get your "spook" on

that's right people...it's time to get your spook on!

where was i yesterday? i was up to some "ghoulishly" fun projects.

the projects actually started on sunday evening. the girls & i began the prep work for our annual "phantom pumpkin".

the phantom pumpkin is a tradition i started about 14 years ago. (did i just say that?) it's an idea i got from the dixon family. i was close to them during my teenage years and they would do this annual tradition in their family and i soooo said i would do this when i had a little family of my own.

what you do is, every october - a week or so before halloween - you put little treats together for your friends or neighbors and you "doorbell ditch" them. along with the treats you leave behind, you also leave a "note of instructions" encouraging them to pass along the kindness by doing the same thing for their friends or other neighbors.

i've seen some things circulating on the web over the past week...apparently this is NOT a new idea. however, it looks like most people refer to it as "boo-ing" your neighbors or friends and it incorporates a picture of a little ghost. i've turned it into a "pumpkin" theme but it doesn't matter HOW you choose to do it - it's all good fun. (and frankly, for me personally, my goal was to take the "scariness" out of the holiday and add some wholesome goodness to it).

we end up doing things just a little different every year. if we have the time & energy to do home-baked goods then we go for it. if not, packaged candy works just as well.

this year, thankfully, we had the time & energy. and so....here's what we started working on sunday evening:

sugar cookies with royal icing...

keeping it real - sunday night was a bit of a disaster. we weren't doing the piping bags correctly - my fault - and we ended up with a lot o' mess and little patience. i went to bed worried the girls, (mostly ema), would never want to do any sort of creative project with me ever again.

but monday i took the day to regroup while the girls were at school and i figured out the

way you are SUPPOSED to pipe royal icing. it's AMAZING how much of a difference it made - not only in our cookies, but in our attitudes and in our end result. what had started out as torturous ended up being a lot of fun.

we started out with small cookies on sunday and then upgraded to a batch of large cookies for monday night.

here are the large cookies:

this was ema's favorite that she made.

(i helped write "beware" but the idea & sprinkles were all her own)

and here's clara's favorite. she used little candy jimmies for the spider - so cute.

i picked this one as my favorite just because of the creative genius behind it...

(the only other thing to salvage a broken cookie would be to eat it). *wink*

and here are our 3 big cookie picks together...adorable, aren't they?!

and then there were the smaller cookies from sunday night...

despite our piping problems they still turned out really cute!

clara was so proud of her "pacman-like" ghost

i think this little "boo" cookie came out cute - despite the air bubbles

and em liked this green "blob" cookie she created -

it looks so "monsterish" with the mix of green & orange sprinkles

we finished up the cookies monday night

& began packaging up the goods tuesday afternoon

we decided to put the cookies in these little bags i had leftover from many moons ago...

along with the cookies we added candy too.

here's em prepping the m&m's.

and i could NOT resist getting these cute little morsels.

i ADORE the candycorn-ish wrapping - although i find the taste to be too sweet for me.

i bought these strictly for the wrapper-appeal...

are these not the cutest?

here's one finished bag - compliments of clara.

we used two different packaging options -

a large white kraft bag or a smaller "take-out" box

i'm so proud of how hard they worked together to get this done.

(don't be mistaken...em got off track several times and quit a couple of "jobs"

before deciding that making dinner & doing dishes was NOT the better option.) *wink*

and so here they are...

all packaged up and ready to go.

(they even wrote names on the bottoms of the packaging

since they picked out special cookies for each family/house).

didn't clara do a GREAT job at arranging these on the table for me to take a picture?

all loaded up in the tray and ready to be transported to the car.

(notice the "spooked" sign stuck in there? more details to come)

& not every year...but some years...

we dress up in camouflage to help take things to that next level...

this year proved to be one of those years...*wink*

this time last year, little ella pie was a month out from being born...

and now she's in my arms...participating with us.

& obviously confused about what's going on...*laughing*

j was the "get-away" driver this year which allowed me to do the doorbell ditching with the girls. it was a good time. (and even after 2 hours of deliveries, we still have 4 more houses to do). our list really SHOULDN'T consist of 10 homes, but since we are the ones that "kick-start" the tradition every year, it's hard for us to NOT include so many families. (and we STILL can't get to everyone we'd really like to).

and so....since i can't possibly "spook" all of you...

i figured i'd help you all get your own "spook" on...

THIS is what i've been wanting to share with you....

THIS is my little project that i've mentioned a couple of times.

THIS is my very own original version of the "phantom pumpkin".

and i want you to have it...

(simply click on the link to download & then print)

Phantom Pumpkin PDF

i hope you LOVE it but more importantly, i hope you USE it. (and if for some reason you don't love my "spooking" version ...here are a couple of links to some other sites offering printable "boo-ing" instructions). familycrafts & beenbooed

halloween hugs & cRyPtiC kisses to you all....

(if you have any issues printing the .pdf let me know. this is the first time i've used scribd).