Happy Birthday, Aria!

It’s November 1st and I will attempt this year the “NaBloPoMo” (National Blog Posting Month) and try to post every day this month.  I actually wrote down a list of topics I want to post about this month, along with my standard fare of “Wordless Wednesdays”, “ATWT” and “Fragment/FreeWrite Fridays”.  I think I can, I think I can!! The kids are mostly feeling better, so hopefully it’s back to “normal” around here.

Today I want to share with you Aria’s 8th birthday! !  Isn’t she cute?!

  

Her birthday was October 17th, but it wasn’t a good weekend to celebrate, so we had her school-friend party this weekend.  She wanted a Halloween theme! Check out these invitations!

Aria found a Taste of Home magazine with several Halloween-themed treats and food, so I was talked into purchasing the $5 tome of knowledge so we’d have lots of party ideas.  Here, for starters, are the Spider Web candies…

Almond bark and melted chocolate.  Pretty easy to start with!  Then came Cheesenstein!! Ok, I made him and I completely forgot to take a picture before the kids tore into him.  He was a cream cheese ball make to look like Frankenstein with a pickle nose, pretzel rod neck bolts, and black olive eyes.  He was tasty. I also served Mummy Dogs!! Now for the more involved cake…

The cake toppers were all decorated sugar cookies to make the “Haunted Castle Cake”.

Piper was there to help me!

The cake pieces almost done.

Tombstones! The actual cake was 2 layers of strawberry cake with a layer of buttercream in between.

The assembled cake.  I’m glad I took pictures right away because the largest cookie was so heavy that even with several skewers behind it, it finally tipped over backward!! They didn’t mention that part in the magazine!!!

When the kids arrived, we played Halloween Bingo, did a mummy wrap relay game (toilet paper everywhere!) and made balloon ghosts with glow sticks inside.  They loved the food.  By the time the kids left we were definitely ready to relax!