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pastel halloween party

Even though Halloween and trick-or-treating aren’t really a big thing in New Zealand, last year, we decided not to let that stop us from our usual fabulous, group costume-y, October 31st festivities.

Enter the most fabulous pastel Halloween party ever! Since we don’t really do scary or gory (which was 99% of the ‘halloween party decor’ available here), this party was heavy on the use-what-we-can-find elements.

Hence 300 pastel balloons and the honeycomb balls that have made appearances at more parties that I can count- ha!

(Sidenote- I’m sure y’all know about this by now, but if you don’t- BALLOON TAPE. Y’all, it makes balloon arches and installations about 3000% easier. For real- GAME CHANGER.)

super easy pastel halloween party

And, of course, all sorts of letterboards and light up signs and balloon letters. (“Scary as” is a twist on the popular kiwi phrase “sweet as.”)

Piper and I also made a rainbow of tassels and added eyes for ‘ghosts’…

… and some pom pom ‘pumpkins’ to use as treat toppers.

Add in a “Pick Your Poison” station with a variety of flavored waters (love love LOVING the Hearth & Home cart that I shipped to myself in our container… it will make every party from now on cuter).

We added ginger beer and Fanta to the lineup later in the evening (and Piper stood behind the cart and helped serve everyone so that it wasn’t a disaster of sugar-y mess) and the whole thing was a huge hit.

Adam was stateside a couple weeks before Halloween and brought back a suitcase filled with a variety of candy corns (Burke and Pi love the pumpkin shaped candy corns!) and Reese’s pumpkins (the best Halloween treat of all time) to add to a pile of orange candies I found here for Halloween treat grazing platters.

The kids also made trays of cute themed food (let’s take a minute to pause and be thankful for big kids that help with party food!?! I don’t know if I even knew to hope for this day, but Burke and Pi did SO MUCH to help with this little party)! I’ll put together a whole post with their awesome Halloween Party food ideas…

We added candy eyeballs to a variety of treats for a dessert table (ok, mostly Burke added candy eyeballs… not really “we” added candy eyeballs).

Our favorite? THE MOANA COSTUMES. And the cutest Bohden-Maui you ever did see. (I need to put together a whole post stat).

pastel halloween party

And also- introducing our kiwi friends to the glory of Halloween (and treats like Reese’s pumpkins and candy corns)! And having our home and back yard filled with friends was pretty great as well!

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easy star wars costumes (DIY and no sew!)

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how to make a sparkly confetti tutu

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how to make a fluffy, fabulous, no-sew tutu (aka ‘ocean costume’)

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how to make a squid costume

I love Burke’s imagination and ‘vision.’ That kid keeps me on my toes, and I absolutely love that about him. He also (usually) doesn’t ask for much and is so thankful for the things I make for him. Because of that appreciative-and-not-demanding combo, I really love trying to problem solve ways to make the things […]

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halloween costumes 2012- the squid and the ocean

Burke decided on this year’s Halloween costumes over a month ago and has been absolutely unwavering in his decision since then. He requested a Squid costume for himself and an accompanying Ocean costume for Piper Jane. We threw out several alternate “Squid pairings” (a fish, a shark, even Ink) to no avail. Luckily, my blue […]