Claire turned to me throughout all last week with talk about the Halloween decor we still had to put up — “Mom we need cobwebs and ghosts! Purple and black lights that blink (Dad can make them like that, I bet)! And spiders. Mom we need to hang up spiders!” Mom confession: I had no intention of making any of her dreams come true, but between her constant requests for a magical Halloween, and the fun charcuterie boards I’ve seen floating around on Pinterest this month, like so, I decided to make things happen when I saw this posable skeleton while at Target. I was staring at its bare bones when suddenly “The Freaky Feast!” popped into my head — our own version of the Halloween charcuterie board, coupled with games and a Halloween movie. I threw the girls and our friends a Halloween dinner in 2017, but this charcuterie board approach was new and fun. I pictured filling the skeleton’s bones with orange, purple, and green foods and calling the girls to the table to eat and eat and eat. I pictured talking about our biggest fears and our worst nightmares. And then yes, we’d play a game, and then – oh! – we’d watch “Casper” (a classic)! Life doesn’t always pan out according to my mental picture, but man, this one happened to, and I’m still stoked that it did…
The girls helped me put the finishing touches together for the food, and they oohed and ahhed over its final presentation. They totally opened up about their worst nightmares and biggest fears, which surprised me –I thought their responses would be silly — but they were actually pretty serious and you bet this mama took note. 🙂 We played a ball toss game with candy at the end for those whose balls made it into the far-away buckets. The movie didn’t pan out, since we couldn’t find the TV remote (we still can’t find the remote, haha), so we just played some more and had a blast. It was so nice to do something so fun and novel to our little family. A tradition was born! But really. I already have next year’s “Freaky Feast” menu planned out. Makes me happy. I love loving my little crew!
PS, this was such an easy, fast party to put together. You really only need a handful of Halloween decorations to place around the skeleton (I used small pumpkins and figurines and spiders, etc., that I’ve snagged from Target’s $1 section over the years), a small skeleton, and some themed food. Our menu this year is below — purple and green grapes, oranges, and a double-batch of these green muffins (make a batch of mini and regular sized muffins, and add more honey to make them sing). It was a brunch! And it was a blast.
PPS, Chloe woke up riiight as the Feast finished. HI, CHLOE DARLING. We love you!!!
