The Best Birthday Halloween Party Ever.

As September was wrapping up, I had some money set aside for a pumpkin carving party like we did last year, but I just wasn't excited about it. ('Cause I'm a girl like that.) But then, I started thinking about how we've never had a party for Steve's birthday and how perfect it would be since his birthday was so close to Halloween! It was an epiphany!

 

I loved everything about this party! The decorations were so much fun (and mostly from Dollar Tree!), the food was yummy, and it was a huge group of our friends, all together in one place! We invited people to wear costumes, and everyone did! It makes it so much fun when everyone decides to dress up! This will definitely become a tradition!

 

Steve had a great time, and even better, felt fully loved and celebrated!

 

I loved the bats in the dining room so much, a part of me wished we could leave it up all year long! I saw the idea a few years ago in a Martha Stewart magazine, but since I found the bats already cut out from the Dollar Tree, I was able to do the entire room for $3.00! Amazing!

 



 

I borrowed all of the candlesticks from Whitney to make the table look spooky and elegant at the same time! I am not an "orange and black" girl, so I went with a white and black theme instead. Lots of skulls and spiders instead of orange pumpkins. I didn't do Halloween-themed food, but I found creepy labels online that I printed off and placed in some of the food that "fit". The meatballs were labeled as "boiled eyeballs", the stuffed jalapeños were "witches' fingers" - that sort of thing. 

The table in the entryway. I used more spider webs throughout my house than I could believe! Luckily, I found a bunch of bags at Goodwill and had some left over from last year.

Mice on the stairs and black, scary cloth on the wall.

Our fireplace mantle. I'm from Florida, so we never had mantles in our house growing up. It's one of my favorite places in the whole house, because it's just so fun to decorate!

The "spider web" cake. My first attempt at this was hilarious! The whole top of the cake was tipping, the icing was going everywhere; I laughed out loud every time I opened the fridge door! I decided to cut off the entire top of the cake and bake that part over. The second attempt went much better! I stretched melted marshmallows between my fingers to make all of the webbing. It still wasn't perfect, but it was a lot better!

Whitney and Trey came as the Lone Ranger and Tonto! Don't they look incredible! Just so awesome!

The sisters! I could not have survived on Thursday without Mel! So much of the food needed to be made at the last-minute, and Mel totally kept me sane and helped get it all done!

Steve and Trey around the fire pit on the patio.

Melissa and Marlon as Bob Ross and one of his Autumn paintings. I never would thought of this! So creative!

These four nailed it! Ryan, Emily, Jen, and Bobby looked so fantastic as 1920's gangsters and flappers!

The birthday boy blowing out his candles.

Ryan and Emily with Zach, who was Walt from Breaking Bad. I've never actually seen this show, but he still looked great!

Christie was a housewife who got pregnant by the mailman, Kelsie was a basketball (both women are actually pregnant!), Jen, and Mel.

Steve and I...at the last minute, Steve wanted a bullet hole in his forehead. I was a little nervous it was going to look like a sun, but it turned out really great!

One of our first "couples" shots together and totally epic! I love this picture!

I have no idea what's happening in this picture, but it makes me smile - Trey never breaks character with his "wild eyes", Steve is looking at me like I'm crazy, Whitney and I are making eyes at each other - a great day all around! I love both of these people (and Steve, of course) so much!

  

All the ladies together! How great does everyone look! Nicole dressed as Flo from Progressive Insurance, Jess as a scuba diver, and Mary-Beth as Snow Fun Barbie (Or something like that)! Everyone rocked it!

Steve and Matt, dressed as Willie from Duck Dynasty.

Caroline totally lucked out getting to dress as Willie's wife, Korie. In all of the Duck Dynasty episodes I've seen, Korie is always dressed super-cute, so I'm not sure that's fair.

 



 

The picture from Mary-Beth's phone that may haunt my dreams...Matt photo-bombing our birthday kiss picture.