Brynn's 11th Blacklight Disney's Haunted Mansion Party

As the "Foolish Mortals" were arriving we had the youtube 1 hour version of the Walt Disney World Ride playing on the TV. It was great because a lot of the girls were not familiar with the ride, and because it has an extended sound track of all the music from it. Since this party was taking place in a Mansion I decided to celebrate it in a "Cocktail Party" way...sans the booze! As the girls were coming in, my sister and I would serve them a beverage of their choice in the fanciest plastic wine goblet I could find at the Dollar Store, and we encouraged the girls to mill around, visit and take a tour of the "Estate". Downstairs was decorated like the Graveyard so we had a loop of 3 different versions of the "Grim Grinning Ghosts" sound track playing down there... music really does set the mood. My husband the butler, was busy preparing the hot and cold Hors D'oeuvres which consisted of veggies and dip, rice crackers and tzatziki, herbed flat bread with marinara sauce, cold cuts and cheese cubes on skewers (they especially loved those) and pepperoni pizza cut into bite sized squares.
As the girls were finishing eating I decided to get the next activity, creating ghost stories underway.
For this, we gave each table (there were 2) a piece of paper and a pencil. Going around the table each girl would have to make up at least 3 sentences to the story, then fold their portion back only revealing the very last line for the next girl to base their portion of the story on... and so on.
After everyone had added to their stories it was time to discover some mysteries that the Haunted Mansion had to offer. I always include a treasure hunt portion to the parties, because who doesn't like to find secret treasures! The hunt culminated in the attic trunk, in which they found their swag bags. We needed the items inside (a stand mirror and black eyeliner pencil) for the next activity...face painting.
Not ordinary face painting though. I had ordered some liquid "Moon Glow" blacklight reactive face paint from Amazon. This stuff is the Bomb! So vivid, smooth application and it went a long way. I wanted to incorporate ''Day of the Dead" makeup in this, so my sister did a little research and told a story to weave the two themes together. After the story they got busy doing their own face paint. This activity was a real hit with the girls. It also took forever... I definitely did not allow enough time for this activity!
Next up, we all headed to the "Graveyard" for the games portion of the party.
Before hand, my sister "Mummy" wrapped one of the smallest dolls my daughter has with toilet paper and taping a mini chocolate bar at the end of each long piece. The girls sat in a circle and we played "Mummy" hot potato/musical chairs to the "Grim Grinning Ghosts" song. The last one got to unwrap the rest of the wrap and was rewarded with a lip gloss and a chocolate bar. Next up, team events!
"Dig up the Skeleton" race. For this game I had made 2, three foot coffins out of cardboard. Purchased 2-two foot glow-in-the-dark skeletons from the dollar store, these skeletons had removable parts, 8 pcs each. Skull, backbone/ribs/hips, arms, legs, and feet.
I disassembled the skeleton and hid the parts in the folds of blankets I put in the coffins. Each girl would have to race to the coffin find the right piece of the skeleton, race back and assemble the part before the next girl could go.
"Dead Man's Arm Grab". I found the dead mans arms at the dollar store, but they were too flimsy, so I gorilla glued/ duct taped half a pool noodle into each arm. At one end of the room I spread skulls and bones, the girls would have to hit the floor, crawl over to the pylon, then use the Dead man's arm to hook a bone or skull then crawl back to the other end put the bone or skull in the coffin, and pass the arm to the next girl.
"Kick the Skull" race. Kick the skull through and around the pylons, pretty easy right? Except for the fact skulls are not round!
"Ring Toss on Skeleton Arm". When I was planning out the "graveyard", I wanted to include the skeleton bricking himself into his tomb expressly for this game. I got the glow-in-the-dark skeleton arms from the dollar store bent them and used clear packing tape to hold their shape, screwed them to the wall, bought some glow necklaces and volia... ring toss!
"Skulls on Boney Hand"race. Glow-in-the-dark skulls and skeleton hand/forearm salad servers. Run around the pylons and try not to drop your skull.
Thirsty after gaming and screaming, we adjourned upstairs for some refreshments and dainties, and to sing Happy Birthday to Brynn. It was at this point that my sister and I were supposed to read the ghost stories that they had created earlier, but much to my chagrin the parents started to arrive. It was really too bad that everything took way more time than I had allotted. They didn't even get to play "Scream Tag" ( the reason I painted all the ghosts in the house with glow-in-the-dark paint) or have the "Dance Party". This was a 3 1/2 hour party and it could have easily been an hour longer.

• What People Ate

  Veggies and dip, rice crackers and tzatziki, herbed flatbread and marinara sauce, cold cuts and cubed cheese, and pepperoni pizza.

• What People Drank

  An assortment of pop, including iced tea and water

• Desserts

  Two bite brownies, mini chocolate eclairs, lemon loaf.

• Party Favors

  Plexi glass tilting stand mirrors and a black eyeliner pencil.

• Activities / Games

  "Cocktail Party", ghost stories, treasure hunt, face paint, unwrap the mummy, dig up the skeleton, dead man's arm grab, kick the skulls race, ring toss, skulls on boney hands race.

• My husband, the butler and my sister the maid

  Other

  I drew, painted, made all of the decorations used.