Boo to you!

We got Boo'd the other night.  Biju and I put the boys to bed then headed out to the garage to do some more sorting and what not.  We were trying to make room to actually, you know, park a vehicle in our garage. 

While we were in there we heard our doorbell.  We gave each other a look that said "Who in their right mind is ringing our doorbell at this time of night??" (And by "this time of night" I mean roughly around 8:30pm.)

I went to the door and flipped on the porch light then looked through the peep-hole.  I saw no one but that didn't mean much.  Many times I look through there and it is either a short person coming to ask if one of my short people can come out to play, or a tall person standing off to the side out of sight. 

I opened the door and saw, not a person, but a little trick-or-treat pumpkin filled with goodies. 

There was a paper inside that had a poem and a "We've been BOO-ed!" ghost.  The instructions said we were to cut off the half of the paper that had the ghost on it and tape the little phantom to our door so other phantom ghosts would know we'd been hit.  Then we were to go to this website and print off another poem/phantom and make up a treat basket for two of our neighbors. 

When the boys woke up in the morning they saw the goodie bag with treats.  Ajay started reading the poem, but not all of it, and came running to me and yelled "Mom!  The Goodie Ghost came!!" as if Santa or the Easter Bunny had been by.  I explained what had happened and that we were going to make up a treat basket to share with other neighbors. 

I went shopping that morning and made up these two baskets:

I chose two families in the area with children - one with 3, one with 6 - and gave Halloween pencils, glow bracelets, tootsie pops, stickers, a vanilla candle, the orange checked tea towel and the basket.

We decided the boys would be the fastest when it came to ringing the doorbell and running and they were more than willing to go.  What fun for them!  So as soon as it got dark but before they had to get ready for bed I sent the boys out with the baskets. 

Ajay came back panting and declared "Feel my heart!  I was so scared they would see me!"  Alex had hid around the corner after knocking on his neighbor's door.  Good thing, too, cuz that neighbor was quick to answer.  But then Alex didn't know when it was all clear to come back so I had to do a whisper yell "Alex!  Alex, come back!" and had to keep yelling louder and louder.  I'm quite certain Ajay's neighbor saw Alex running back across the street.  And I'm also certain that everyone on the street heard me yelling for Alex to come back. 

So it may not be a complete secret as to who left the goodie baskets but it was certainly fun.  And we're hoping to do it again next year!