The Catmulls: Happy 10th Birthday Jackson!

For some reason, I am not sure what drove me to it, but I agreed to do birthday parties for three kids this year. I am not quite sure how I came to that conclusion seeing how in July I told all of the kids no one would have a party except Emma because she was turning eight. But slowly they wore me down and I threw three birthday parties, a class Halloween party, a baptism and entertained my in laws from out of town all within a couple of weeks. What can I say other than I am a sucker, and October was lots of fun!

Jackson's birthday is the day before Halloween. The kids did not have school on Halloween so we thought it was a perfect night for a "Spooktackular - A Night of Fright." There were about twelve boys here and holy moly they were wild. Far more wild than the twelve girls who were here the week before for Emma's birthday party.
We started with a scary dinner...mummy dogs, chips, caramel apples and of course dry ice and rootbeer. The perfect meal for ten year old boys.

The most fun part of Jackson's birthday party was that Grandma and Grandpa Catmull got here just a few minutes before it started. We have never had them here for birthdays before so it was a special treat!

The hot dog toast..

And we even let the girls eat..at their own table of course.

Next on the list was games. We divided into three teams, The Skeleton Bones Cafe Employees, Dracula's Daughters, and the Evil Thing's Babies (Jackson came up with the names). And then we were off for our Graveyard Boo. I had gone to the cemetary earlier in the day and scouted out some different headstones and written up clues. It was a like a scavenger hunt. Pretty creative if I do say so myself. The boys loved it.

Next on the line was skits (thanks to Nat for this awesome idea). Ten year old boys love skits. I had bags of stuff for them, gave them five minutes to come up with something and then they had a blast performing them. Pretty creative. Shawn, grandma, grandpa, and me were the judges.

The baseball one was our winner..

Next was pictionary with scary themes. This was a pretty intense game. The boys were very competitive.

In the end everyone got a prize...I mean it was a children's party after all, but the first place team got to pick first. I had magic tricks, pranks, and these gooey heads that were gross and a big hit.

After the games, we turned on R.L. Stines "The Haunting Hour" which really scared the bejeezees out of them. It was so funny to watch them hiding under their blankets and giggling.

It was a good party. I think one of my best.. I will definetely have to recycle it.