Pumpkin Party 2012...

I’m still playing catch-up… I’ve got to get all of our Fall fun documented so we can move on to more fun, which I hope in the next couple of weeks means dragging out our Christmas stuff! :)  Not sure if I can convince DW to let me put it all out before Thanksgiving again this year or not.

We were so excited to be able to do the kids’ Pumpkin Party again this year. It’s something we had hoped would be an annual thing, but we couldn’t do it last year since Carrie was days from having Whitt and I was as big as a house pregnant with Mames. Speaking of Mamie, she wore her big sister’s piggy costume and she was equally as cute as AB on her first Halloween! :)

We had the party at the lodge with costumes, food, games and lots of fun. Of course we took a hayride, too!

We decided to keep the party for our friends with small kids, to make it easier in planning activities, which were a little different than our first year.

We had a pumpkin toss – which after I’d painted, looked more like an orange toss…but it’s Florida, right? Oranges grow better here than pumpkins anyway. :) Carrie saved the pumpkin toss cuteness with the bean bags she’d sewn.

We also had a witch’s hat ring toss. I saw on Pinterest where someone had done a witches hat toss using party hats…It kind of popped into my head that construction cones look like the shape of a witch’s hat. And I happen to have an “in” with a man in the road construction business. :)  DW brought one home for me and I wrapped it with brown kraft paper and then painted that black. I gave it a band and a shiny buckle and it was done! Wrapping it with paper was so that after the party we could tear it off and take the cone back. :)  Did you know those big orange cones weigh 34 lbs? Now you do.

Carrie added Face Painting to our party this year, and it was a hit. She had a little frame of all the things the kids could pick. I love that they could have their monogram done. :)

We also did a photo booth/snap station…

I’ve been seeing them in all kinds of parties online and thought it would be cute. Especially the mustaches. I got some cute scrapbook paper at Michaels and cut out the props and then glued them to dowel rods. We also threw a few other props on the table and let the kids dig in. I wish I had really stood there and took pictures, but hopefully all the mommas got some of their own cuties.

Of course the corn bin was a hit.

I think when the kids are 15 and we’re having parties I will still drag it out. It’s been a lot of fun over the past few years and made it through a lot of parties… oh if it could talk. Ha.

The hayride was bumpy and fun, but we forgot to give out our glow sticks until AFTER we got off. Oops.

For dinner, we did the same things as last time- chili, baked potatoes and hotdogs. Dessert was a table full of fun Fall treats.

I tried my hand at caramel apples. At home, they turned out beautifully… But after a few hours in the Florida heat, they were more like apples sitting in a caramel puddle. Boo Hoo! It’s hard to do Fall in Florida! We were all drenched with sweat, and were nearly carried away by mosquitoes before the night was over.

Carrie and I had fun throwing the party together, and I use the term “throwing” literally. Our conversation about the decorations went something like this: “Just bring whatever you have and we’ll put it out.” 

She had just had both of her kids birthday parties the two previous weekends and I know they are all partied out by now.

Because I think people need to know the “real” side of things too- I will share a little funny about the party…(even though I am sure no one has made it to reading this far…This is what happens when I don’t blog about something right away…it takes me ten million words to recap it)…

Anyway, Carrie and I were both feeling a little stressed the day of the party when we were setting up. It was going slow and we had my two little helpers with us, which meant if we were going to get anything done we had a small window of time to do it in. We finished up about two hours later than I hoped we would and I flew home to cook the chili and finish my desserts and to get the girls a nap. Carrie flew toward Trenton to do the same things. I was running around the house all afternoon and literally took my last batch of cookies out of the oven and put them in the car on the cooling rack. I didn’t have time to do my hair, so it was in a pony tail but I had my bangs wrapped around a big Velcro roller and pinned on the top of my head. I was going to wear my new boots that night, which gave me the blister of my life in Nashville, so I was trying to wear them all afternoon to “break them in” a little more… I looked down and couldn’t help but laugh at what I was wearing- gym shorts, a T-Shirt with chili splatters on it and my boots, completed with my bangs in a Velcro roller. I was a sight for sure. I was having a good little laugh at myself, but it turned into a full belly roll when I got this text from Carrie:

“I stepped in dog poop. Glass in my finger. And Whitt’s snack went down back of my jeans. LETS PARTY!”

We pulled up to the lodge about the same time and quickly discovered that the potatoes that were supposed to be baking all afternoon… hadn’t been. Good times!

By party time, the potatoes were baked, I was dressed and the roller was out of my hair and Carrie’s Whitt-soaked pants had dried. We were finally ready to party! 

After we ate, we had the hayride and then everyone just made their way around to all the games and activities and just visited (and swatted mosquitos) :)

Sweet Marnie & Baby Elliott

My girl is quite fond of her Uncle Adam & Aunt Nen…She thinks there’s none like them… I can agree!

The cutesy Locke Sisters

Sure, there’s some work and even a little stress involved in doing anything- but it’s always worth it. Our friends who came and all their kids were so sweet. Not one of them left without thanking us and telling us they had a great time (even if they were just saying it) :) As Carrie put it, we are so blessed to have so many wonderful people in our lives.

I hate that we didn’t try to get a picture of all the kids together… We had 27 little dressed up cuties. It’s on the to-do list for next year for sure!

Pumpkin Party 2012 was a hit!

~amw~