Halloween is the perfect time for a spooky sleepover.  With decorations available everywhere it’s easy to go all out inside and out.  Put pumpkins outside your door and fake spider webs inside with all the creepy decorations you love.  Be sure to add the spooky sound effects with a Halloween CD or download.  Halloween party food ideas are easy to find all over the internet.  We love the  Ghoulish Halloween treats found here, including chicken “fingers”, “night eyes”, “eyeball assortment”, “bat wings” and “mad scientists”.   Make your party complete with some perfect games.  Here are a few ideas:

• Pass The Pumpkin (Perfect for younger kids)  This musical chairs type game involves passing small pumpkins and gourds and when the music stops the person without a pumpkin is out. Play until there is a winner. Kids sit in a circle and you hand out one less pumpkin then children in the group. Then instruct the children to start passing the pumpkins when the music begins to play and continue passing until the music stops.  Once the music stops the child without a pumpkin is out of the game.  Now remove a pumpkin from the group and restart the music. This pattern continues until you have one pumpkin with one winner.

• Worm Bobbing Each player is given a bowl with 6-8 worms all mixed up (should be same amount for each person) in the whipped cream.  The worms can be gummy worms of course! Then with their hands behind their back they must bob with their heads into the bowl of whipped cream and  pull out the worms and place them on the plate. The first one to finish wins. Blindfolds make it even more of a challenge.
• Scary Stories is always a classic.  Everyone sits in a circle in a darkened room, each holding a flashlight.  One player starts the game by saying “Once there was….” and goes on to say one or two sentences.  The next player continues the story with another sentence or two.  Once everyone has added to the story one person in the circle can end it.  The scarier the better!
• Spider Web requires only a ball of black yarn.  Everyone stands or sits in a circle.  One person starts with a ball of black yarn and begins by holding the end piece and throwing the ball across the circle.  The person who catches the ball must say a halloween word, grab a bit of the yarn and then throw the ball across the circle.  Continue until the ball is nearly finished and a huge web is created.
• Mummy Wrap is always fun.  Teams are split into pairs with one person being the mummy and the other being the wrapper.  Each team gets one or two rolls of toilet paper.  When the game begins, the wrapper begins wrapping the mummy with toilet paper circling around and around covering as much as possible.  The best mummy wins!
• Memory Game is a fun twist on a popular game.  Find about 20 different Halloween items.  We love the bowl of cold spaghetti, rubber bats, ping pong ball eyeballs, skulls and more.  Place everything on a tray and cover with a cloth.  Each player gets a paper and pencil and has 60 seconds to look at all the items before they are covered.  Because it’s a memory game each player then has to remember what spooky items were on the tray and write them down.  Of course, the one with the best memory wins!
• Monster Mash Freeze Dance is so much fun for kids and adults.  Put on this classic song full volume and have everyone dance, dance, dance but when the music stops everyone must freeze.  Whoever moves is eliminated.  The last one dancing is the winner.
• Witch Hunt involves picking up a bunch of cheap witches hat from your local discount store.  Hide them in random places around your house or yard.  Have your guests run around finding them and the one who finds the most wins.
• Worst Makeover Ever rewards the most disasterous makeover.  Divide your guests into teams and give each team a bag of makeup.  They are told to do the worst makeover ever.  Everyone votes on the biggest makeover disaster.

When everyone is settled in comfy pajamas choose one of these spooky movie classics keeping in mind what is best for the age group.

• Hocus Pocus
• Nightmare Before Christmas
• Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory
• The Blob
• Rosemary’s Baby
• Nightmare on Elm Street
• Saw

Tell us which horror classic films we missed and any other recommendations for a perfect kids sleepover.