Wednesday, October 28, 2009

BOO! Bags

Years ago, when I lived in Arizona, there was a fun little sneaky tradition of Boo-ing your friends and neighbors at Halloweentime. That meant that you would leave a plate of cookies with a ghost sign on their front porch, and ding dong ditch them. That family would, in turn, hang the ghost in their window to fend off future Boo-ings, and they would pass the Boo on to two other families within 24 hours. It was so much fun to see the ghost signs popping up in windows all around the neighborhood as friends performed secret acts of kindness for one another. Really, the only unselfish thing going on at Halloweentime, if you ask me.

I saw on Lark and Lola a jazzed-up version of the Boo idea, and knew we just had to do it this year. Now Heather, of Lark and Lola is infinitely more creative and talented than I am, so instead of the handmade Boo! garland she included in her bags, I used the scrumptiously delicious Pumpkin Spice Caramel Corn and Chocolate Caramel Corn recipes from another favorite blog (I badly need to update my blogroll!), Picky Palate. Let me just tell you up front: If you're trying to decide how you'd best like to die, make yourself a batch of Pumpkin Spice Caramel Corn and get all cozy and then eat yourself to death. It will be well worth it.

Anyway.

So, the kids and I baked double batches of each caramel corn--plenty of jobs for all the kids to be helpers, from popping the popcorn, to picking out every unpopped kernal, to unwrapping the Pumpkin Spice Hershey Kisses.

Once it was cooling, we printed off Lark and Lola's Boo! poem (which she wrote herself), but she also included a link to other versions of Boo! poems. She even gives you a link to download her spooky Halloween font. She thinks of everything.

We glued the poems to the front of the bags.

Then we put some of each flavor caramel corn into clear bags and tied with Halloween ribbon, and put them into the black bags with purple tissue paper.

The last part was the most fun, and though it was a bit tricky to keep the Teenage Boy's attention through the entire process of creating the bags, it was not tricky to get him excited about delivering the bags in the cover of darkness and ding-dong-ditching our friends.

So much fun! We picked families that we thought would most appreciate the gift, and would be most likely to pass it on in the spirit of the fun. Families with little kids are a great choice. We took about an hour, once it was dark on Sunday night, and made our secret deliveries. No one was caught. (That we know of.) And we hope we made some families very happy, with plenty of time to Boo! their own friends.

6 comments:

Heather said...

Thanks for featuring my blog & ideas! Your boo bags look awesome!

I think this is a really fun Halloweentime tradition I'm going to keep up with...


Cheers,
Heather

Don said...

This is a fun tradition. We did it when we lived in Utah, and my girls had a blast.

Then after we moved here to Texas, my daughter wanted to try it in our new neighborhood.

We baked cookies, delivered them to two neighbors, and watched as absolutely nothing else happened.

(Sigh) I guess not all neighborhoods are created equal.

family said...

That is so great! We usually do a version of this too but this year I totally forgot!!! I guess that is what happens when you are 2 weeks away from your due date! Oh well, we'll do it next year :)

And to Don....you don't have to stick to your neighborhood. It can be your friends

Unknown said...

Love this Halloween time idea! Wish I was your neighbor ;0)
Finally this week, I got back into writing my blog...there isn't much there yet but more to come in the future...hope you check it out!
And since I "know" you to be one smart Mommy..I was wondering if you could share with me how you got Nie Nie's button to work on your sidebar??!! Thanks in advance - anxious to see how else you and your family celebrate the weekend - take care and have fun!

Misty said...

That is SO FUN! I totally want to do this next year... It's too late and I'm VERY unprepared this year.

Lara Neves said...

Oh my gosh, that popcorn looks and sounds amazing. We just moved to Michigan and I was hoping to start the Boo-ing tradition in my neighborhood, but it'll just have to wait till next year because I didn't have it together enough.