Family Fun Halloween Photos

 Do you see the ghost in the background? Amazing what the camera pics up!

• Pumpkin Recipes
• Fall and Halloween Link ups! Find something fun or link up anything Fall/Halloween! It is also a giveaway link up!

Zombie Murder Mystery Party Review and Discount

Have you ever attended a My Murder Mystery Party?  My husband and I have been to several different types, including dinner theaters.  This was our first time to actually host one.  Our twins were turning 16 and we asked them if they wanted to have a murder mystery party for all their friends.  They were very hesitant because they didn't understand what it was all about.  I don't think that they really got it until it was over! haha

They chose the Zombie My Mystery Party which was the most perfect party for tweens, teens and adults! We had over 40 people and it was fun! We paired up tweens with adults and teens.  We tried mixing it up and it worked great.  Our age range was 11-50something. It was a great family event!

Here is the website description:
Dust off your tattered zombie clothing and get ready for your next exciting zombie murder mystery party! 
A fun zombie-themed murder mystery party for ages 15 and up, 8-16+ guests. Non-gender specific - play co-ed, all female or all male! Expandable to over 40 guests with the main game by adding additional guests to play with the 3 expandable characters.

Our Take on the Party:  I started planning a month before the party to get everything set up.  These type of parties can be put together in just a few days, too. The kit, once paid for, is instantly downloadable.  This is a huge plus in my book.  I loved having the kit right away so that I could plan out what I needed to do for the party. There are some parts of the kit that must be printed off, like the name tags and script for each character. You can do that at home, online copy center or take the file to a local copy center.  We had Staples make our copies.   

Each part of the mystery is clearly explained and outlined.  We never had confusion of what needed to be done.  My husband and I both ran the party.  I did all the behind the scenes organization and he led the party.  It is funny because in the end when they had to cast "who did it", I was chosen as one of the murderers.  Here I was just the Mommy Housewife Zombie, feeding all of them each course and they thought I was a killer! haha  

The Kit included recipe ideas, games, music ideas, props,etc.  These things were all very helpful in the planning stage.Our party lasted several hours.  We cut out a few games just to save on time.  No one noticed but the host.

Host: Agent Xmuldersmith, Mrs. Zombie Housewife

I have nothing negative to say about the My Mystery Party site or the party kit!  You must go check it out.  They have specific parties for Adults, Teens and Kids!  I started to count and I stopped once I got to 50!  

We picked this party at a great time because all the Halloween stuff that I wanted for the party.  You can go all out crazy with decorations, food, costumes like we did or you can keep it simple.  If you are thinking of having one, pick it and then start getting the items you need.  I recommend that you have several people helping you who are not involved in the mystery.  This will make everything flow!    

 Do you have any questions for me about the Murder Mystery? I'd be happy to answer them. Besides all the food, costumes and decorations, my favorite part was having a party where everyone got involved.  Some players got into it a lot more than others.  Some came in full costume, others none while some just did their face.  We had paint handy to help those who needed it!  Some didn't pass on all their information yet some probably gave away too much.  It was a huge success. I think everyone loved when the victim came out of hiding.  No one knew when or how they would find out about the victim.  We had one of the birthday girls be the victim! It was perfect! 

We want to plan another one.  Some of our friends are going to host the next one.  I can see that we started a trend here!  

Here are pics of the food. Some have links because I have blogged the recipes! The birthday girls helped plan what we were going to eat and what we were going to call the food.  It was fun giving ordinary things, like chips, crazy-creepy names like "scabs."  All the soda bottles have fun labels, too.  We took off the original labels so they only knew what they were drinking by what they thought it was.  How fun! Enjoy! 

 

Zombie cakes with secret inside. Inspired from these!

 

Finger Food

Pumpkin Guts

 

Toxic Waste Punch

Jello Brain Mold Recipe.

 

Starting 10/30/2010 through 12/31/2010 you can get 15% off any download from the My Murder Mystery party site using the code SUSANB.  Thanks to MMM for extending a discount to my readers! I hope you take advantage of it!  

Thanks to MMM for sponsoring this post.  I was sent a kit to review and blog. Every here said here are  my own spooky opinion and tasty words. Try it for yourself, if you dare!

U Follow Me I Follow U Friday Blog Hop and Giveaways

I love Friday blog hops!  Link to mine,  leave a comment as to how you are following me and I will follow you back!  Each week I'm going to feature a blogger to get my FRIDAY SHOUT OUT!  This week it is Jennifer over at Life with the Lebedas.  She is a fun mom and has some cool things going on over there at her blog! Here is her button!


Thanks for stopping in! Link up! I might give you a SHOUT OUT next week! You can link up your blog, a giveaway, Twitter, Facebook, etc.

LOOKING for giveaways! Here are some great ones going on! It takes 1 entry to win! So go enter!

• $100 CSN Store GC Giveaway (11/12)
• Wits and Wagers Family Party Game (11/12)
• Nestle Product basket giveaway 11/26
• Brilliant Lens Cleaner (10/30)
• 5 Book Set Giveaway (11/5)
• FREE WEEK at School of ROCK (10/31)
• Tastefully Simple Giveaway (10/31)
• My Murder Mystery Party Discount (12/31)
• Check back! I have more to list!

HERE ARE THE BLOG HOPS where I sign in with!  Happy Friday!

Top 10 great uses for Vaseline Petroleum Jelly!

Vaseline time!  They are celebrating 140 years!  Happy Birthday! This little jar of goodness is probably in your home right now sitting inside of your medicine cabinet. What do you use it for? How long has it been in there?  I just went to the Vaseline website and found out that Vaseline is "a mixture of mineral oils, paraffin and microcrystalline waxes....that has a melting point just above body temperature."  I did not know that! Did you?

