Have a BOO-tiful Halloween!

I am almost done with my Halloween outfit and my oldest son has his done but we need to finish the youngest this week so to inspire us this month’s Parents magazine had lots of ideas and a great coupon from Michaels Craft stores!  Print it and use it for yourself too!

One way I decided to use our Michaels coupon was to get a spider, web and tacks for this awesome pumpkin idea…

We also were thinking of a traditional carved look on our front porch…

Another idea we had for our Michaels materials was to make a second Halloween Candy personalized bag…

I made one of these for my oldest son years ago and wanted another to keep for the little one (just look how small we made these?!  NOT very much candy to get a those ages!)

And of course you can use your coupon to get items for your costumes, just look at all these cute (and creative) ideas! …

If you’re wondering what those orange scissors are on the images, these are pages from my online magazine which has great how-to instructions linked into the photos.  I am really getting into this online reading thing… so much more interactive!  (but I secretly LOVE Libraries and printed copies too!)

Another option for all that candy your kids are going to gather is to trade it in for other things like toys, gift cards or MONEY!  Parents gave another example of a program you can find in your area to turn candy into $$ CASH $$ and even help sweeten the lives of others at the same time!

Have you put a LOT of time into that costume just to only wear it once or twice?  Need some other ideas for all that work?  I’ve donated my old costumes to my younger son’s preschools in the past for a dress up area.  But don’t give anything away that you can’t stand to see torn apart… it will happen!  Another idea I found this year (for those lucky costumes that didn’t get pulled apart by Toddlers) is to find a local costume store and consign them!  I ended up taking in two older costumes and in return earned enough credit for my great Mad Hatter’s hat (normally $45-50 retail)… SCORE!  And if neither of those tickle your fancy you can always try for a reward in a costume contest?!  You might just get some great prizes to share with the whole family like this idea below mentioned in Parents magazine…

No matter which way you go for costumes… the stars seem to be aligned for many of us to have a completely enjoyable day and night, so savor the one day of the year we get to dress up with the kids!

Trick or TWEET

My kids use my iPhone for all sorts of things… gaming, naming, school work, photo taking, little-brother-crying… really ANYTHING that is needed at the time, especially if the computer, TV or iPad are all being used by others… iPhone is the backup no matter what.

With this month’s #Halloween theme I’ve been searching all the iPhone apps for #Halloween inspired #TrickOrTWEET inspirations.  Here are a couple you might want to check out…

I LOVE Instagram… so it was necessary to find the #Halloween photo-editing equivalent which seems to be the “Scary Camera Free” version.  Here are some fun images with it…

Of course since this is a whole year of Parents magazine I had to download their “Carve-a-Pumpkin” app which is great (and not scary) for my little one.

I decided to go a bit into the paranormal activity for myself and download the “Ghost Radar” app.  It’s like being a paranormal researcher in your own home?!  I can’t wait to go outside and try it out!  (but I think I’ll still stay away from the cemetery just in case?!!)

Have fun with your #Halloween apps this month and don’t forget to #TrickOrTWEET all those cute costume pics!