Haunted Hayride Birthday Party:  We had a birthday party for my son that was a hit with everyone. We sent out spooky invitations to everyone telling them to dress in a costume.  When the guests arrived, the "scare crow" sitting in a chair out front jumped out at our terrified guests. They entered our house which was decorated top to bottom with spider webs, hanging bats, blinking skulls, rubber rats and other scary things. The buffet table was now a coffin constructed out of sturdy cardboard and painted black. We filled it with ghoulish goodies and had a bubbling caldron with dry ice in it (out of reach of little hands). All of the food had a fun, Halloween theme to it. We hooked up a trailer we borrowed from a friend that owns a landscaping business to our lawn tractor. We decorated the trailer with black and orange crepe paper and other Halloween decorations and filled it with hay.  My husband pulled them around our haunted yard that was decorated with tombstones, giant spiders and webs, creepy characters jumping out behind trees (our friends like dressing up too) and spooky sound effects came from a tape player hidden from sight. At the end of the hayride the kids were dropped off in an area of the back yard where we had a canopy tent set up.  There I had set up picnic tables for the kids to sit down and each could decorate their own pumpkin. Instead of the traditional goody bag, I had bought plastic smocks with pockets on it from the dollar store. I stuffed the pockets with paint brushes, paints, markers, noise makers and of course lots of candy. The kids were delighted to take home their own pumpkins. With the help of some of the parents and the local dollar store, it turned out to be quite a success that didn't cost a lot of money!