tips

5 Tips to Throw an Awesome Halloween Party (Post Sponsored by Kmart)

October 17, 2011 By Lisa Leave a Comment

My husband leaves this Sunday to go away for two weeks, and will miss spending Halloween with us. We decided not to let this news get us down, so we threw our own Halloween party this weekend, before he leaves, complete with Halloween costumes, Halloween decorated house, and Halloween party snacks out of this world.

Tip #1: Dress your house in costume

Halloween isn’t just about your costume, but also your home’s “costume” as well. Decorate it to reflect Halloween, too, both inside and outside. And it doesn’t have to be too scary if you’ve got young ones like I do. Thanks to Kmart.com, we were able to snag some awesome non-scary Halloween decorations for our house. You can see what I purchased online here.

Here’s the outside of our house (until we get pumpkins, that is)

Here are some close-ups of the Halloween decor from Kmart:

Tip #2: Plan Halloween-themed party food

Everyone loves party treats, but make yours especially ghoulish and fun for your Halloween party. You don’t have to be the most creative or artistic, either. Even if you’re a novice chef, these Halloween treats are fun and easy to create.

Here was our table with all the Halloween food spread out on it:

Here was the dessert spread after we’d eaten our Halloween dinner:

Like what you see? Could you use a little inspiration? Here’s some of my favorite Halloween recipes for our party snacks, including close-ups (all recipes will post soon! Stay tuned!)

Whoopie Pies with Pumpkin Cream Cheese

Chocolate Pretzel Spiders

Mummified Hot Dogs

Ghost Pudding

Ghoulish Chili

Spooky Alien Mini Cupcakes

Spooky Chicken Broccoli Wreath

Mummy Muffin Pizzas

Bone Sticks

And we served our treats with some all-natural orange soda (that wasn’t colored orange, but still tasted great)!

Tip #3: Get dressed up!

We are some of the few parents you’ll see out there, trick-or-treating with the kids in full costume. We enjoy dressing up as much as the kids do. If you’re going to host a party, go all out! Get dressed up in costume! We enjoy purchasing Halloween costumes that we can wear year-after-year that we can add accessories to, like my husband’s pirate costume. Every year he’ll pick up a better pirate shirt, belt, or hat, or boots to improve his costume.

Tip #4: Don’t forget Halloween-themed activities and music

For some folks, Halloween parties are thrown to take place of going out trick-or-treating. If that’s the case, you can make sure the kids don’t miss out on collecting candy (and control what they get) – you can set up a row of bowls one after the next of different candies, and outfit your children with a Halloween treat bag, and have them walk up to each bowl, filling their bag with one or two candies from each bowl, mimicking trick-or-treating.

You can also involve the kids in some Halloween crafts or let them color on Halloween coloring books.

What about a costume contest? Or face-painting station? Or dance contest? You can’t forget the fun Halloween music, either, like Monster Mash! Or Thriller! Dancing while dressed in costume might be difficult, but fun nonetheless.

Tip #5: Take lots of pictures

You want to remember every last bit of your party, right? Make sure you memorialize it in pictures!

Ready to plan for your own awesome Halloween party? Check out Kmart’s 50ft Party Halloween page for more ghoulish ideas for your own. Kmart always has great deals! Check out this week’s Monster Deals with lots of Halloween costumes, Halloween party supplies and Halloween candy to offer.

Want to throw your own? Be sure to visit their Monster Bash on Kmart’s Facebook Page - they’re holding a contest with a winner pulled weekly for a Kmart gift card!

Disclosure: This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias.

Have you thrown a Halloween party before? What were your must-haves?

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Office Live Workspace Freakin’ Rocks!

November 16, 2009 By Lisa Leave a Comment

You already know how big of a list-maker I am. There’s something rewarding for me about creating, and checking-off, a to-do list. I love finding new ways to create them, easy ways to keep track of them. I mean, that’s how my To Do Tuesday began in the first place, y’know?

But I’ve always had a bit of trouble keeping up with all “the stuff” – you know, the newsletters, documents, letters, you name it. Then, after last year happened, when we lost not one but two computers at once, facing the idea that all of our “stuff” was gone, and not having access until both computers were repaired, we knew we had to find a better way.

Since then, I’ve been using eleventy-billion types of storage, because I’ve been too afraid to trust any one thing (can you blame me!?) after what happened. I’ve got two different photo storage places, and two ways of storing documents, along with our external hard drive. I know, it’s a bit much. Recently, thanks to Mom Central, we were given the chance to test drive the new Microsoft Office Live Workspace, and I fell in organizational-love with it. I can save my documents to it, share with others, and lessen my worry about ‘availability’ should our computers be lost to surges again! Super sweet, yo!

Not only that, but I was able to create several new lists using it’s tools, in all my list-making glory, such as an Emergency contact list, which I can now update and share as needed, as well as create a parent/player roster to share with our soccer and football teams, even email lists, our snack list, as well as email out, digitally, our ‘end-of-season’ invite with all the important information! No losing the flyer, no asking for another copy. How awesome is that?

