Frightening ... She's Turning 15!

Last night was Kyndal's 15th birthday party.

It was originally scheduled for Friday night, Friday the 13th, but because of a high school football playoff game we decided to reschedule for last night. We had all kinds of creepy things planned, including an upstairs haunted house and spooky costumes, but decided to just scale it down to the basics. We decorated the kitchen table with a spiderweb tablecloth, a sparkly skull, black roses, a bow of gummy body parts and tongues, a tray of cupcakes and a gummy foot and hand.

It was a decision well-made because she was told by one of her pickiest guy friends that it was the funnest party he's ever been to.

She had 8 guests, mostly guys. She's just like I was at her age and would much rather hang out with a big group of guys than with a bunch of drama queen girls.

The kids showed up and hung out in the garage with snacks, drinks and music for a while. We had cleared out the double side of the garage and divided it off with Rick's golf net and a tarp. Kyndal and her friend hung spider webs and spiders to the dividers. She put up a table with snacks and drinks and made sure to include "Skip" in the party.

Then it was time for games. The kids went on a spooky neighborhood scavenger hunt. They had a list of about 15 creepy items and divided into two groups heading out in opposite directions in the neighborhood. They had 45 minutes to get as many objects on the list as possible. It was funny to see how competitive they were to get back first! One group got all of the items. They had pictures to prove it.

Then we did some classic games of passing the lifesaver with a toothpick, seeing how many marshmallows they could stuff in their mouths, and racing to eat string to get to a marshmallow. For every game they won, or were involved in winning, they got their name put in a bowl to draw for prizes. The prizes were a ring pop attached to a severed finger, a box of bat poop (chocolate covered candy) and a tombstone chocolate bar.

But the hit of the night was bobbing for apples. They had so much fun doing that! They came up with several competitions.

Then they spent some time smashing cupcakes into each other's faces.

Kyndal thought it was the funnest party ever! I was so happy at what a great group of kids that were over. They were up for anything, laughed and had a great time, and were so polite and well-behaved. As a mom of a teenage girl, its always worrisome to think about the kids mine are hanging out with. But every time I get around a group of them I see what a really great group of kids they are.

And I'm thrilled that I have three parties down and only one more to go this year! Now I can start thinking about Christmas.