Halloweenapalooza Party! Spider Hat Craft, Cookie and House Decorating, and MORE!

On Sunday we went to a family Halloween party at my sister's house (Auntie Kayra.) She had loads of fun activities planned, and I brought some more.
We were running late. The cousins were already well into their art projects when we arrived.

Halloween Art Fun

Even Piwu got in on the action!

They had glittery foam Halloween stickers, glitter glue tubes, crayons, glue-on and stick-on googly eyes.

Tually made several beautiful pictures.

Dinner

Dinner was ready soon after we arrived. Intestines and Testicles (spaghetti and meatballs,) Bloody Lumps (BBQ meatballs,) and Vampire-Repellent (garlic bread.) Z ate approximately 2 molecules of dinner.

Trick-Or-Treating

Then the kids donned their costumes and trick-or-treated around the living/family/dining rooms, cadging candy off aunties, uncles and grammas.

"Tikka-Teet! Omnomnom"

Then, while they were pacified with candy and goody-bag toys, we tried for a group shot. With mixed results.

Back row, left to right: Khiss (Buzz Lightyear,) Jotch (Vampire,) Babee O-wivya (chicken,)
Gamma Nanayra, [Jotch, Khiss & Cody's] Gamma Niwian (witches.)
Front row: Captain Z, Tually (Fairy Princess,) Piwu (Little Red Riding Hood,) Cody (clown.)

Auntie Kayra had goody bags for each kid -
with candy, googly-glasses, vampire teeth and more!
It was great fun watching the kiddos parade around with their loot!

Dirt Worm Sundaes

I tried to lure them away from their candy smorgasborg with Dirt Worm Sundaes, but only Tually was interested. She had fun mixing and crushing, then mixed the Oreos and worm in too, making a nice big gooey mess.

Cody ended up making one as well, before we got out the houses to decorate.

Haunted Houses

Auntie Kayra had pre-assembled little graham cracker "Haunted Houses" to decorate, but when I tried to lure the kids in...

"Who wants to decorate their gingerbread house?"
....
"Who wants to eat more candy at the table?"
[Stampeding herd of elephants.]

Nibble, nibble, little mouse...

Even Cody got in on the action!

Jotch, hamming it up next to his spooky house.
(The candy corns are plants, not a fence. FYI.)

Tually's house

Little Z's house. I'm surprised there was still candy on it after.
Her Christmas house was candy on, candy off.
I couldn't decorate it faster than she could eat it!

Halloween Cookies

We used the rest of the frosting (she had made a baggie of each color - pink, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple) to decorate sugar cookies! Kayra had baked them up before we got there. What a busy mommy!

At that point, most of the kids were done participating. So the cookies were mostly decorated by Cody, Auntie Kayneen and myself. Jotch and Khiss each decorated one or two before snarfing them down, but it was mostly us old folk.
Auntie Kayneen foolishly set her plate on the high chair tray, which wasn't snapped on, and it got knocked over by a kid. The dogs were thrilled. Mine were on the counter. :)

How to make: Fun Spider Hats

I had seen this hat on the neighbor girl the other day, and her mom helped us make one for Z, who was green with envy. I cut 2 thick strips lengthwise from black construction paper [I didn't measure or mark it out or anything. Mostly eyeballed it. They weren't perfect, but Meh. Kids didn't care.] I then cut 8 skinnier strips, also lengthwise. I used a little less than 2 sheets per hat [Probably 1.5 sheets per would do ya, if you made 4 legs out of half of each sheet, then the band out of the extra half.] For Z's the other day, I just cut 4 skinny strips and cut them in half for shorter legs, using only 1 sheet total. 

My friend's kid's hat used staples, which holds the parts together better, but is snaggier. We used tape at my sister's house, since I knew where she kept it, and rowdy boys might get scratched more with the staples. I taped the ends of the legs on the inside, after taping the 2 strips together to fit their heads. 

Since I was using tape, I also taped where the leg stuck out over the outside, to give added support. [If using staples, have the pointy ends facing out, rather than getting snaggled in their hair or scratching their heads. One staple per leg, and 2 at each side the bands connect should be fine, unless you're using particularly weak paper. Then maybe 2 staples per leg, one at the bottom where it connects with the band, and one at the top just before it is no longer touching the band. ] 

I spaced the legs in groups of 4 per side, and had them more in the back, so they wouldn't be flapping in the faces. 

Then I bent each leg at the top of the head band, so they weren't just sticking straight up.

I then gently curled them each around my finger to make them curve down. You can see an angle-y one that Jotch curled himself,. He had some folds in his technique. So whichever way you prefer. For more realism, you could make 2 folds, so each leg has 3 segments. Creepy.

The boys added stick-on googly-eyes left over from the craft. The neighbor girl's preschool used those 3-ring binder hole reinforcer stickers. If Z had cared, I would have glued on some of our googly eyes. Or you could just cut out circles of white paper, or white circle stickers, and draw on a pupil using black marker.

The hats were a big hit. Huge. My younger nephew (Khiss) took his to bed with him. When we made Z's, she wore it for hours that day. So did the neighbor girl. Cheap. Easy. Fun.