Scare Up Some Birthday Party Fun this Halloween
Most boys and ghouls love Halloween, and they love getting together with friends to show off their costumes and scare up some fun. If your child has an October birthday, you can combine two parties into one to take advantage of a great theme. Play some easy-going pumpkin games and apply wacky tattoos of spiders and black cats, then tell spooky stories and serve monster cupcakes kids can decorate themselves. Boo!
Ring Around the Pumpkin
Play ring around the pumpkin by setting several pumpkins in the yard. Use paints to designate each pumpkin as a different value. Players must throw a hula-hoop around the pumpkins to score—the player with the highest score wins!
Hot Pumpkin
Use the same technique as the classic hot potato game to create a hot pumpkin game in which players pass a mini pumpkin around until the music stops. The player left holding the pumpkin is out, and the game continues until only one player is standing.
Pumpkin Toss
Make a pumpkin toss by setting up hollowed-out pumpkins in a row. Use paints or markers to designate a variety of values for each pumpkin. Players can toss beanbags, golf balls, or acorns into the openings of the pumpkins to score points.
Wacky Tattoos
What you will need:
- Paper towels
- Washable markers
- Water
How to concoct it:
- Cut or tear the paper towel into small squares.
- Use the washable markers to draw pictures and designs on the small squares of paper towels to make your Wacky Tattoos.
- Wet the back of your hand and place your tattoo face down on your hand.
- Using the palm of your other hand, firmly push on the back of the tattoo to transfer it onto your skin.
- Wacky Tattoos can easily be removed with soap and water.
What’s that Noise?
What you need:
- Take turns making a spooky sound with your voice, and have others guess what the sound is. Here are some suggestions: creaky door, ghost’s moan, witch’s cackle, heartbeat, thunder, rattling bones, footsteps, werewolf’s growl, black cat’s screech, snake’s hiss, monster’s roar, owl’s hoot, Dracula’s laugh, mouse’s squeak, chattering teeth
After everyone has made up some spooky sounds, start a story that uses all of the sounds. Hold the flashlight under your chin, lighting up the rest of your face.
- Point the flashlight to show whose turn it is to continue the story.
- When a spooky sound is mentioned in the story, everyone makes the sound with his or her voice. Pass the flashlight around and let each person start a new story.
Monster Cupcakes
What you need:
- Cupcakes from a package mix, baked and cooled
- Frosting, chocolate and vanilla
- Food coloring, green or red (optional)
- Spoons
- Edible foods for decorating, such as tubes of icing (various colors), gummy worms, candy-coated chocolate, candy corn, licorice, and raisins
- A grown-up to assist
- If you like, mix a few drops of green or red food coloring into the white vanilla frosting to make gruesome green or blood-red frosting. Spoon onto a cupcake.
- Top your monster with candy-coated chocolates or raisins for eyes, candy corn teeth, gummy worm hair, and anything else you can dream up.
Ring Around the Pumpkin, Hot Pumpkin, and Pumpkin Toss by Sharon Cindrich, freelance writer.
Wacky Tattoos reprinted from Kid Concoctions & Contraptions, by John and Danita Thomas, 2002.
What’s that Noise and Monster Cupcakes reprinted with permission from Family Fun Nights: 140 Activities the Whole Family Will Enjoy, by Lisa Bany-Winters (Independent Publishers Group, 2006); ipgbook.com.
October 2009
