For the past four years my mom, who's 80 this year, and her three BFF's have been holding a Halloween party for all their friends and family. Each year they rotate who's house it's at and each year it's gotten bigger and more people show up. These ladies have more energy at this age then I do now! This year will be the fourth Halloween party and what a party it will be! They find all the costumes online at Costume Kingdom.com , they have great service, do exchanges for size and you'll find great prices if you are on a budget.

The first year (2008), they were all in nun costumes. They did a little show for the party goers, about 10 people plus themselves, with a recording of that song from the old movie,The Singing Nun, that "Dominica, nica, nica" song or however it goes. It was priceless! They even did the skit at the Methodist church they all go to, for a talent contest and won. Insane!!

The next year (2009) they all went as bananas (a bunch of bananas, get it?). Full banana suits, yellow faces and each of them accessorized the costumes the way they wanted to. One added a ton of jewelry and high heels, One walked around carrying a box of Rice Krispies because everyone has a banana on their cereal. It was just a riot! That year they had about double the amount of people plus the foursome.

Last year (2010) they were all chickens, each in a giant chicken suit (a hen party, get it?). When everyone got there, the gals all lined up, put on a CD of "The Chicken Dance" music and off they went, Chicken Dancing away! It was great and the party gets bigger every year with people that they know coming to see what they are dressed as this year. That year they had about 30 guests.

Well, this year (2011) it's The Wizard of Oz! My mom is the Cowardly Lion, one of the others is Dorothy and the other two are the Scare Crow and Tin man. No one is telling what this years theme is going to be so everyone will be surprised when they walk in and hear "We're off to see the Wizard" playing while these four skip around the house. They are drawing the limit at 35 people this year because they just can't fit anymore in any one's house. Next year, if they are all going strong, they are talking abut renting a hall for the party.

We get most of our costumes from Costume Kingdom.com them as well and they are great to work with. So try out this year and you know you'll have the most unique costume at whatever party you go to! I wish I was able to go to her party but she lives across the country from me. We did get her started off with all the reusable glasses, plates, utensils, bowls and decorations that we could. Each year now I send her some cash so it doesn't have to come out of her very limited budget. She's quite the force of nature and always has been. I hope she can keep this up until she can't move anymore. Since the women in this family all live well into their mid 90's, she should have a few more Halloween parties in her!

Since this year we have decided on an Alice in Wonderland theme for our annual party, my husband and I will be going as Alice and the Mad Hatter. We found some great ideas at Halloween-Online.com's costume section for Alice in Wonderland costumes.

While we love the Tim Burton film, we are planning on giving the party a bit darker tone to it. The Red Queen will carry around a basket of severed heads or we'll have some sitting around the party area. We're asking all party goers to coordinate their costumes so we don't end up with more then a couple of each character. Since we are all friends, it always works out well. Everyone can just contact each other and decide who's going to be what. You all know who you are.

Well, that's the plan so far. I had posted here earlier this year but every post since last September seems to have gone away. If we find any other costumes that catch our fancy and decide to change the look for this year, I'll have to start this over and let you all know!

Well, if you haven't picked out your Halloween costume yet, it's time to get started! Some of the hot costumes for this 2010 Halloween season are from films like Avatar, Alice in Wonderland, Twilight and Iron Man 2. Both adults and kids can find costumes in their size for these movies at local costume retailers and online costume stores.

You'll find some great ideas at AdultHalloweenCostumes.com for adult costumes and we found this great site with loads of ideas for kids, tween and teen costumes, CostumesForKids.com. It seems that the costume making companies are phasing out teen male costumes and adding a small men's size that will fit them so if you can't find any costumes for your teen boy, just try using a man's small costume instead.

I know that we've said it before but if you are ordering your costume online, make sure that you do it with plenty of time for an exchange if necessary and find out what their return policy is before you buy! Have fun picking out your costume for this Halloween and be daring, try something different this year!

Well, last year was a success and we now have to start thinking about what we want to be this Halloween! Since there's a lot of time before October, there's plenty of time to think about it but it's never too early to get started!

Any movies that came out late last year will spark costume ideas depending on the theme of the movie. Any superheros, gruesome monsters or popular TV characters always hit the shelves. Did you know that the majority of costumes are purchase in March at the trade shows? There are shows in Chicago and St Louis that set the standard for each Halloween every year. There used to be one in Las Vegas that we would attend but they've stopped that one as not profitable enough to the convention company.

We'll have the trends for this years costumes coming soon! We weren't able to go but we can get the news from our friends that did attend and share them with you! Back soon with more info!

Check out AdultHalloweenCostumes.com and HalloweenCostumesForKids.com for the latest in costume info!

Well, the big night is just weeks away and we still haven't decided on costumes for this year. I can't believe it, we always have them picked out by now! We've been looking at Halloween-Online.com for ideas and AdultHalloweenCostumes.com and CostumeKingdom.com for ideas. We have found plenty of good costumes and ideas on making some unique costumes but nothing is grabbing us this year so far.

We did see a great movie the other night, Trick 'r Treat is the name. It was made in 2007 but never released until now, on DVD. It would have been great on the big screen! Anyway, the main character of "Little Sam", the demon trick 'r' treater kid, would make a GREAT costume ...... for someone small.

I'm thinking about doing a witch costume this year or maybe a ghost. Spooky, I don't know what he wants to be this year. Anyway, we don't have long to figure this one out!

We found this really great place for getting Halloween masks at CostumeKingdom.com that has a large selection of high quality of them and costumes as well. That will really help us in our decision making for this years costume choices!

We have our costume choices sort of made for this year, maybe you do too. But what about the kids? Choosing costumes for your kids is a hard task. You should let them start picking out their own when they start to show an interest but with your approval on them. As they get older, the costume choices may get more daring or more gory and it's up to each parent to decide how far to let it go.

Some kids are very shy, even when they get into their teens. They may want a costume that has full coverage, like a ghost, super hero, zombie, anything that comes with a full face cover. Our son, last year, went as a very creepy gorilla. It had a full face mask that hung down to his waist! He was 17 last year and he's still a bit shy around large groups of people, takes after his mother that way. The point is, let them choose what they are comfortable with and they'll love Halloween forever! Don't force them to wear a costume that you like, wear it yourself! let them decide what they want to be and if it's within reason then no problem.

I found a new Halloween costume site that you might want to check out, Costumes for Kids.com. They have costume ideas for kids 5 years through about 17 years. Very cool!