BITE THE BAT COOKIE CONTEST

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out cookie dough to a 1/4-inch thickness and cut with bat cookie cutters. If you can't find a bat cookie cutter, cut a bat shape out of lightweight cardboard, place it on the rolled out cookie dough and trace around with a sharp knife. Place the cookies on a cookie sheet. Poke a hole on the top of each bat cookie using a drinking straw. Bake for 7 to 11 minutes or until lightly brown. Two minutes before the cookies come out of the oven, re-poke the holes to make sure they are large enough for threading a string. Remove cookies from the cookie sheet and cool on a cooling rack. Thread with 2 to 3-foot lengths of string or fishing line. Frost the cookies and add red hots candy for eyes. String a clothesline across the room (preferably the basement, porch or another room where you don't mind getting crumbs on the floor). Hang the cookies on the clothesline so they fall to the height of the children's shoulders. If you're hosting a party with a variety of ages, be sure to hang the strings at different lengths. To play, instruct the children to keep their hands behind their backs and try to eat the cookies with their mouths only. The first child to eat the whole cookie wins.