Halloween

With Halloween falling on a Friday this year your family can continue the holiday fun throughout the weekend. One event that's totally family friendly and free and looks really cool is the Pumpkin Launch 2008 being held on November 1st at the Cal State University of Fullerton's Titan Stadium from 9am to 2pm.

As I'm sure you are fully aware Halloween is upon us..finally. Some parents have been preparing for the big event for a month or more now and some of us went to Target last night hoping to score a ladybug costume returned by someone who must've sensed you needed THAT costume only to leave there in tears sighing "What have I done? What have I done?" Don't give up just yet, Amber Dusick has provided a yummy costume how-to idea that is as minimal as it is simple.

One of my greatest weaknesses happens to be children's books. Even greater is my love for Halloween picture books and even greater still is my addiction to J. Otto Seibold. We can't get enough of his sweet and sassy, thoroughly detailed art. And so it was with great pleasure, while poring over Halloween kiddie books at my local bookstore searching for a new title to add to my collection, that I came across a Halloween book written and illustrated by Mr. Seibold. A brand spankin' new Seibold Halloween book..as if all my prayers had been answered.

Bringing new meaning to the term brain food Instructables's member Scoochmaroo has provided a pretty stellar how-to on carving your melons into the coolest brains chock full of smart wrinkles. Check out her "Melon Brains" Instructables, perfect for your next Halloween bash or just for when you need to jazz up the ol' melon for the kids. Smarts never tasted sweeter.

It's Halloween. Your kids like sweets and crafts. Anything tastes better pumpkin flavored. Pumpkin flavored food season officially began October 1st. Why not whip up a few batches of some tasty pumpkin cookies?

We've been invited to a family Halloween party and the hosts are very insistent that EVERYONE come in costume. Seeing that I haven't put any thought into a Halloween costume this year mainly because planning the perfect grown-up Halloween get-up seemed to take a backseat the moment we had our first kid I really didn't know what to do.

If It's Hip, It's Here has a fun post on tricking out the ol' jack-o lantern, geek style. Looking for a little inspiration and motivation? The post provides some great pictures and links to motivate the pumpkin artist in you ready to cut that squash into something fierce. Check out the Mac OS and wall of Star Wars pumpkins...most impressive.

Your kids like tats but are years away from real ink. You want them to be safe. They can name ever Star Wars Clone Wars droid yet can't remember the important stuff like, oh say, their phone number, food allergies and...um...name. Check out these sweet temporary Child Safety Tattoos from SafetyTat. They're customized to order with one to two lines of information perfect for multiple phone numbers.

For us city folk who are faced with a two hour plus car ride to visit an actual pumpkin patch our options are limited to making a day of it, visiting one of the many temporary pumpkin lots which will later become Christmas tree lots or grabbing a pumpkin at the grocery store during a weekly shopping trip. However, right off the 101 Fwy in Encino is a quaint little family farm stand with lots of heart and mellow feel. It's the perfect tot hot spot for pumpkin hunting. Tapia Bros. has been our pumpkin place of choice for many years.

As Halloween nears all sorts of disgusting, fake gooey stuff are stocked on store shelves right next to horrifying, loud, evil, dead monsters. You might be all set to plop down some major bucks for some sticky gross-out substances. However, with a few simple household ingredients, a couple of spare minutes and a scientific mind you too can create your very own homemade mucus on the fly. And the best part, this stuff really is pretty sick. Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D.