12 Years of Halloween Fun!

My sister and I are getting ready to host our twelfth annual Halloween Party next weekend! It's something we look forward to each year and normally have the next year's theme picked before we have even hosted the current party. Looking back through the photos makes me smile as it offers a snap shot of our lives each year for the past twelve years. Some faces have changed, the locations have moved and we've all gotten a little older. With each year's photos, you can see changing relationships, marriages, births and moves. I love reminiscing by looking through the photos - I don't think I could pick a favorite party!

Our themes for the past twelve years

2016 - Drive In Movie
2015 - Glow in the Dark
2014 - Rehearsal Dinner Trick or Treating
2013 - Dinner in the Apple Orchard
2012 - Dracula's Wake
2011 - A Celebration of Phobias
2010 - Starring Vintage Horror Films
2010 - Kid's Mad Science Lab
2009 - Dracula's Ball
2009 - Kid's Monster Mash
2008 - Candy Inspired Soriee
2007 - CSI Dinner
2006 - Day of the Dead Gathering
2005 - Harry Potter Ball
2004 - First Halloween Dinner

The first small party crowd (all still attending except for Amy who moved back to California from New York making the distance too far to commute)

We all look so young! Our youngest guests in particular show the years passing. Bella attended her first party in 2006 at just a few months old. She is now 10!

 

As relationships started, new faces have became regular guests at each party.

The first few years, the parties were mostly adults, but then new babies started appearing each year!

  

We have celebrated in Hampstead, our condo in Merrimack, Katie's condo in Epping and this year our house in Nottingham. We also took the party on the road ... an indoor mini golf course, an apple orchard and even our wedding venue.

We love integrating the theme into invitations, decorations and menus. Our guests even related their costumes to the theme some years!

 

 

 

  

So many great times with wonderful friends! Here's to 12 more parties and all the things that the next 12 years bring to our lives. 

Shake, Rattle and Roll

We celebrated our daughter's first birthday party with a musical celebration. With over 65 friends and family, the party hit all the right notes! Decor include primary colors, musical notes and instruments and photos of our daughter's first year.

The two main tables had themed backdrops. The food table had a backdrop covered in records and the dessert table was covered in sheet music. The poster of photos and giant film strips were ordered from Social Print Studio. The dessert table featured the cake made by Popovers on the Square.

 

The favors were a "Build your own band" bar. Fabric bags were filled with kazoos, flutes and tambourines. Desserts included cake, musical note lollipops, themed sugar cookies, pretzel drum sticks and record licorice wheels.

We hosted the party in our barn - it was our first celebration in the space and it worked great! The space allowed room for tables, mingling and activities. The front doors let people roam in and out.

 Children could make their own shaker with plastic spoons, Easter eggs and assorted fillers.

We had a music station with cymbals, drums and chimes that the guests loved banging away at.

 

 

The birthday girl enjoyed her own mini smash cake!

 

Young guests could also decorate their own guitars to take home.

 

The hosts and guest of honor!