top-notch halloween {cowboy & indian; caramel apple party}

Wahoo! Russ and I did Halloween right this year: we dressed up in coordinating costumes, we both got to go to the ward party [last year, Russ worked nights, so I had to go alone :(], and we threw a successful Halloween party!

Ward party pics--we're a cowboy and an indian! :)

I did a quick design for our Halloween party:

At our party, we did a caramel apple bar, which is an idea I found on Pinterest but finally got to try it out! 

We used Granny Smith, Honeycrisp, and Gala apples. I preferred Granny Smith (which I never prefer) for the caramel apples just because the apples got so many sweet toppings that I needed a little sour to bring some balance.

For toppings, we had mini m&m's, snickers, oreos, butterfingers, graham crackers, heath bits, cinnamon brown sugar, and cinnamon [white] sugar. And of course caramel, along with white chocolate and milk chocolate (though the milk chocolate burned . . . ) Fyi, the best option to keep caramel and chocolate at a good consistency without burning it or really having to attend to it is to use a candle warmer or a mini crockpot on the warm setting. The candle warmer (with a glass bowl on top of it) worked best of all. We used the special meltable chocolate and the packaged caramels (with a bit of water added to the caramel). It takes an hour or two to get everything melted, so if you use this idea, plan accordingly :)

Personally, I loved doing caramel, white chocolate, and cinnamon sugar or cinnamon brown sugar. I also really liked caramel with mini m&m's.  Everybody liked something different though! :)

Also, the caramel kind of dripped off the apples, so they didn't turn out as pretty and perfect as I'd hoped, but they were still delicious :)

optional costumes turned out to be only us in costumes . . . oh, well :)
Marty, Russ, Taylor, Kelly
Sarah, me, Bekah, & Eryn

At the party, we mostly just talked and caught up, since none of us are in the same ward anymore, but we also (of course) ate caramel apples and watched Hocus Pocus :) It was fun catching up with friends that we don't get to see very often anymore! Also, yay for camera timers and an almost-perfect window sill to take a picture of all of us! :)

All in all, a very good Halloween :) Now onto Thanksgiving! We're having three this year! But more on that later :)

**ashleynicole