Photograph Credit: Microsoft Images

With the arrival of Halloween week, I need to finalize the plans for our Halloween Bash.

Last week, I began this short series with preparing 2 weeks prior to the party with the menu and invitations.

During party week, I focus on the itinerary for our Halloween Bash.

Part 2: Finalizing the week of the Halloween Bash

The week of the party is when I work on all the details of the meal, games, and prizes. The goal is in sight as we prepare our house for our celebratory Halloween Bash.

Our Halloween Bash Itinerary

• Greet each guest and allow the children to play in the living room

• Serve dinner: lasagna, salad, and bread

• Create crafts with the children

• Choose teams and play Bounce the Ball into the Pumpkin – Set a plastic pumpkin in the middle. Give each team the same number of ping pong balls. By bouncing or tossing the balls, the teams race to see who can get all their balls in before the other team.

• Play Mummy Wrap – Using toilet paper and a person, each team races to see who can wrap their person using the entire roll of toilet paper the quickest.

• Serve Dessert

• Play Pin the Nose on the Pumpkin – the Classic Pin the Tail on the Donkey Halloween-style.

• Play with toys and prizes from the games

With the itinerary set, the details fall into place. My home is decorated, prizes purchased, grocery shopping done, and the game pieces gathered.

By this step in the process, I am ready to execute the itinerary on the evening of our Halloween Bash. In using time wisely, I just need to follow the plan. Happy planning!

Question: How do you set your itinerary?

With the exception of last year, our family has hosted a Halloween Bash each year. I think this year marks our 4^th Halloween party.

Last year, our family was ill and another family that we invite annually was also battling sickness, so we cancelled. It was sad for us all, but we planned to celebrate this year.

In this short 3-part series, I breakdown our Halloween Bash by time:

Part 1: Preparing 2 weeks prior to our Halloween Bash

Part 2: Finalizing the week of the Halloween Bash

Part 3: Executing the evening of the Halloween Bash

Part 1: Preparing 2 weeks prior to Halloween Bash

In preparation for our Halloween party, I start with the food and the invitations.

Selecting the Menu

Knowing what I plan to serve helps me determine the number of people to invite. Since our party occurs in the evening, I plan a dinner menu. After contemplating the many choices, I settled on making two pans of lasagna, a large salad, homemade French bread, and a dessert.

Creating the Invitation

With the menu planned, Paul created our invitation. Using the chosen date and time, he updated the information on the invitation sent in prior years. Using the same template year after year saves time and energy. 😉

Choosing the Invitees

Repeating our Halloween Bash with our friends is part of the tradition. We try to invite the same families year after year. Since they are all good friends, I choose to e-mail the invitations.

Knowing that our celebration was planned, each of them was waiting for the e-mail and responded back promptly. I think we were all ready to get together.  🙂

By selecting the menu, creating the invitation, and choosing the invitees, we had our Halloween Bash prepared two weeks prior to our party. All three tasks took less than one hour to complete.

In using time wisely, our Halloween Bash is progressing along. Next week, I’ll share the details of party week. Happy planning!

Question: How soon do you begin planning a repeat party?