Pages

Friday, May 29, 2009

A Little Behind Schedule...

I know. How could we possibly be behind schedule already?

Every year, we say we're going to order things early. Plan things early. Make things early. And we always end up running late. So far, this year isn't much different (though we did order some early props, and have been saving up containers and used (washed!) syringes for various things.

At the moment though, there are two things we need to get going on:

1. A story for our Haunted Hospital mystery, and the poor souls who died there.

2. Save the Date cards. Magnets, maybe? It seems like every year, we have several people who can't remember the date of the party (different people, so I don't think they're just avoiding us). This year, we're planning to send out little items (magnets for the fridge, I think) to remind people when the party will be, and what the theme is, so everyone can clear their schedule and get costumes planned in plenty of time. I think we'll send them out in late July/early August.

We've got tentative ideas for both, but of course, I can't share the details just yet, or it would spoil the surprise! Stay tuned...

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Boot Hill/Graveyard Dip Idea

Brent came up with this the other night for a Halloween finger food. I think it’s a great idea – we’re going to try it for our snack table in the basement (ahem…the lab) this year.

The important part is the grave markers, of course. And unfortunately, I haven’t seen any tombstone or cross-shaped chips in the grocery store. So we have to make them. The idea is to buy thin corn tortillas, and cut out grave marker shapes (crosses, tombstones, etc). Then we’ll fry or bake them under a weight (think pie plate with stones or a cast-iron bacon press – anything to hold them flat). Voila – creepy chips!

Then just put your favorite nacho or bean dip ingredients into a suitable container, and top with the grave marker chips. I think either a rectangle cake pan, or a round mound of bean dip with toppings (for a “hill) would be great for this application.

Obviously we’ll have to test this out first – photos to come after the test run. Anyone else try something similar?