Home School Halloween Party

For the first time in our five years of home schooling, we have become a member of a home school association.  Well, a home school association of sorts anyway.  It's an association us Mormon home school moms simply formed ourselves.  There are five of us that home school here in Bismarck with varying ages and numbers of children.  After talking on a number of occasions, we simply decided to start combining for field trips, parties, and even some classes.  In October, we kicked off the year with a field trip to the Pumpkin Patch and Kids Petting Zoo.  We also began a Spanish class with one of the home school moms teaching all of the older children every other week and a special art/art history class through a local art school that all of the kids go to every other Thursday for a three hour block.  After the first of the year, we plan to combine for an hour a week of open gym time at one of the local gymnastic facilities, and our list of other potential options for classes and activities goes on and on.  At the top of my personal list; however, was our annual Halloween party, and with a local company finally agreeing to carry dry ice, it was a party to reckon with all of our past parties.  With a total of 24 kids in our group, (20 home school kids plus four boys from Mason's play group) we ended up moving our venue from our home to the church gymnasium.  We enlisted the play group moms to bring treats, and all of the home school moms were in charge of a booth.  I wasn't sure what everyone would show up with, but it ended up being a blast!!

As you can see from our photos, our booths included cookie decorating, a cake walk, a fishing pond, and a pumpkin dart wall.  The kids loved it!  After cycling through the booths, we had a few "wrap the mummy" competitions, 

read Room on the Broom, and made our traditional witches' brew. 

(Mason must have been too little to remember the last time we made witches' brew.  As Nick put in the secret ingredients and we all said the magic words, he was transfixed by the potion and accompanying fog.  It was so darn cute I thought I was going to cry!  I hate how they're all growing up!)

 The kids finished up by eating treats and running off any extra energy.  It was a wonderful afternoon, and a Mormon home school association success story that is definitely blog worthy--well for small town Bismarck anyway. Happy Halloween Home Schoolers!