This year, I gave my children something they have wanted for years upon years upon years. A halloween party. Now, I suffer from extreme party planning anxiety based on high, unrealistic expectations. So, I don’t throw parties. Two days before Halloween, when I realized I was completely unprepared, I decided to let go and just have fun with it. Several friends talked me down from the ledge. Thank you friends. I realized the party was for the kids, so I got them involved. They shopped with me, they cleaned with me, they decorated, they helped choose games, and they absolutely BEAMED each time a friend showed up to the house…
But first, the night before Halloween, we were invited by a client of mine who works for Nickelodeon, to attend the Nick friends and family Halloween party at the Burbank studios. What an amazing experience this was! They transform the offices at the studio into spooky or silly or fun halloween mazes. They were INCREDIBLE and so entertaining to walk through. I wish I had taken more/better photos of the set ups. I didn’t, but you can see a few here. At the end of each maze sat an employee handing out copious amounts of candy. There were no “choose two” rules here. It was more like “take two huge handfuls kids!” All four of them were basically stoked beyond belief.
I enjoyed the white boards that were all over the offices. All of our favorite Nick characters were doodled all over the place. Jeff and I were drooling over the creativity at every corner. What an amazing place to work.
The free cotton candy, hot dogs, hot cocoa (with marshmellows), caramel apples, soda, and face painting blew the kids minds. The face painters were set up at this adorable station with colorful scarves on their heads and pretty glitter and paint all over. When we walked in, I saw them and thought to myself that I couldn’t wait to take photos of the kids and the table while they got their faces painted. My battery died while we were in line, just after I took the following shot of Anna’s candy bag. ERG.
The next day was party day. We woke up and started cleaning and decorating. Jeff and I went as each other. We swapped clothes, flip flops, and accessories. It was the most fantastic thing we have ever done. We laughed all day long.
The party was geared towards the kids and their friends, but several of our friends came too. We had a questionably straight cowboy, a kitty cat, Juno and Paulie Bleeker, and Zap from American Gladiators. I haven’t dressed up for Halloween in YEARS, and being in costume and seeing my friends and what they came up with was really fun. I highly recommend it for next year to anyone that feels a little grumpy about Halloween. I am pretty sure the Jeff and Tara costumes will be coming out again as tradition.
The party went well, and after a few hours of games and pizza, we headed out for trick or treating. Each of the kids filled one of our cloth grocery sacks at least halfway with candy. One of the kids counted 263 pieces in his bag before his mom came to pick him up. Meaning I probably have close to 1000 pieces of miscellaneous candy floating around my house right now. Lucky me!
xo
Tara