Here are my Top 10 great uses for Vaseline Petroleum Jelly!

1) Feet- I love rubbing Vaseline on my feet, inbetween my toes and putting on a pair of warm, fluffy socks.  This is great to do before bedtime. In the morning, my feet are silky soft.

2) Hands- Rub Vaseline on your hands right before putting on gloves.  This is great if you are going to be out for awhile in the cold.  The Vaseline forms a barrier with the gloves and your hands will stay warmer. 

3) Hands- Rub Vaseline on your hands after you have done the dishes.  This will soften them and help the skin regain its natural moisture.

4) Lips- Put some Vaseline in a little travel container and toss it in your purse. When you are out in the cold and wind pull it out and put some on your lips to help protect them.  Rub the excess into you hands.

5) Lips- Put on your lipstick and then add on a light coating of Vaseline.  This will help lock in your lipstick and give your lips a pouty shine. 

6) Lips- Rub some on your kids lips before they go outside to play in the snow! This will help lock in moisture and protect the lips from getting chapped.

7) Cheeks- Rub some on your kids or your cheeks before going out to play in the wind and snow.  This will help lock in moisture and protect them just like your lips.  

8) Ears- I have used Vaseline on the top of my ears where my new glasses sit for the first few days.  This helps with new glasses and cuts down on the friction.  This is really great for the elderly, too.  

 9) Thermometers-  A small glob of Vaseline is great on rectal thermometers. It cuts down on the friction.  

10) Zippers- I rubbed on a little bit of Vaseline on a plastic zipper to help it close. It worked wonders!  I then wiped off any extra.  

Before doing this post, I went to Vaseline and checked out their site.  I also learned that  dry skin starts happening days before you start seeing it!  That is amazing.  It makes sense. I do know that the skin is the largest organ in our body!  Time to protect it! 


So what do you think of my Vaseline tips? Do you have some to share? You can leave them here on my blog and/or you can go to TwitterMoms and share your own tips!  These tips are my own experience and opinions. 

I wrote this blog post while participating in the TwitterMoms and Vaseline blogging program, making me eligible to get a $25 gift card. For more information on how you can participate, click here.

HOT Game Link up, Reviews and Giveaways

Happy Wednesday!  I think the cooler weather is making us want to play more games!  We have a great group of game players!  Our games vary from chess all the way up to games like Dungeons & Dragons.  I really want to open up a Coffee Shop Cafe that has a wall full of games!  It would be great for people to come in, play and hang out.  Right now games are played at home, friend's home, library and anywhere else a board can be set down or a deck of cards shuffled.  Where do you like to play games??

We are participating in the Million Minute Family Game Challenge.  I haven't posted our results in a few weeks. We are now up to 14,108 minutes played in this challenge.  Our group is still holding in the top 10 which is amazing.  How much time do you spend playing games?  The minutes add up with you are playing with friends.
The game review this week is for Luck of the Draw, a Game for the Artistically Challenged by Gamewright.  This game has been on my wish list for awhile because it is a drawing game and my girls are very creative.  I have been hesitant in purchasing because I didn't want to get a game that people would not want to play if they "can't draw"   It is for ages 10 and up, 4-8 players and take approximately 30 minutes to play.   We've played with with as few as 2-3 players.  It is better played with the suggested 4-8 players but can be altered to play with fewer.

Object of the game:  It is a drawing game where you don't have to be an artist to win! Over the course of several rounds, all players draw impressions of a chosen subject and then vote on whose drawings BEST fit randomly drawn categories.  The player who collects the most Category cards wins the game.

Over the course of the game everyone is going to get voted as BEST fit drawing.  I say this because we've played this game many times and some of those times consisted of over an hour at a time and everyone has had their drawing picked as the winner.  I know you are thinking that these are sympathy wins for those who "can't draw" but they aren't!  The drawings are shuffled upside down and then arranged face up with a random color marker placed on each one.  Then a Category card is picked and you vote on the drawing that best matched the category.  You vote by color using a voting wheel. 

 

 

For the above picture, the Luck of the Draw card was picked, dice rolled and we had to draw from #1 which in this case was a LIZARD.  Now some will say "I can't draw a lizard" but the object of the game is to draw it the way you see and feel is right.  After the pictures and color marker are placed you then draw a CATEGORY card and THAT is how you vote to see who wins.  This card said "Most Masculine" and the voters have to decide which lizard fits that category. 

It is all in fun and the Category cards really make you laugh.  We have laughed and laughed playing this game.  I was impressed that everyone wanted to play and actually enjoyed it.   I was worried that this game would leave out those who do not like to draw but that was a wrong assumption.  Once the reluctant players joined in they saw that anyone with or without drawing skill could win this game! 

This game takes you through A LOT of paper with all the drawings.  The company acknowledges this and even states in the rules to "Reuse and Recycle" your paper drawings.  My daughters and I thought it would be cool if the game came with mini dry erase boards/cards then these could be erased and used over and over.  Just a suggestion for future games or revisions.  

What games have you played this week?  Here are a few of ours:

• Chess and Chinese Chess
• Monopoly
• Candy Land
• D & D
• Tempus
• 5 Second Rule
• You've Been Sentenced
• Mag Blast
• Mancala
• Wits and Wagers Family ENTER GIVEAWAY- LOW ENTRIES!
• Twilight Imperium
• Bananagrams
• Twilight Struggle
• Manouevre
• Luck of the Draw
• Old Maid
• Go Fish
• Monopoly Deal
• Settlers of Catan
• Schooby Doo make a match
• Car Crazy 8s
• Disney Princess Old Maid

Come link up if you have game giveaways, reviews or are a game business! I was given a copy of Luck of the Draw to review on my blog. Our review is our opinion of the game.  We hope you try it out and form your own opinion.