Hello, Fellow Halloween-iac!

Yes. I'm that crazy woman who held up the line in front of you at Target last summer, demanding to see the manager so I could wail, "Where's the Halloween stuff already? It's mid-July! All you've got back there in "Seasonal" is BBQ mitts! What is the matter with you people?" 

If you're a fellow Halloween-iac you understand. Welcome, my friend! Please take a seat!

I've been notebooking this year's event since mid-summer. What fun to go down into a cool, dark basement by myself to cackle away over spooky plans while everyone else basks in the sun, iced drink in hand, on the deck out back. Slackers! They don't know what they're missing!






This time, I'll be hosting everybody for a Halloween kid-centered lunch party. (Saturday this year! yay!) They'll gather at the "Bone Shake Shack,"* a grandma-concocted enterprise constructed of cardboard boxes, but "owned and operated" by a family of bony 'n shaky skeletal figures. The three oldest kids will perch on these custom painted counter stools to munch on a scary lunch and sip the shack's signature "Spooky Shake." 

I'll stash three extra little ones at a smaller table alongside, but they'll enjoy the same repast as their older cousins. I'm hoping weather cooperates so I can set up outside. That way, masked "human skeletons," ("Grandpa? Grandma? Is that you?") can creep about quickly to snatch an eyeball cookie from the kids' table and disappear back into the woods as rapidly as you can shout "BOO!"




Once lunch is cleared, a handsome tray, laden with creepy appetizers and Ghoul-tinis will appear. That'll keep mummies (oops! I mean mommies!) and daddies busy so grandma can have even more fun with the kiddoes. We'll invite everyone to stroll about, admire, and purchase from our clothesline Halloween Art Show.* The kids and I have been creating inventory for a few weeks now. We've got pumpkin pictures 'n more in several exciting media: potato print, cut and paste, and tempera. "Shop your brains out before the zombies get here!" we'll advise our spirited shoppers!

Then, on to a mini-Halloween carnival.* I've got a few purchased and several original games of skill in the making. When the carnival spirit starts to wane, my little guests can enjoy their prizes while I host my first "Spelling Bat" for their parents! Yep, that's right! A Spelling Bat! (Hello..."bees" are gone - flown home for the winter!) My competitors better "bone up!" though. They'll need to conquer some tough ones if they plan on reaching into my icy prize bowl for mystery denomination cash solidly frozen into spidery cubes!

Spelling Bat Word List:

• Ghoul                           Eerie                       Zombie                Mummified
• Extraterrestrial              Cauldron                  Werewolf             Vampire
• Specter                        Haunting                  Macabre               Frankenstein
• Cemetery                     Spine-tingling           Grim Reaper         Skeleton
• Ichabod Crane              Ghastly                    Bewitching           Jack-o-Lantern
• Frightful                        Crypt  

And don't forget "Spooktacular" (Hey! It's Halloween! What the heck! Toss in a few made up words, too!)    

(Keep in mind that the longer Ghoul-tinis are poured, you'll need more and more words that get easier and easier, - like BOO! - otherwise you'll end up with a bunch of first round losers! That's no fun!)

Ooops! Almost forgot! (Zombies got my brain!) If you'd like a set of your own folksy party counter stools, spray paint 24" wooden ones you'll find at Wal-Mart for about $15 each. Then use acrylic paint to decorate. Tie lengths of Halloween print ribbon here and there and invite your guests to "seat yourselves!"

* More on these events in future posts! Promise to come back and see? There! That's the spirit!