The Day Katelyn had A Halloween Party

Katelyn loves to plan parties and has been so cute about coming up with excuses to plan a party that I decided we would do one for Halloween. I didn't want it to get out of hand, so I told her we had to keep it very small. She decided to invite Brooke, her BFGFs (Best First Grade Friends) and their older siblings who are both in fourth grade. Sara's older sister Hailey is Katelyn's pseudo big sis and Ben and Bradley's older brother Blake is one of Brooke's favorite people in the whole world. She calls him "Cake" and gets so excited to see the three boys which she refers to collectively as "the guys." So the ages of the party guests ranged from 1 to 9 years old, but they all really have fun together and everyone always gets along... the formula for a great party!

We started things off with a fun Treasure Hunt. The kids were all wound up so it was a great excuse to let them run around like crazy people outside. They had to run all over and found most of the clues without any problem. One clue however required them to do a series of tasks on the swing set and then after sliding down the slide they had to "lay on the ground and look up where birds fly." This one stumped them for quite a while. I guess they didn't think I would be crazy enough to get out our ladder and climb up in the tree to tape a clue (black cat) to a branch. Now they know... here is a picture of them looking for that clue. I love the expression on Brooke's face - she wasn't sure what they were doing but didn't want to stray too far from the group because she knew it would get exciting again. After finding their treasure, it was time to do a craft and play some spooky games while listening to Halloween music. Katelyn had carefully planned every detail and the kids had a blast.

We had pizza for dinner and then the kids just wanted to play, so the adults got to visit for a minute. Then it was time to make "Mini-Caramel Apples." I was so excited to try these and they turned out great thanks to my very helpful friends Jennifer and Laura. The kids had so much fun making them and they tasted really good. In fact, they were so good, that I decided to finish off all of the left over toppings and caramel later that night... Win - Win. Here are some pictures of the fun...

And just in case the kids weren't sugared-up enough already, we had our traditional Hansen family "bat cake." Grandma Carol got this darling cake pan for us when Katelyn was two years old and that pan has inspired many happy Halloween events - one year we made a giant green jello bat - it was cute, but I will never feel the same way about jello again.

A big thanks to Jennifer and Laura for having such fantastic kids and for hanging out during the party - you guys really made it fun and after having Kyle out of town all week it was so nice to talk to grown-ups. And to Katelyn, thank you sweetheart for always reminding us to have fun and party when there is something to celebrate. Happy Halloween!