HOCUS POCUS! OUR LITTLE WITCH IS 1 !
Cecile’s Birthday is October 10th, and what better way to celebrate than with a Halloween Party. At 1 year old, a pumpkin painting party would have been a little premature, so I decided to pull influence from my favorite Halloween movies- Hocus Pocus and Beetlejuice for a spooky sparkly tablescape, some delicious snacks, and cute costume play date for her and her friends.
At the ripe age of 1, Cecile has already done so much- In her monthly milestone pictures she’s been an astronaut, an olympic gold medalist, a soccer star, Ben Franklin, a circus performer, etc., and I wanted to display her first year in a big way! I spray painted some branches to place in vases and tied twine strings to them to clothespin her monthly first pictures. They made the perfect center piece against the back drop of Dollar store table cloths.. ( You didn’t think I was going to decorate for a whole party without using the Dollar Tree did you?!)
Next item of business for Hostess 101 is of course, the food! I’m from the South and we usually go big on food.. I tried to reel it in for this event because it was a small gathering.
We went hard in the Pinterest for the snacks:
This Harvest Hash trail mix kept guests coming back to graze for more.. I also tied them a couple scoops of it up in several Halloween treat bags as Party favors for the adults there!
We had a veggie tray like so, except i carved an Orange Bell Pepper to look like a jack-o-lantern instead of using the pumpkin.
For a sweet appetizer, I also whipped this delicious pumpkin spice appetizer up with Cool Whip and Fall spices to serve with apples and nilla wafers. It is a MUST TRY for your next Fall Party:
For one more appetizer I did a crowd favorite, cream cheese with pepper jelly. You can get creative here with shapes for your cream cheese, but I went with the simplest- a bone:
What is a Fall party with out apple treats? The kids were a little young to bob for apples so I whipped up some mini caramel apples with a melon baller and caramel dip.
If you plan on making these caramel apples, remember to heat up the caramel and stir stir stir like you’re making a roux. And if you don’t know what a roux is, that’s a post for another day. Some other quick tips are to make sure you pat dry the apples before dipping them in caramel, and dip them in an ice bath immediately after you dip them in caramel to set the coating.
Lastly, What is a birthday party without cakes and sweet treats?
My neighbor Jess has an amazing baking company called Jealous Bunny Cakes. She specializes in high-end gluten-free baked goods. I was never a gluten-free fan before I had her sweets, and I’m a total convert now. She’s amazing with carrot cakes, red velvet, cake pops, and specialty chocolates, but for Cecile’s party, we went with a reese’s pieces/Elvis inspired Peanut Butter Banana combo.
How perfect do these look?! And they taste even better if you can believe it!
Follow her on facebook at:
https://www.facebook.com/JealousBunnyCakes/ and if you are in the Denver area, give her a call for your next catered event!
My neighborhood is just teaming with talent. I also have a neighbor who makes specialty holiday cards. We used her digital paper cutter and some paper straws to take these delicious treats to the next level with some adorable toppers: 
The guests all loved them, and as far as witchy decor goes- It doesn’t get any cuter.
For more of Claudia’s awesome paper creations and cards, please follow her on instagram@
https://www.instagram.com/cshadler1/
As if I didn’t have enough sweet treats by now, I got a little carried away and also ordered a cake– which turned out sooo cute and worked as a statement piece for the Halloween tablescape:
While it looked amazing and I’m sure was delicious with all its chocolatey layers, we ended up not cutting the cake until the next day because everyone was stuffed with other sweet treats!
We carried over the Halloween theme to Cecile’s throne… I mean high chair. Claudia also used her digital paper cutter for the witch hat that says “1” and I made the highchair skirt by cutting strands of cute fabric and tying them on some twine.
Such an easy DIY with a cute effect and for easy cake smashing clean up, I covered the back of the high chair in another plastic table cloth.
For another DIY, I made this witchy grim reaper thing out of cheese cloth and fabric draped around a tomato cage. It’s a fun game in my house for my husband and I to take turns placing her in new spots so that she scares the bejesus out of the unsuspecting victim.
I took a tomato cage and draped black fabric instead of white and added cheese cloth to get a grim reaper look.
I added a coat hanger to mimic the shoulder silhouette and tied on some skeleton hands (salad tossers from the dollar tree) as hands. She’s holding a cauldron filled with party favors for all of Cecile’s guests too and a broom.
I also accented the table scape with fabrics of purple, black and white for a great color combo. I used some sparkly pumpkin props for a girly accent and got my little witch and I dressed in matching costumes.
Over all it was a spooky, smashing success:
Thanks for visiting!
sassandceciledotcom 