The weather is awesome here in the Twin Cities! We must have the luck of the Irish this St. Patrick’s Day! Show your Irish spirit, grab a few neighbors and friends for a toast and a dance by the light of the fire!
Get Leprechaun Silly! 
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Halloween is a perfect time for an outdoor party and we want to give you some great ideas to pull together a SPOOKTACULAR event!
Of course the first thing you need is a great bonfire..whether you have a backyard pit, a chiminea, a fireplace or patio pit use your bonfire as the central location of your party. For seating, cut circular logs or purchase haybales and place them around the fire. (not too close though!)
You’ll want to make sure you have dry kindling such as wood shavings or old bird’s nests. You’ll also want a stack of tinder (small twigs) to get the fire started. Make sure you have a stack of dried hard wooks such as oak or hickory… Sometimes we use Duralogs for ease of starting as well. Make sure to have a bucket of water nearby to douse the fire once the parties over. And have your bonfire maintenance tool www.hoejoe.com close by to help maintain the fire and safely add new logs when needed.
Once you have your bonfire set…it’s time to think about the party.
When you have a thematic party, the games you offer can actually be quite easy to plan. Look at some old standards and put a thematic spin on them! Here are some ideas for your next Halloween party
Pin the Spider on the Web – All you need is a big piece of clear plastic, a black permanent marker, some rubber cement and a paper spider of some sort. Draw a web on the clear plastic. Put some rubber cement on the back of the paper spider and have the guest try to “stick it” on the web. Even if they don’t and hit the wall instead, it is great fun.
Hot Pumpkin – Grab one of those mini pumpkins from your local grocery store. It will make the perfect prop for playing “Hot Pumpkin”, and Halloween variation of “Hot Potato”. Play some spooky Halloween music and when it stops, whoever has that pumpkin is out for that round. Play until there is just one left and you have your winner!
What’s In The Coffin? – Played exactly like the tray party game. Several items are put on a tray and you have to remember as many of the items as you can. Place items related to Halloween, like a pumpkin or jack-o-lantern, candy corn, bouncy balls that have an eyeball designs, black cat stickers, and ghosts made out of suckers and tissues inside a “coffin” (shoebox). Show it to the guest for 30 seconds to a minute. Then give them paper and pencil and have them write down as many items as they can remember. (Parents can help young children.) Whoever guesses the most items wins the coffin full of goodies.
How Many Candy Corn Are In The Jar? – Buy a glass jar. This jar can be as big or small as you want. Now, buy enough candy corn to fill the jar. Count how many candies go in until the jar is full. Now the guests can guess just how many are in there. The closest guess wins the jar! (You can do this with any kind of candy, suckers, or chocolate bars.)
Musical Chairs – To make it follow the Halloween theme, decorate the chairs with skeletons and spider webs or put haybales around your bonfire and use them as seats. Use Halloween music to play.
Pin the Nose on the Jack-O-Lantern – All you need for this game is a huge piece of orange poster board, a black Sharpie marker, a laminated nose shape and tape of some sort. Create a whole Jack-O-Lantern face minus the nose on the poster board, cut out, and hang on a wall. Place some tape on the back of the nose and let the kids try to stick it in the right place. You can modify this game to be Pin the Wart on the Witch, Pin the Mouth on the Ghost…whatever you would like.
Bobbing for Jack-O-Lanterns - On oranges, draw Jack-O-Lantern faces with a Sharpie marker. Place in a huge tub or wading pool of water and have the kids bob away!
Witch, Witch, Ghost! – Instead of the old standby “Duck, Duck, Goose”, just add some Halloween characters and let the kids play. Any combination of ghost, witch, goblin, spider, black cat or other popular Halloween character can be used. If you don’t want to use scary characters, you can make it Pumpkin, Pumpkin, Jack-O-Lantern!
Roasting Marshmallows – Marshmallow Smore’s are a great treat around the bonfire. A twist on this tradition can be creating caramel apple smores…slice apples into disks and spread peanut butter on one of the slices, add a toasted marshmallow and top with another apple slice…yummy!
Watch for more Halloween ideas throughout the month!
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