My daughter's birthday is October, 26. This year, she will be turning 10 and for the first time, we're going to do a "Halloween Theme" birthday party...she's finally old enough to help with the design of the invitations, making the snacks and cake, the decorating and games!  We decided on a "Spooky Slumber Party" theme.  The spooky invitations we made (and printed on the computer) ask the guests to come in costume; the party starts at 4:00, before it gets dark. When they arrive, they will be breaking into two small groups and will go on a scavenger hunt (our neighborhood is safe but there will be an adult with both groups anyway).  The scavenger hunt spells out: Amber is ten. A pple M aple tree leaf B utton E gg R ubber band  I nteresting item that begins with the letter "i" S alt  T issue paper E lection stuff (flyers, article from the paper, etc) N ail  We'll give them about a half an hour to collect these things and then come home to share them and award small prizes for the team that wins (maybe they will all win?!)  The house will be decorated with black construction paper spiders hanging from the ceiling, black and orange balloons, spooky music, and all kinds of creepy things we found at discount card stores and on line (less than $50.00 total). The girls will have snacks served in creepy containers and a gross punch with ice cubes that have plastic spiders in them and a frozen hand or two floating in it (freeze red food-colored water in a plastic glove and peel off the glove before putting into the punch).    We'll make carmel apples together as a fun activity before dinner (they can take them home with them in the morning).  The girls will eat dinner at the table which has been decorated with all kinds of scary stuff (again, from the discount stores) and then there will be gifts and a black cake decorated with candy corn. The girls will clean up and get ready for the slumber party part of the night...they're all sleeping in the family room which is going to be very dark; except for a flashlight or two...we checked out a book on tape that has many spooky stories; we have a spooky movie to watch, and when it gets late enough, we'll share our own very scary stories...hopefully they'll sleep at some point... Before they go home in the morning, we'll give them their "treat bags" (this might just be the last year for those!). We've chosen zip-lock Halloween bags filled with Halloween pencils, scull key chains, ghost erasers (once again, easy to find stuff at discount stores) and a few pieces of candy and of course, their carmel apples.  Happy Halloween Birthday!!!