Spooky Spectacular Sweetheat Goodness

The parents of the girls on the Sweetheat team (Hailey's Travel Ball Team) have decided to throw a Halloween get together for the girls.  In searching for Halloween/Age appropriate games I have come across two that I think we might use for their party and that I wanted to share with all of you in case you are also planning a Halloween party of your own!!! 

The first one is a Halloween spin off of the good ole' game Pin the Tail on the Donkey....

Pin the Tail on the Cat (Borrowed from Better Homes and Gardens)

This is no ordinary Halloween black cat. Our cool cat is jazzed up with orange, green, and purple polka dots; a yellow star marks the spot for pinning on brightly colored craft-foam tails. Repositionable tape, instead of pins, makes a game of Pin the Tail on the Cat safe and kid-friendly. Wide green scallop trim and orange foam stars finish the playing board.

Make blindfolds from Halloween-theme fabric, then give each child a twirl. Whoever gets the tail closest to the star gets a big round of applause. Remind your youngsters: No peeking!

Supplies

• 2 large sheets of black artist paper
• 20-x-25-inch piece of white foam-core board
• Spray adhesive and glue stick
• 2-inch-wide green scallop trim
• Foam die cuts: four 2-3/4-inch orange stars and one 1-inch yellow star
• Graph paper
• Craft foam: black, green, orange, and purple
• Card stock: green, orange, purple, and white
• Large circle punch
• Permanent markers: black and white
• Repositionable tape

Pin the tail on the cat pattern  >>

Instructions

1. From black artist paper, cut two 3-x-25-inch top and bottom borders, two 3-x-14-inch side borders, and four 3-inch corner squares.
2. Mount the black borders along the corresponding edges of the foam-core board with spray adhesive, aligning the outer edges. From green scallop trim, cut two 20- and two 15-inch lengths. Use spray adhesive to center the 20-inch trim pieces along the outer edges of the top and bottom borders.
3. Center the 15-inch trim pieces along the outer edges of the side borders with spray adhesive. Glue a corner square at each corner of the border, covering the ends of the trim and border pieces. Glue an orange foam star on each corner square.
4. Enlarge the body, tail, and face patterns (including the facial features) onto graph paper; cut out the patterns. Draw around the body and head patterns on black artist paper. Draw around the tail pattern one time on each color of craft foam. Transfer the mouth and eye patterns to whitecard stock and the nose pattern to a scrap of green trim. Cut out the shapes.
5. Use the large circle punch to make circles from green, orange, and purple card stock. Randomly glue the circles onto the cat's body and head, occasionally extending the circles over the cut edges of the shapes; trim away the portion of the circles that extend over the edge.
6. Referring to the photograph and the pattern mount the body and then the head on the foam-core board with spray adhesive. Glue on the mouth, eyes, and nose. Use a black marker to draw in the teeth and color in the pupils. Add whiskers and smile lines with the white marker.
7. Glue the yellow star on the cat's body, indicating the tail position. Use pieces of repositionable tape on the tails.

The Second one is similar to a bean bag toss game, but instead of bean bags you use ping pong balls.

Pumpkin Toss Game (Also Borrowed from Better Homes and Gardens)

What You Need

• Poster board: orange and black
• Cardboard box
• Spray adhesive
• Crafts knife
• 8 to 10 orange table-tennis balls
• Medium-tip black permanent marking pen

Download the Pattern  >>

How to Make It

1. Using a photocopier, enlarge the patterns as indicated on the pattern.
2. Trace the pumpkin patterns onto orange poster board and the eye and nose patterns onto black poster board; cut the pieces out, but do not cut out the pumpkin mouth openings.
3. Tape one end of the box shut and cut off the flaps on the opposite side.
4. Place the box with the open-side down and use spray adhesive to attach the black poster board to the front of the box.
5. Beginning with the largest pumpkin, use spray adhesive to attach it along the bottom edge of the poster board.
6. Spacing the pumpkins about 1 inch apart, adhere the medium pumpkin above the large pumpkin and the small pumpkin on top.
7. Cut out the pumpkin mouths through all the layers using a crafts knife.
8. Draw pumpkin faces on table-tennis balls using a medium-tip black permanent marking pen.
9. Allow the faces to dry.

Better Homes and Gardens didn't go into any detail about how to actually play this game, so I came up with a scoring system of my own. Feel free to use it or come up with one of your own.  As you can see there are three faces, the largest being on the bottom, the medium one being in the middle, and the smallest one being on the top. Each person gets 6 throws. 1 point for ringing the large mouth, 2 points for ringing the medium mouth, and 3 points for ringing the small mouth. Each person will alternate throws, and at the end of the round whoever has the most points wins! 

I hope you all have as much fun preparing for your Halloween Holiday as I am!!!!