The Birthday Party of No Return!

My youngest daughter loves Slappy from the Goosebumps series as I did when I was in junior high school. Just like there’s Christmas in July, we had Halloween in January! I was excited to know she wanted to celebrate The Birthday Party of No Return for her 9th Birthday.

INVITATIONS: I wanted the invitations to mirror the Goosebumps books. I designed folded invitations on Vistaprint.com. When the invitees opened their invitations, it would be like them opening a book. The front cover had slime on the border like the original Goosebumps book covers and I used a pic of the birthday girl with Slappy. Inside the invitation was the party information. The back of the invitation had a synopsis of the party and a upc bar code on the bottom.

ATTIRE: The birthday girl had a photoshoot with Slappy! She wore a purple leotard and a high low purple and black tulle tutu. She wore a black blazer over the leotard adorned with a purple, glitter pendant necklace. She wore black lace tights under her tutu, neon green lace hand warmers, neon green earrings, and black hi top Nike shoes with neon green slime painted on the side of the Nike symbol. Her hair was in a bun with a purple hair bow that had an eyeball in the center.
At the party, she wore a black t-shirt that had purple pics of Goosebumps characters. The front of the shirt read Stories To Give You Goosebumps. She wore the same tutu from her birthday pics, but black leggings underneath.
Her sister dressed as a fortune teller from the books Be Careful What You Wish For and Help! We Have Strange Powers. Her dress had a sequined mesh top overlay. It came with a vest with button decoration, a hip sash with coin trim, and a floral print headband. I gave her coin dangling earrings with a matching necklace to wear.
I wore a neon green and black Goosebumps beanie, a long sleeve black shirt with Goosebumps glow in the dark logo imprinted on the front, black leggings, and neon green Goosebumps athletic socks. Dad wore a short sleeve black Goosebumps shirt with jeans.

DECORATIONS: I placed 4 yard signs in front of the house that read the following: Slappy B-day Kaiylah!; Beware, Go Back; Keep Out! Condemned; and Danger! Enter at Your Own Risk!
I decorated the front door with a Grim Reaper door cover. I also hung a black creepy net cloth over the light fixtures.

Upon entering, there was a sign on the restroom door that read Dead Zone. The toilet tank had vinyl dripping blood on the front and the lid had a vinyl screaming zombie scene setter. I placed a skull container with green slime on the toilet topper next to the book, How I Got My Shrunken Head.

The table near the entrance was adorned with a black lace spiderweb table runner. I set a candelabra on the left side of the table with witch fingers on top. In the center of the table, I set out the books Planet of the Lawn Gnomes and Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes. There was a haunted house made out of cardboard on the right side of the table. I bought miniature ceramic gnomes from Dollar General and placed them in front of the books.

I used a black net to decorate the top of the bar. I placed black party favor bags on each end of the bar. I decorated the front of the bags with slime decor. Slappy the Dummy was in the center holding The Night of the Living Dummy book. Behind him was a LED lamp, illuminating the room with green lighting. There was an additional LED light draping in front of the bar.

The gift table was put in front of the bar covered with a lime green table cover. The small table that was on the side of the bar was displayed with the following: a spell book I made and covered with burlap. I outlined the spell book with tarot cards. I had a light up crystal ball in the center and a potion bottle on the side. I added two books to the table: Be Careful What You Wish for and Help! We Have Strange Powers! I used black fringe curtains and a skeleton bone door cover as a photo backdrop. I added a purple net and draped it at the top of the photo backdrop. Green, purple, and black balloons were scattered at the bottom.

Lastly, I covered the treat table with a purple tablecloth. The center of the table had a black spiderweb basket with eyeball gum. Goosebumps cookies were on a silver plate and there were eyeball hot cocoa bombs on a silver tray. Each side of the table had Goosebumps' books in a purple and lime green tin box, lime green paper cups, black and purple plates & napkins, and lime green utensils.

FOOD: Vampire Breath (Cheese Pizza and Pepperoni Pizza); The Blob that Ate Everyone (Cherry Jell-O); Attack of the Jack-O'-Lanterns (Clementines); Slappy’s Birthday Cake with Mint Chocolate Chip Ice-cream and/or Lime Sherbet.

ACTIVITY: The guests watched the Goosebumps movie as they were taking a break rotating through the games.

GAMES: Monstrous Chairs (Musical Chairs); Pin the Spider on the Web; and Monster Mash (Freeze Dance).

PARTY FAVORS: Monster Blood (Slime); Goosebumps Mugs; The Haunted (Face)Masks; Go Eat (Sour Gummy)Worms!; Personalized Goosebumps Coloring Books; Eyeball Hot Cocoa Bombs; Eyeball Gumballs; and Goosebumps Cookies.

THANK YOU CARDS: I wanted the thank you cards to look like haunted houses! I ordered them from Etsy and told the seller exactly what I wanted and she delivered! The invitations were cute, glittered haunted houses with Slappy on the front of a Thank You banner. My personalized wording was printed on the back.

• What People Ate

  Vampire Breath (Cheese Pizza and Pepperoni Pizza) The Blob that Ate Everyone (Cherry Jell-O) Attack of the Jack-O'-Lanterns (Clementines)

• What People Drank

  Brain Juice

• Desserts

  Slappy’s Birthday Cake; Mint Chocolate Chip Ice-cream; and Lime Sherbet

• Party Favors

  Monster Blood (Slime) Goosebumps Mugs The Haunted (Face)Masks Go Eat (Sour Gummy)Worms! Personalized Goosebumps Coloring Books Eyeball Hot Cocoa Bombs Eyeball Gumballs Goosebumps Cookies

• Activities / Games

  Monstrous Chairs (Musical Chairs) Pin the Spider on the Web Monster Mash (Freeze Dance)