Halloween Meetup

I just got back a couple of hours ago from an awesome Halloween picnic meetup that I co-hosted with my Loli BFF, Madeline Hatter. :) Maddy and I put a lot of effort and planning into this year's meetup, because we both really love Halloween, and we wanted this meetup to be really special and fun. Last year, we tried to host a similar event, but it didn't turn out the way we wanted, so this year was our chance to reboot and correct all of the mistakes we made in the past.
We chose a super-spooky but scenic location for our meetup (let's call it an early Victorian park, shall we?), and made sure to have all of our ducks in a row in terms of planning and preparedness. Last year we ran into a lot of issues, some of which were under our control, and some of which were not. One of those issues was time and weather. Last year, we had the meetup at night, a couple days before Halloween, and we had the misfortune of being chilled to the bone by the near-freezing temperatures that accompanied the freak snow storm that rolled in the day before. This year, we held the meetup two weeks earlier, during the day, and vowed to cancel if the weather turned ugly. Luckily for us, the weather was beautiful! We had a bit of rain in the morning, but by noontime or so, the clouds dissipated, and the day turned sunny and warm.
By planning weeks ahead of time, and making things in advance, we were able to have all most of our favor bags, food, and decorations made well before the meetup started. While we were a couple of minutes late (as usual -_-;;), we were still able to set up relatively quickly and have the meetup in full swing in no time! Everyone was gracious enough to contribute food, drink, or a picnic blanket, and in the end, we had quite an impressive spread. Maddy and I made / purchased a couple of special dishes for the meetup that were Halloweenish and festive; we had pumpkin-shaped tea sandwiches (which unfortunately got left at home by accident!), mummy and pumpkin cake pops, Death By Chocolate graveyard cups,  and blood orange soda.  I also made an Asian salad with teriyaki chicken as a healthy dish to balance out some of sweets. Others brought Oreo pie, scones,  pumpkin bars, Chinese buns, cupcakes, cookies, and tea. Everything was super yummy, and everyone was able to go home with 'doggie' bags full of tasty leftovers.
We had a bunch of fun activities planned for the meetup, most of which we got to do in the end. Maddy got things started by telling the tale of the Tillinghast vampirism case, which is a true documented story about supposed vampirism in RI during the 1700's. After that, I gave a small tour of the 'park' and gave a short talk about its history and the various monuments and artwork found there. Later, after we'd gorged ourselves on food, we ran one game and one contest. Our game was a rather silly one that involved guessing the weight of "Pumpkin-chan," a rather unfortunate pumpkin that we put in a wig and decorated to look like a Sweet Lolita. The person who guessed the closest won a cute little coffin box that my sister and I made, chock full of goodies. Our contest was a "Best Coordinate" contest, where everyone voted, and the winner received another cute coffin box. The Lolita with our Best Coord was super cute, wearing an adorable Red Riding Hood ensemble mostly by BTSSB. Our first-runner up was fabulously gothy in a super-awesome handmade JSK and canotier. After we gave out all of the contest prizes, Maddy ran another Halloween game, called the "Cemetery Game." While this game was originally created during the Victorian era to be played in a cemetery, it can be played anywhere, and is similar to tag or hide-and-go-seek.
Once the Cemetery Game was finished, the meetup was drawing to a close, so Maddy and I distributed the favor bags that we made, and started to pack things up. Our favor bags consisted of a candy corn-shaped Rice Krispie Treat wrapped in plastic wrap, and placed into a cellophane bag tied with purple ribbon. We attached little Thank You notes to the ribbon, along with small skull brooches that we'd made ourselves.
In the end, everyone went home happy, and I hope that we can have another event like this again next year. Maddy and I had a blast planning and making everything, and we really hope that all of our guests had as much fun as we did.