Another thing I found handy about it was the ability to create a list of medicines with refills. Now that they put the labels on the boxes and not the bottles, you’re forced to either keep the bottles or attempt to rip the label off to save it some where. I made my list with each person, medicine, RX # and expiration date.

As I said, Listy McListmaker, that’s me.

There are many more features to try, why not go check it out for free? If you do, tell me what you’ve come up with (and if you’ll share)!

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Laundry Ball System Review

May 2, 2009 By Lisa Leave a Comment

Today we’re celebrating MomDot’s big birthday celebration for Trisha, and I wanted to showcase a few of my favorite organic and all-natural product choices, and give some away, too. I hope you don’t mind at all, or anything

(NOTE: There are 3 total giveaways here, be sure to visit all 3!)

I gotta level with you here. I feel like I do laundry all. stinkin. day. No joke. I have six kids, and well, I guess I kind of do! I have to do at least 2 loads a day or it piles up.

If there is anything that can make this process easier on me, I am willing to try it!

I was super-de-duper lucky to be given a Wonder Ball Complete Laundry System to try, and as soon as it arrived, I popped those suckers in there. (This momma doesn’t waste any time).
Okay, well, before I popped them in I read the box. Interested stuff, how this whole thing works.
Did you read that?

“The water does the cleaning.”
“No detergent needed.”
“No fabric softeners or sheets needed.”

You’ve got to admit, whether regular detergent, organic, or dye-free, detergents are expensive. And with this Wonder Ball, you don’t need detergent! And it lasts for THREE YEARS.

Hello money saver, I think I love you.

Even better, I found this little tidbit on the website about the Wonder Ball:

Once all the layers of old detergents / softeners get out of your clothes, most stains will not be a problem. It may take several washings to get out all these layers. KEEP IT SIMPLE. Ms. Gunderson (the creator) dilutes hair shampoo for ring around the collar and personal stains. For kitchen & outside stains, she uses diluted dish soap.

Whoa, now that’s what I call AWE-SOME! So, NOW it’s about the time I threw these babies in my appliances…
..and let them do their thing..
.. and I’ve been able to do laundry quicker. My drying time was reduced IMMENSELY. As in, instead of taking three runs of the dryer, it takes maybe two. TWO! That’s kind of a big deal for me, being a mom to six, not to mention the big deal on my soon-to-be energy bill (don’t get me started on that topic, k?)

Another thing? No static. No dryer sheets needed to attain that, either. And they come out kinda poofie, like they were fluffed the entire time. And from what I’m learning about them, that’s kind of what these dryer balls do, they poof your clothes, spacing them out to allow the heat to get at them, separating them.

I don’t know how, or what causes them to work, I just know they do, and that these are going to pay off SO BIG when it comes to:

saving money by buying less, if any, laundry detergent, since the ball lasts 3 years
saving money on energy by running the dryer less time
saving money on not having to buy dryer sheets to get the clothes static-free and soft

I can honestly tell you that I’m getting a set of these for every family member. We’re always getting our family’s “green” items, like low-flow shower heads, CFL light bulbs, green cleaners, and more. This is only getting added to that have-to-buy list for our families.

Wonder Ball Complete Laundry System very enthusiastically gets our “Crazy Family of 8″ Seal of Approval, without a doubt. If I had an even higher award to issue, I would. That’s how much I am loving these.

Speaking of awards, the creator, Fern Gunderson, received the Professional of the Year Award in Natural Products Design and Manufacturing. Congrats to you, Fern! You deserve every success coming to you, for such an amazing product!

Win It! – CLOSED

One winner will receive the Wonder Ball Complete Laundry System! Yeah!

To enter, comment here and tell me what detergent, fabric softener, sheets, etc., you’re currently using, and approximately how much it costs you to get them when you need them (the cost per bottle/box, etc. All combined). I think it might amaze you when you put it down here in the comments, and that number is staring back at you, and begin calculating in your head how much you might save in a year, let alone THREE years with the laundry ball!

For extra entries (each entry is 1 entry, and each must be commented separately):

Head on over and tell me which other products Fern offers that you might like to try.
Subscribe and/or follow my blog, and/or follow me on Twitter. I’m CrazyAdventures (1 entry for each, and if you already do, for any of them, it counts!**)
Stumble, Kirtsy, or Digg this post! (1 entry each site)
Tweet this post on Twitter! (1 entry per tweet – unlimited entries available)

**It ‘pays’ to stay connected to me and my blog, as it earns you automatic entries into all of my contests! (Plus, we may be crazy, but we’re a lot of fun, too!) {giggle}

Winner will be chosen using Random.org. Contest ends Sunday, May 31st, at 10pm CST

*Edit* Winner is #72
blp3 said…

I subscribe to your blog

May 4, 2009 7:51 AM

Congrats Barbara from Barbara’s Beat!

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