Annual play group Halloween party

I have LOVED Halloween for as long as I can remember. Long before having kids I day dreamed about throwing a Halloween party for my kids.

Well the day finally came this past Halloween and I had a blast putting this toddler Carnival together for my little ones and their friends. I have been in a fabulous play group since my son was 6 months old and every year someone hosts a Halloween party. My daughter was about 9 months and I was starting to feel human again so I jumped at the opportunity.

We have a really large group 11 moms and 23 soon to be 24 kids up to 4 years old. I knew I couldn't just have food and let the little devils tear the place up so I decided on a Carnival theme and prayed for good weather.

It didn't rain but it was insanely windy! So that made set up a bit of a challenge. My amazing husband took the morning off to help me. My mom came in from NJ a few days prior and a couple of friends helped out the day of. As a mom of two little ones I can tell you...ya don't pull off a party like this without a little assistance!!

I set up a few toddler friendly carnival games in the front yard. There was a can toss, a bean bag toss, and a water table with a rubber duck game and a spider ring game. I was able to purchase a few of the games from orientaltradingcompany.com so inexpensive and for the most part worked great. I lucked out there was a Halloween Carnival theme which made it easy. I set up a coloring table with pages from an old halloween coloring book, a tattoo table and in the garage (because of the crappy weather) we set up the kids table and lunch. Inside in my dinning room I set up the dessert table. You see, pre-kids I owned Clever Girl Confections, a chocolate and gift basket business online. I made many of the treats and everyone went home with one of our old best sellers---gourmet caramel apple! Ridiculously yummm! I plan to post a how to on this gem closer to Halloween. These scrumptious treats were topped with either marshmallow or Oreo cookies. Needless to say they were a big hit!

Lunch Menu:
halloween shaped pb&j sandwiches
chicken nuggets
cantaloupe & black grapes on skewers
popcorn in individual bags
Mini Quiches--for the adults

Everyone seemed to have a great time. The kids looked adorable and I fulfilled a longtime party planning dream. My soon to be 4 year old son is already asking about our Halloween party this year and has been since April. I will be doing something a bit lower scale this year as I'm starting a new business venture. Look out for Momma's Kitchen Sink;)