Monster Mash, Home Style

There was a Halloween party yesterday that the girls had confirmed they did not want to go to until, of course, five minutes before it was to begin. By then, I just couldn't fit it in. Other plans had been made, much to their dismay ("Why can't we just go right now?").

To ease their seemingly excruciating suffering, I promised them we'd make our very own party at home. This was going to need all the elements of a spooky bash if they were to be convinced. Lucky for me, the girls are only five and seven and I can still get away with alot. So I streamed some Halloween music, turned off the lights and broke out the glow sticks, made some face paint, served a special treat, got out the costumes and poof! we had our very own "Monster Mash."

We started with some leftover anniversary cake

...then moved on to the homemade face paint. We mixed cold cream and cornstarch until we had the right consistency (there are many variations of this recipe online so we just mixed until it seemed right).

Next came the drops of food coloring (Be sure to make your colors dark)

Our clown/makeup artist attempted to transform a sweet face into a scary one

...then did a few touch ups to her own makeup for good measure

There are so many social obligations—birthday parties, games, seasonal events, and school functions, that sometimes it gets overwhelming. We try to keep a balance between life at home and our social lives but we just can't do it all, so at times we pick and choose. I must concede that this is probably going to become more of a challenge as the girls grow older. For now, I'll get away with what I can and keep my "babies" close to home. And use smoke and mirrors—or glow sticks and face paint—when desperation calls for it.

I have to warn you that the face paint is greasy. The girls put it on using cotton swabs and it went on in globs (as you can see above). Later, we applied it with a paint brush and it went on much smoother.