Minecraft Halloween Party

When Bryce was small, I had a dear friend who woke one morning to discover that she was miscarrying a set of twin boys.  Not wanting her two young daughters to go with her to the hospital or be alarmed, she gave me a call and I invited them over, telling her to tell them it was a Halloween party invitation.  That first Halloween party was a happy/sad event and thrown together quite quickly.  But, it marked the beginning of a long string of Halloween parties my eldest son enjoyed.  It became an annual tradition and quite a lot of fun (there was the year of the Spurting Spider cake which I've posted about before).

Since the two younger boys have been around, I haven't been game to attempt another Halloween party.  I suppose I have more anxiety issues now than I did then and it always seemed like it might overwhelm me.  But, this year, over Fall Break from school, all Trevor could talk about was wanting to throw a Minecraft Halloween party.  For his last birthday party, only one third of those invited attended.  I worried he might be disappointed again if few kids could come.  He talked me into inviting 12 kids and he began to frantically work out all the details.  He is a detail-oriented kind of guy.  He had a blast searching the Internet for ideas.  Thus, none of our ideas here are original, really, but we had a lot of fun pulling it all together.

Sadly, I failed to take a single picture during the festivities.  I guess I was keyed up about everything going off without a hitch.  Plus, there is the factor of my camera being broken (thanks to Trevor leaving it out on the trampoline overnight), which means I have to take all pictures with my I-pad (not quite as convenient).  But, I managed to take a few photos before and several after it had all been cleaned up (sorry, not quite as authentic, I know).

First, Trevor set about making each of the invited kids a Minecraft character mask.  He printed these out on the computer and then affixed them to large squares of cardboard.  The Enderman mask was the biggest hit and I think several of the kids were fighting to have it, which led to an indoor game of chase.

Next, he tackled ideas for games.  He wanted to hold a costume contest.  Plus, he made these two games, as well (a Creeper Toss game and a Pin-the-Tail-on-the-Piggy game):

He had a set idea of what kind of refreshments he wanted and they had to fit the Minecraft theme.  So we placed out little bowls (inexpensive green ones located at the dollar store) filled with things to represent gold (Rolos), iron (Kisses), carrots (carrots - ha), Zombie Poo (chocolate covered raisins), Redstone (watermelon jello squares), Diamond (blueberry jello squares), Sticks (pretzel sticks), and TNT (Twizzlers).  He also provided Creeper juice (small water bottles with a creeper label he crafted and then copied on the copier).  The Rice Crispy Treat Creepers were the biggest hit and there was only one left in the pan at the end of the party:

The most amazing costume (in my opinion) didn't win.  One of the two girls who came wore a head of foam snakes to compliment her Medusa costume.  There were four boys (plus my two) and none of them voted for her.  Sad.  But, Trevor had great fun passing out prizes (to everyone, so nobody would feel left out).  He gave out a Minecraft poster (to the costume contest winner), two Yahtzee games, a bead set, a wooden helicopter model and a glow-in-the-dark ball (which was the only prize the recipient didn't seem too thrilled about - all the rest were hits).  Each guest also went home with a Creeper goody bag filled with small Halloween items and candy.

Apart from some moments of anxiety when too many of them were piled on the trampoline together (I had visions of bodily injury) and when a few of the boys wandered off to the bridge (led by my two mischievous ones), it was a thoroughly enjoyable party.  For the most part, Trevor didn't even want me to hang around, so I just sort of kept a side eye on them and a low profile.  They told jokes and played chase and Trevor showed a few of them how to get skins on Minecraft.  The kids all had a wonderful time and several asked if we could do this every year (um, I'm not there yet, although I did say that if we have one next year it will be Sean's turn to invite his friends - the poor kid already never gets a birthday party because his birthday is so close to Christmas that nobody would want the added expense or time commitment).  The party was a big hit and a lot of fun to plan and pull off.