Something wickedly fun this way comes....

This year, the Primary was placed in charge of the Halloween festivities. We decided to call ours a carnival of sorts. We pulled together some games, a chili cookoff, a carved pumpkin contest, a string maze and a cupcake walk. In years past, our ward activities committee has put on some fantastic parties....we had a lot to live up to. Even tho we went the much simpler route, I think people had fun being able to sit and chat while the kids played games and got all sugared up!

 A lot of these games came from brainstorming and Pinterest Ü {gotta love it} they are simple, ghetto-fabulously handmade! That's what a small budget will do to ya!
This one was Pumpkin Bowling.
Seeing how many cans filled with candy you could knock over with a miniature pumpkin.

 This was our Sensory Cauldron...
filled with paper, the kiddos could reach in and see how many little toys they could find in 10 seconds.

 One of the ladies in our ward had some cute bean bag toss games she let us use.
And then in another room we had a bunch of stations set up as the Guess the Gruesome Object game. So fun.....spaghetti noodles....plastic glove filled with sand....oatmeal....wet yarn for hair....

 These cute little mummy's are the Mummy ring toss {tho everyone thought they were ghosts}.

 Pop goes the Pumpkin, thanks to Martha Stewart.
We had a doozy of a time filling these balloons with candy! I'm so thankful my friend, Shelley, and her kiddos filled most of them! My hands STILL hurt!

 We also had a Twister room.
At first...it was just gonna be Twister :). But then we put a black light and a strobe light in there....making it much more fun!! Black light on all that white looked so cool!

 And then our Go Fish game....what's a carnival {insert me...picturing scenes from Pollyanna} without a bit 'o fishing.

 Oh the costumes! Everyone was dressed up so...err....lovely?

 Best. Costume. Ever....I do declare!
Thanks again to Pinterest.

 And the Birthday Boy. Poor James .... his wifey planned a ward party ON his birthday. Totally not quite fair {even tho, if you think about it, he gets the WHOLE month AND he had fun at the party! So it wasn't totally terrible.} Who thought of his awesome costume?? --> this girl<--

 My friend and 1st counselor, Shelley, and I dressed up as witches. Very Hocus Pocus Ü. Everyone kept asking who was the wicked witch....I would have to claim that title, mwhahahaha!
We made our tutu's, decorate the hats and made the corsages....then completed the look with purple striped socks {better picture to come!} and pointy toe'd shoes! {which came off about 30 mins into the party!} Dressing up is so fun!!

 We wanted to make sure ALL our loved ones were represented.....Andrea and Shelley showing off our Utah bestie, Katie's, chili recipe! Yum, yum!!

 The chili cookoff was a success....we had almost 20 chili's to choose from! And at the end of the party, all the pots were scraped clean.

 I was quite the busy-body the whole evening....running here and there, mixed with some standing in a daze, making sure all was ok.
But every once in awhile, I was able to go give my momma a squeeze and thank her for helping out at the game. Or ask my dad to take a picture of this or that ;)......or run from scary, zombie Hannah! It STILL amazes me that my parents live here....I wonder if I'll ever be able to stop pinching myself.

 We asked members of our ward to carve a pumpkin for their FHE  on Monday, then bring it to the party to be judged! We were able to light them up in the church with some battery operated tea lights.

 James and his mummykin won 2nd place! Prince Charming was not impressed {he just wanted to get down and pull the letters off a too-low-Halloween sign!}

 Haha...I love this picture.

 I just have to say I'm GLAD the Rangers game was rained out last night....I didn't want to compete!
Go Rangers!!!

{pumpkin carved by my 2nd counselor's family....they are HUGE baseball fans!}