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       #Post#: 9598--------------------------------------------------
       Halloween Parties 2018
       By: Jack Date: October 26, 2018, 5:56 am
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       I just thought I'd take a minute to discuss these, since the
       first of them is tonight.
       I have way too many kids at too many schools to make Halloween
       parties an easy thing.  At BCA, I have Liam, Van, Zeke, Kaden
       and Colt and Billy and Emmet.  At the public high school, I have
       Parker and Leif (and Joel) and Chandler.  Devon and Kenny both
       attend the public middle school along with Jake and Ryan Tucker,
       there are Connor and Curtis at the elementary, and then there
       are grands.
       The public high school kids turned out to be least problem.
       Parker has an A/V club party, Joel has the band party, and
       Chandler and Leif both have the Scout party, and I didn't have
       to host any of those.  For that matter, Devon has a football
       party Saturday night, and he's happy to go to the game tonight,
       so he's not a consideration either.  Despite being in different
       levels at different schools, Billy and Emmet and Colt and Kenny
       and Ryan Tucker and Leif are all pretty good friends, so that
       let me break things down into three groups for this weekend: the
       8th and 9th grade kids, the older elementary and the younger
       kids.  There is an event at the Family Center (Van and the
       Phantoms will be playing) and Liam is going to attend that.
       That only leaves Kaden out in the cold, but he knows he's
       welcome to go with Liam.  On the other hand, he's very good
       friends with Colt and Ryan Tucker, so he'll probably just hang
       out with that group.
       Tonight, I am hosting the party for the older elementary kids,
       and Jake will probably be sneaking into that (Jake is a 7th
       grader, but not especially mature, and he does spend a fair
       amount of time with Kline and the older grands, though he might
       also visit the middle/lower high school party tomorrow night).
       That will be Glen, Kline, Adam, Andy, Eli Marchant, Brandon
       Malone, Ennis Strouse, and a bunch of their friends from school
       and from the neighborhood.
       Tomorrow night is for the younger teens.  After a few cold,
       rainy days (and with the Halloween forecast looking questionable
       at best), this weekend is supposed to be warm (upper 70s and low
       80s) and clear.  That's good.  While I doubt this will be a pool
       party, it is going to be a boy/girl party, and a lot of it will
       take place on the patio and in the back yard.
       As for Sunday, it's mostly going to be an afternoon party -
       snacks and carnival games.  A 'haunted tunnel', and a movie
       (probably Monster Squad).
       If you'd like to read a bit more about how we do Halloween here,
       there's an article posted on my site.  It's several years old,
       but, while I've changed out some of the displays and
       decorations, the basics are still accurate.
  HTML https://bransomtx.com/halloweenathome.html
       #Post#: 9599--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Halloween Parties 2018
       By: Lia Date: October 26, 2018, 6:04 am
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       Sounds like a fun weekend. [emoji1]
       #Post#: 9602--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Halloween Parties 2018
       By: Zyngaru Date: October 26, 2018, 9:34 am
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       Seems you have figured everyone in.  A very busy next few days.
       ;D
       #Post#: 9604--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Halloween Parties 2018
       By: kalico Date: October 26, 2018, 11:32 am
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       I hope everyone has a great time and it all sounds like fun.....
       Good luck and enjoy
       Hugs kal
       #Post#: 9605--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Halloween Parties 2018
       By: David M. Katz Date: October 26, 2018, 12:27 pm
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       You should add this to your Halloween decor:
       [URL=
  HTML http://funkyimg.com/view/2MtWg][IMG]http://funkyimg.com/i/2MtWg.jpg[/img][/URL]
       #Post#: 9615--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Halloween Parties 2018
       By: Jack Date: October 27, 2018, 10:10 am
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       We did have a great party last night. I naively assumed that,
       because it was mostly 10 to12 year old boys, I'd be okay on
       snacks.  Having assumed that, I have to make a supply run today,
       before I deal with the actual teenagers.
       I fed my own boys beforehand, and I served stuffed jalapenos,
       chicken nuggets, mini cordon bleu (okay - I might have eaten
       most of those myself), mini corn dogs, mac and cheese bites,
       pigs in blankets, pizza rolls, bagel bites, taquitos, mozzarella
       bites, Irish nachos, sweet potato puffs, veggie bites, corn
       nuggets, Hot Pocket snackers, sliders, chips and dips.  I had to
       special order a few of those ahead of time, so I'm not sure I'll
       be able to reveal everything.  Fortunately, most of it can be
       found locally.
