Halloween + Family = FUN!

Hey everyone, & Happy Halloween!  We had a family Halloween dinner party on Sunday.  It started out much bigger, but life happens & we dwindled from 12 to 6 attending.  Missed the rest of the gang, but we had a fantastic "family-time" anyway.  

Our weather has finally gotten a "wee-bit" cooler, so now we can start to enjoy our patio.  It's still quite a blank slate out there & landscaping that area is not a priority right now.  I did do some cleaning up yesterday and decided to "Fall it Up" a little .  Here are some daytime shots, & maybe one of these days I'll remember to take some in the evening......LOL!

I prefer to use the vinyl tablecloths on this table because the little ones like to color and all kinds of other activities out here......makes cleanup much easier.

I know, we need some more furniture :(!

This patio is huge!

Ya'll are gonna laugh about this.  I had a couple of containers of plants that just didn't survive the move, mainly because I was so busy inside that I kept forgetting to water them.  I pulled out a few of the dead branches, but left some to use as the base for my pumpkins, gourds, & pinecones.

How's that for creating on-the-fly?  Heehee!

If you want to see how our previous patio looked for a Halloween Dinner Party last year, go HERE.

Inside got a few tweaks here and there.  Yeah, I know, hard to believe......LOL!  Actually, it was mainly just adding some little extras for the kidlets.

Made these for the "Grands."

Trick-or-Treating has to be special at Nana's, so I took some scrapbook paper,

 made little closure tops for some cello bags I found at Walmart, and 

filled them with little Halloween toys (& candy, of course) & presto, cute treat bags 

for my little sweeties!  

Made a couple of extras for my neighbors little 4 year old twin boys, too.

Bats, bats, & more bats along with.......

Ghosts (but not too spooky) are what's adorning my.......

Kitchen chandy.  What I won't do for those "Grands!"

Now what?  Tootsie Pops, plus kleenex, some string & a marking pen =

Oh no, more ghosts!  I added a bunch of these to a little glass container & it became part of my tablescape.  You'll see that in just a bit!

My menu plan for our dinner was:

Hummus with veggies

Do ya'll like Hummus?  It's a favorite around here.

For the veggie holders, I took some clear glass votive cups ($Store) and......

Covered them with some more scrapbook paper for instant CUTE!  Ooops, forgot to take a pic with the veggies -- oh well!

French Bread -- Can you smell it?

Spinach & Baby Greens Salad

And the STAR of our meal -- Dinner in a Pumpkin 

For the recipe go HERE

This smells heavenly while it's cooking.

If you have more than will fit in the pumpkin, just pop it in a casserole & cook it along side the pumpkin.

And for dessert -- Berry Cobbler

This is a Pioneer Woman Recipe which you can find HERE

With everything that was going on, I forgot to take a pic until we had started serving this, but you can see all the deliciousness just oozing out!  We topped each slice with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!

Now, on to my table.

Since we were just a small, intimate group, I chose to serve our meal family-style at the kitchen table.

I've had this tablecloth for years & just love the beautiful colors.

I kept the centerpiece very small and compact so there would be room for food -- the most important thing, right?

You can see how I made this pumpkin HERE.

I added my little Fall cream & sugar set and my 3 year old "Grand" thought we were having a tea party!

There's the little container of ghosts that I talked about earlier.

I love all these colors together!  The chargers are from Walmart, last year, as are the salad plates.  The large plate is part of my Fiesta collection - this one is "Sunflower."

Just had to show another place setting.  I just recently found these napkins at Tuesday Morning & love how well they look with the tablecloth and the dishes.

Now, the most important part of the party plan!

3 year old Flynn, aka:  Super Girl!  I keep lots of toys & art supplies in those large baskets you can see in the background, & she goes to those immediately -- well after lots of hugs & kisses, of course!

9-month old Avery, aka:  Just plain cute, front or.......

back!  I could just eat those little toes, oh, and that sweet little neck!

We just had the best time with our son, dil, & the little kidlets!

I thought I would wrap up with just a few shots of our Halloween night experience here in our new neighborhood.  

Do you think this is enough?  We were told to plan for at least 200 Trick-or-Treaters.

Everyone here in our neighborhood seems to plant themselves in front of their homes, so we decided to do the same.  I don't know what fashion look The Man was going for, but I do believe the rolled up jeans are a subtle hint to me that I need to do some hemming....LOL!

Made some luminaries.

The adults & children liked these.

The neighbors across the street had so many Jack-o-Lanterns going that it totally illuminated their house.

At about 6:30, our street came alive with children and adults.  At times it was hard to know who was having the most fun.  This particular group were all 3 year olds & it literally looked like the moms were trying to "herd cats!"  They were all just adorable.

It was such a fun evening for us, & we are seriously thinking of setting up a "Spiced Wine Bar" for the adults next year.  We met lots of our neighbors who made a special point of introducing themselves & welcoming us to the community.  And the "grand total" of treats handed out was just shy of 200!  

We truly loved the evening.  Hope all of you had a great Halloween, too!  Thank you for stopping by & please come again soon!

CAS

Happily linking to:

Amaze Me Monday

Making the World Cuter Monday

Share Your Creations Party