I have always wanted to have a Halloween Party for kids. My sons are 16yrs & 2yrs old, so the party had to entertain all ages. This party was very inexpensive since I used decorations I already had or purchased cheap from either Walmart, Target, Spirit or Oriental Trading. Mom and I also sew and do crafts so are supply drawers are full of material, paints etc. Plus we had to be creative since we live in an apartment (downstairs). I started by sending out some cheap invites asking out guest to come in costume. For decorations, I went to Walmart & gathered several same size boxes for my decorations since refrigetor boxes are hard to find. To decorate my balcony I made a Cemetary entrance, I took some of the boxes and cut the seam that held the side & bottoms of each box then put them back together so that the writing was on the inside of the box, leaving me a blank surface to paint on. I took 8 of the boxes, white paint and sponges and made a brick pattern for the columns of my entrance. Then I took another box, some spray glue and some plastic banner w/skulls and made a top to the column entrance. Great design and cheap...Moms love cheap! Inside the cemetary, I found a graveyard background scene @ Spirit that I placed on the wall. I also got a pot of soil, some large tree branches and made a spooky looking tree on the balcony. I covered the pot with some black material and placed some crows in the branches and a dummy made out of old clothes, newspaper, and a old man mask at the base of the tree. We also made tombstones & hung glow in the dark spider web & spiders. For a haunting effect we placed both a strobe & black light on the balcony. We decorated our front door with a motioned sensor sign that read "BEWARE" along with a skull & finger to warn our guest of the fright they may have when entering. Once in the house, You had to pass through some very friendly spirits. I made two 7' panels from boxes to cover the entranc of  the living room. We painted them black and attached 40 green & white inflated latex gloves (hands) on them. In the living room, All the family photos on the wall were decorated with a dry erase marker. We basically gave each picture a costume to wear...cheaper than buying decorations to cover large spaces. We also hung streamer (black, orange & purple) and balloons. I could not move my entertainment center. So, I covered it with some orange felt, I made some black felt spiders and bats that I hand stitched to the fabric. We placed some animated decorations(tombstones, pumpkins and black cat) on top. We also covered the bar to our kitchen w/orange felt & black felt witch hats, we then hung streamers from the counter to the floor. I purchased a willow tree (out of lights) for the bar, 2 signs w/gauze streamers (ea. read "lost souls tavern") to hang on each side of the island, a a motion sensored skull & bones mobile to hang above the island. I painted a large frankenstein on a box and on another I painted "HAPPY HALLOWEEN" I placed this on top of the refrigerator. In the dining room, we moved the dining table to the far wall & covered it with halloween fabric. We place a 3' candlabra in a pot of soil in the middle of the table, along with a black cape and spiders around the pot. We also hung a crashed witch on the wall. I covered lamps with sheer red material & changed the hood light over the stove with a black light. In our hallway to the backrooms, I replaced the bulbs with black lights and placed a metal "BEWARE OF BATS" sign over the enterance. I then hung a dozen rubber bats from the ceiling with the black light it looked as if we were outside. We also hung cut-outs of frankenstein, dracula and the grim reaper and 2 famous portraits, the Mona Lisa (Moaning) and the other is that picture of the farmer & his wife ( not sure of the title) altered for the halloween mood on the wall. So our guest weren't confused on which door led to the bathroom, we placed a musical doorknocker. Once inside there were orange lights hanging over the mirror. Also, through out the house we hung a dozen vinyl signs with sayings such as: hiring for the graveyard shift, dead end etc. For food, I made mummified pigs (pigs-n-blanket), booger dip (rotel, velveeta cheese & green food coloring), finger dogs (roasted weinnes with a spider ring & almond sliver for nail) on a bun, rotten chicken sandwiches (spinach chicken salad sandwich), cookies, rice krispie treats & a coffin cake. I especially enjoyed the cake we used a red velvet cake cut into shape of coffin covered with purple icing we then crushed graham crackers to look as if the coffin was sitting on dirt. I placed a skeleton hand holding black rose in the middle of the cake, I put the cake against a cardboard tombstone with weeds. It was awesome, I had wanted to melt a red crayon on over the rose to look as blood but time got away from me. To wash this down, I made 5 gallons of curdled blood (strawberry kool-aid & pineapple juice) and placed it into a large caldron. We the floated plastic eyeballs and served it with gummy brains. I also placed plastic roaches, rats, spiders & worms on the food for that freaky effect we got screams from parents and "COOL" from the kids. Especially, the booger dip. It seems that everyone we invited arrived on time with tricks and treats in mind, we started with a meet & greet. We had all kinds of costumes, I dressed as Uncle Fester (my little one didn't know I was mommy) my mother dressed as a fairy godmother, my oldest was a cloaked demon & the little one was a scarecrow. A few witches showed up some superheros and even spongebob to name a few. Once we all admired each others creativity we moved outside to the front of the balcony (with the great scene) for a game of musical graves (made from cardboard, paint and skewers and witty names) as each grave was taken out we placed them in the flower bed, mummy wrap (toilet paper your partner)this was great. We then moved inside for some eats, to calm the kids we also played some ghost story cd's along with other scary music while we played "Pass the Pumpkin" (similar to Hot Potato). After the kids finished, we went back out where we set up a "Pin the Nose" on the witch game. The kids then played a tag game while we set up the costume contest area, we judged for each category (0-5yrs, 5-10yrs etc,) with each had 3 winners. After that we had a fashion show. For prizes we had stuffed animals, flying bats, pratical jokes kits, target games (comes with a body part, skeleton hand and a target poster), lighted necklaces, goodie bags (candy, G-I-D teeth & skeletons), ghost lollipops (made from tissue paper & twist ties). Our party was for 3 hrs and with all the activities we ran a little over. I look forward to next year.