       We did have a good crowd last night, including a number of my
       students, but everyone was well behaved.  The kids are at that
       awkward age where they're too old to play many party games, but
       too young to get into them ironically or out of nostalgia.  WE
       did have a 'pumpkin hunt' where we'd hidden small, plastic
       pumpkins which were numbered around the block, and the kids drew
       a number, then had to find their own.    While it was also
       marked for 'over 13' we gave an Escape Room (The Werewolf
       Experiment) a try, and it worked pretty well.  We had a couple
       of goofy games - witch race and pumpkin toss - then they retired
       to the theater to watch some 'scary' cartoons before I let them
       have some free time to visit, before most went home, and it
       turned into a slumber party for the rest.
       Unfortunately, everyone was well behaved, but I did hear a
       couple of other reports I'll be sharing elsewhere.
       #Post#: 9617--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Halloween Parties 2018
       By: db105 Date: October 27, 2018, 10:23 am
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       This must be a lot of work to organize, but very rewarding.
       #Post#: 9619--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Halloween Parties 2018
       By: Zyngaru Date: October 27, 2018, 10:50 am
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       Mini Cordon Bleu's.  I would have had to fight you for those.
       ;D ;D ;D
       10 to 12 year old boys are the perfect age.  Yes not little boys
       and not yet teens, but they are the age where they are so
       helpful and want to be helpful.  I loved that age at summer
       camps.  We always got the awards for best cabin, because they
       wanted to please and do what needed to be done.  Younger boys
       wanted to but weren't old enough or big enough to be that
       helpful and 13 and up, just didn't care, they just did what they
       had to.
       #Post#: 9637--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Halloween Parties 2018
       By: Jack Date: October 29, 2018, 6:17 am
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       It has been a VERY busy weekend, but a very good one.
       I mentioned in chat that my mom got a new refrigerator this
       weekend, and I had to supervise the delivery (and help with the
       installation), and there were some problems that ended up with
       me having to make multiple trips to Loew's (a home repair
       store), and replacing a number of other parts of the plumbing.
       Except a sore shoulder and cramping hand from having to work in
       a really awkward position, it wasn't actually too hard, and it
       is kind of fulfilling to be able to do work yourself and repair
       problems.
       As far as I can tell, the kids had a great time.
       Referring to today's BOTD scenario - my house is indeed large
       enough that I can be having a party, and still have other kids
       segregated from it and not locked in a room.  That's because the
       kids' bedrooms are in two groups, each of which is off a common
       room.  As long as I make it clear that there are penalties for
       leaving their areas (and provide food), then it's rarely a
       problem.  On top of that, the two guests rooms are isolated from
       everything else, but those would be more for punishment if
       someone was confined to them.  Of course, that's much easier in
       nice weather (which we had this weekend), when most of the party
       can take place in the backyard and on the patio.  On the other
       hand, I did farm out most of the boys who weren't at a specific
       party, having them spend the night somewhere, or just giving
       them a little extra money to attend a movie or haunted house.
       Except for being a bit shocked at the appetite on the pre-teen
       kids, there weren't any problems (I have been throwing kids'
       parties for a while now). The worst part was having to make
       multiple trips to the store.
       I am still upset with George W. Bush over changing out daylights
       savings time.  It was 7pm before it was starting to be actually
       dark, but that was the time the kids were leaving.  I had a
       bunch of glow sticks, and we had a couple of games we wanted to
       try, but it never got dark enough to do it outside (not enough
       room inside).  In the past, DST ended the last weekend of  Oct,
       which was almost always before Halloween. Now it ends the first
       weekend in November.
       Anyway, I think it's fair to say a good time was had by all.  I
       know I certainly enjoyed myself, what with having all those cute
       boys and handsome teens running around for the weekend.  I
       wasn't even upset that everyone behaved.
       #Post#: 9640--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Halloween Parties 2018
       By: db105 Date: October 29, 2018, 8:25 am
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       [quote author=Jack link=topic=911.msg9637#msg9637
       date=1540811830]
       I wasn't even upset that everyone behaved.
       [/quote]
       I know you are joking there, but in any case someone misbehaving
       so much that a spanking was needed would be the exception rather
       than the rule for this kind of parties, right?
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