for $1, w/pumpkin spice votives..and that was their gift. The adult prizes went pretty well. (3)...the fall centerpiece in small clay flowerpot. two mugs - a dollar each with,two - a dollar each fall plaid napkins and some cocoa packets, and then a small ceramic pumpkin w/4 Halloween Napkins...I let the first place winner choose first, then the second and third. It went over really well, and everyone kept saying how much fun they all had and that the kids had the best time. Even got some calls back this morning to express what a great time they had!! So, thanks again. Oh! also we did a Pot Luck, and EVERYONE outdid themselves...all wanting each others receipes!! Whew...I'm just so relieved it went well, and now I can RELAX...til Christmas!!! LOL

oh for the lollipop board i would do a ghost board then make the lollipops ghosts....(use a templet like those wooden things you add lights to that ac moore sells)bean bags make spiders lizards and snake bags and then they have to toss them into the witches cauldron....(you know to make the make the magic potion...the rings i would do vampire theme and have to put the vampires on the stakes...other ideas: Mummy Wrap Divide guests into pairs Give each pair a roll of toilet paper. One person wraps the other with the paper, first one to empty their roll wins. Older kids and adults get two rolls, once the first person is wrapped they wrap their partner. Prizes to the first team who empty both rolls. Pumpkin Bowling - 3 small pumpkins, 30 empty 2 liter clear soda bottles, 1 can white spray paint, 1 permanent black marker, a bag of gravel or pebbles(placed in bottom of bottles) Ask friends and family to save empty, clean 2 liter soda bottles for your party. Spray paint the soda bottles white and draw eyes and mouths on the bottles once dried. Add about a cup of sand or pebbles in each bottle so they will stand without falling over. Pin The Wart on the Witch Similar to Pin the tail on the Donkey, instead of a tail use gum as the wart! Draw a witch's face on a piece of poster board. Blindfold each child give them a piece of gum to chew as his/her turn arrives, spin, point in the right direction.once child sticks gum use a marker to mark there initial on it... The closest piece of gum to the wart on the witches face wins. (yeah your gonna need some gloves to remove the gum lol) Witch Hunt - In Search of Halloween Candy An evil Witch has stolen the Halloween Candy! And now we need to find her and get the candy back. Good thing there are clues.. Gather a bunch of brooms (borrow from neighbors) and scatter them around the yard, with the handle pointing in the direction you want the children to go. (If you don't have brooms use something else) Start at the beginning of the broom path and search with flashlights for the next broom, and the next. At the end of the line have a big pot of candy waiting for the kids. For more fun buy one of those witches that look like they smacked into a tree and place the candy right under that spot well i hope this has given ya some ideas lol

Hey folks, I've been trying for a long time to find somthing that will get completely rid of "devil's spit" AKA "sticky4ever" AKA "modern, intentionally undefeatable label glue". I hated having a nice item with the label removed, but not being able to pick it up without having to pry it loos from my hand in order to set it back down. I'd tried several of the items/methods listed above and several not listed, and none of the ones I'd tried worked. Even steel wool and soap leave a thin glue residue behind. I was going to try Goo Gone, lighter fluid, WD-40, Ets, then somewone mentioned Pledge furnature polish. I didn't have any of the others but thought there might be some Pledge. No luck, but way in the back of a shelf loaded with odds and ends I found a bottle of, Old English Red Oil Furnature Polish. The bottle was half full and looked like a design from the earley 1950's. Anyway, what the heck, I tried it, it worked. With some rubing it removed every trace of glue from the fancy can I'd been trying everything else on without success. When finished, you couldn't tell there'd ever been anything sticky on the unmirred surface. So it looks like at least some furnature polishes do the trick. Of corse, there may be more than one kind of "Sticky4Ever" used under the labels.

My my kids are 10 and 11 this year and all of the sudden they want super scary haunted house stuff. Most of my Halloween decorations are still packed from our move almost 2 months ago, but all my old stuff does seem a little too nick-nack-y to me lately. I ended up buying a bunch of spider rings and spiders and used that poster sticky tack stuff to make a trail of spiders up the porch to the door. I thought it was just a little creepy, but not really scary, so it would be a nice compromise with my kids, but then a neighbor girl my daughter's age said she did NOT like it and hasn't been over to play for a while, so I feel a little guilty, like I did something wrong. Aside from a couple of black pumpkins, that's all I did this year. My favorite Halloween was a few years ago when I was feeling super poor and my kids were little and really excited about decorating. I cut out a bunch of black bats out of cardstock and hung them strategically in my entry and stairwell so it looked like they were flying up the stairs. I even sewed a tiny black bead to each one so they would hang better. I thought I saved them, but I haven't seen them since, so who knows. My daughter and I also saved interesting glass bottles for a while to make "potions" but those have been mysteriously misplaced, too.