Halloween 2015: Hunting for a Good Time!

If you've been reading Wediquette for awhile, you know that we love Halloween! Dressing up, making fun themed foods & drinks, and getting together with friends and going out for a good time are among our favorite pastimes, so when you put them all together, it's sure to be a blast! Well, this year was no exception.  We decided to switch things up and it was a hauntingly good time. We split the night into 4 components: immediate family at our place for Dinner, friends and family over for a small party to get the night started, everybody out in downtown Phoenixville for a Halloween Scavenger Hunt, and anybody who wanted to staying overnight at our place (and possibly joining for brunch at McKenzies in the morning). As the date approached, we made some plans and the day of, I went shopping at the Farmer's Market, Wegmans, Goodwill (for a last-minute costume check), and the Beer Distributor before coming home and getting to work!

Inspired by this recipe from Pinterest, I made these incredible (and adorable!) jack-o-lantern stuffed peppers and this Pumpkin soup   (no picture- oops!) for dinner. Served with a baguette from the Farmer's Market, everything was delicious!

For the party, I made a little Veggie man (also Pinspired) and a Graveyard dessert (no pics, but imagine a layered dessert with vanilla pudding, crushed Oreos, cookies & cream pudding, more Oreos, everything repeated, and Milano cookie gravestones). It was rich and delicious!

Pinterest Veggie Man

Our Running Veggie Man! 

For drinks, we did Warm Apple Cider in the Crockpot (with the option of adding rum, vodka, or another favorite 'spirit', as well as our favorite Punch with Sherbet (we went with orange) and 7Up!

We put on some music, switched some light bulbs for green, yellow and flickering versions, and enjoyed our time with our guests at our place before deciding we were just about ready to go out! We did a 5-minute hunt for plastic spiders that were hidden around our place (with the winner getting her pick of a few $5 gift card prizes- Wawa, Dunkin' Donuts, or Starbucks), then split into two teams, set an end time, got instructions and headed out the door!

We called it The Scavenger Hunt of the Burning Phoenix, and it looked like this: 

Examine your list, explore downtown, and exude happiness. Take your photos and save your items needed to complete the challenge. Honor System prevails on your team completing all tasks while together as a group. You are more than welcome to drink more than what's on the list: 
- Buy (and finish) two Guinness at Molly's 
- Find someone named Freddy, Jason or Chucky (and can prove it to you with ID) 
- Grab a coaster from as many bars as you can (don't get caught...)
- Where's Waldo? I don't know, find him
- Is it someone's birthday? Take a bday selfie with them 
- Bring back a free giveaway item from a bar
- Roll some footage of your team enacting a dramatic zombie apocalypse scene in a public place
- Take a picture of a pumpkin 
- Buy (and finish) one Pumpkin Smash drink at Bluebird
- Get a video of your team members playing air guitar/drums/vocals
- Take a picture with the Diving Cat...and try to imitate the Diving Cat
- Stop by Bistro to buy (and finish) 2 craft beers
- Bump into that random someone you know that is not a part of our group and take a picture with him/her. 
- Buy and finish as a group a Halloween drink/shot
- Take a picture with someone dressed up as:
    America
    Animal
    Donald Trump
    Ghost/Ghoul/Witch
    Inanimate Object
    Nurse
    Pimp
    Pirate
    Same Costume as You
    Superhero
   *We added on bonus items, including Jumping in on a Game that's in progress, and finding Kaitlin Jenner

...and then we met up to check out each team's adventures and verify what was found. It was helpful if all of the team's photos were on one person's camera/phone. Neither team found a Donald Trump (we're fired, I guess), but we did have so much fun and the moments when we actually found a Chucky- or found a birthday girl- or found the only Pimp in town- or found Kaitlin Jenner- were that much more exciting! We voted on the best Costumes- best couple, funniest, and scariest, and the winners picked their Gift Card prizes!

This was a really fun way to switch up Halloween, and then we went back to our place for late-night Zombie fingers...I mean, hot dogs and ketchup...and of course, some more Graveyard dessert!

Hope you had a great Halloween :) What were the most creative costume you saw or fun food item you came across?!

Note: A few weeks prior to Halloween, my team at work got creative and dressed up as the Alice in Wonderland crew for a Fall Fest event we had. I was the Queen of Hearts, and turned a saved birthday sash into a Hearts sash with the Queen at the top of the front and the back, added some striped tights from a Where's Waldo (and Wenda) costume, made a gold crown out of a super-sparkly hat from a recent wedding we attended, put together an outfit, added a heart necklace, and got my face painted with some hearts at a 5k that morning (convenient)! It was an easy, peasy costume and was comfortable for work!

Looking for more Halloween ideas? Check out the Wediquette Halloween Pinterest board and check out Wediquette Halloween posts from 2013 (click here) and 2014 (click here). To check out Brianna's amazing Halloween costume wig tutorial (for her Rapunzel costume in 2013), click here!

David & Brianna were a butterfly catcher & a butterfly- adorable!

Eman won our 'scariest' costume award! Shows we're not really into the scary costumes. 

People loved Mike's Steve Bartman costume. Mike loved running into another Steve Bartman!