Halloween Craft and Bonus Bakery

Our chapter of Mothers & More has a group called Story Explorers, which is a little story, craft and snack time for the preschool set. I really enjoy planning it - we had a Halloween theme this month, so I got to read some favorites like Hallo-Wiener and The Ugly Pumpkin. I was challenged with coming up with a craft to go along with the stories, something 3-yo-friendly and that could use up the surplus of Halloween stickers that I seem to have over here. Wah-lah! Haunted house cards.



I used 1/2 sheets of orange card stock and cut roofs out of black construction paper to fit each one. Everyone got a supply of windows and doors to add to their houses and then embellish with friendly fall critters and creatures.



... and a not-so-scary greeting inside.



I also made a small batch of cinnamon pumpkin cookies. I've never made these before, and they were pretty yummy. It's this recipe with a few modifications: 1) I made pumpkins, not footballs, 2) replaced 1/2 cup white flour with whole wheat, 3) omitted the almonds and made cutouts instead, 4) swapped the icing for chocolate chip decoration, and 5) added a bit of food coloring to make them more orangey. Yum! I guess I'm having a little thing for cinnamon this week. (Move over almond, it's cinnamon's turn to shine.) The recipe came from the book Creative Cookies, which my mom bought for me forever ago, and is still one of my favorite go-to cookie books. (Hi, Mom!)