NBrynn: Breaking For Some Balance: Candy Corn Halloween Party

My kids refuse to get excited about a Halloween costume this year. Despite the fact that they generally love dressing up and go through a dozen costume changes a day, despite the fact that I have shown them all sorts of options online and have given them free reign in choosing, despite even the fact that they will be rewarded with buckets of candy, they just don't care. They have more important things to think about. Like building the fourteen hundredth random Lego-mobile this week or decorating every doll in the house with any and every accessory on the premises. You know, important kid stuff.

So, it seems this year we're sticking with handy-me-downs dug out of our basement the day of trick-or-treating. Which, really, will get the job done just fine and will save me some money. And yet, in my efforts to get the kids excited about Halloween so that they will finally choose a costume, I've managed to get myself super-excited about the sugar-buzz holiday. The month doesn't feel complete without somebody getting giddy over a costume. Hey, maybe I will dress up for Halloween for the first time in my life?!

Anyway, in honor of all my Halloween excitement, today I'm taking a little party pause - breaking for some balance in our too-busy days - and I am sharing some fun photos from our Halloween celebration last year. Nothing deep or meaningful, no book promotions or writing challenges, just a good 'ole time with the people we love (and really, isn't that the greatest meaning of all?!!). Come on ya'll! Let's have some fun.

Last Fall I hosted this Candy Corn themed Halloween party. I didn't personally grow up celebrating Halloween, and really I still have a strong distaste for all the gore and goo surrounding the darker side of this holiday. However, my children love to play dress up and they love sugar, too (okay, so do I). So we've found our way to what feels like a balanced place where the ooey-gooeys are left to others, and the sugary imaginations are what we look to embrace.

With this in mind, I decided to gather some mama friends and their kiddos to celebrate the lighter side of Halloween with a daytime party last October. And what could be more Happy Halloween without all the haunts than candy corn?!

With candy corn as my main inspiration, I jumped at these adorable candy corn snack boxes from Oriental Trading Company, these sweet "Trick or Treat" candy corn paper bags and cupcake toppers from Hobby Lobby, and this larger-than-life glitter candy corn decoration from Marc's.

Now if you haven't already noticed (and found yourself gasping in horror as I did), this party took place before I was fortunate enough to get my Nikon D90 for my birthday this past March. Although I still can hardly do more than turn the thing on, it's presence alone results in images a thousand times better than anything I ever captured before owning it. My apologies for the old, grainy photos. :)

Some of my favorite treat additions were these simple baggies of popcorn with candy corn mixed in, as well as the bell pepper & carrot baggies I made up that also took on the candy corn color pattern. We also served these yummy mandarin orange & pineapple cups, which the kids devoured. And as always, I did lots of individual packaging to add color and make things feel just a little more special!

I made these candy corn garland after being inspired by this simple tutorial. You could use paint or paper, and can scale them to any size: mini for on top of a cake, medium for around a table or large as part of a backdrop!