When we think of Halloween, we think of costumes, candy, pumpkins and parties!  I’ve blogged about all of these things, but want to once again speak of the ever popular and sometimes crazy – Halloween costume party!

Now, when throwing any type of party your main concern should be on the atmosphere and the food.  A lot of Halloween party’s go with the theme of  “horror” (the backbone of Halloween).  It’s a great theme and there’s plenty you can do with it!

Next year when you’re planning your annual Halloween party don’t forget the dessert!  Check out these gruesome (but very delicious) cakes – talk about losing your appetite! 

CREATIVE AND CREEPY!

No question about it – Halloween is a great family holiday!  The children love to go out trick-or-treating for candy and the parents enjoy walking them around the neighbor.  It’s sort of a social thing for the parents as they stop and talk with all their neighbors as their kids run from house to house.  A lot of neighborhoods that have streets in a cul-de-sac will set up a long table at the beginning of the street and all the parents will sit there with their candy making it easier for the children.  It’s just like one-stop candy shopping for the kids!

For years it’s been a tradition at our house that my whole family (brothers, sisters and their kids) all get together at my house Halloween night.  It’s pizza and chaos as we help all the younger kids get dressed in their costumes.  Then it’s off to trick-or-treating we go. 

This year I’ve decided to have a costume party at our house once all the kids are back from raiding the neighborhood candy bowls.  Everyone has to come dressed in group themed costumes (or as I like to call it “family” themed).  We’re dressing as all the characters from the Wizard of Oz!  I love the idea and the kids are actually excited about it!  Wizard of Oz costumes are so easy and fun and make for a great family costume idea!  I’m going to be Glinda the Good Witch, my husband is going to be the Wicked Witch of the West (which I think is hilarious), Sydney is going to be Dorothy, Olivia is the Cowardly Lion and my son Caden is going to be the Tin Man.  We still need someone to be the Scarecrow so I think we’re just going to throw a flannel shirt on our dog with some hay sticking out all over!

Here are some other great “family” or group costume ideas for your Halloween:

• Alice in Wonderland
• Superheroes
• Pirates of the Caribbean
• Power Rangers
• Star Wars
• Toy Story
• Sesame Street

Start a new tradition this year with your family by throwing a Halloween costume party!  Use themes such as; horror and gothic, humorous or even movie costumes.  No matter what you decide, just have fun and enjoy spending time with your family this Halloween holiday!

No adult Halloween party is complete without costumes, appetizers and plenty of adult beverages.  This year the trendy party drink is  Halloween Wine!  Everyone loves wine so why not include it in your holiday festivities? 

Red wine couldn’t be any more appropriate for a Halloween party because of its color.  Seeing Dracula walking around with a goblet of blood (aka Cabernet Sauvignon) adds an aura of creepiness to the partys atmosphere. 

Halloween Wine with names like “Bone Dry Red” complete with a black and white skeleton on the label and ”Ghostly White” with a label of hands reaching up from the dead are the perfect beverages for your Halloween party!

So this year in keeping with the Halloween theme serve your guests Bone Dry Cabernet or Ghostly White Sweet or Chardonnay!  Believe me, your guests will be dying for it…

The high school years are finally over for all the seniors 2009 and now they’re getting ready to move into the next phase of their lives whether it be college or into the working world.  But before all that they have a couple months of summer break that will be filled with wild and crazy graduation parties!

In my last blog I wrote about the ever-popular Hawaiian Luau theme party that always makes for easy planning when organizing a grad party. 

Today I’m going to talk about another theme that is just as fun – Mexican Fiesta Party!

The word fiesta means “a festive celebration” and that’s exactly what a graduation party should be.  You can greet your guests with colorful sombreros and castanets.  Decorate in colors of red, white and green.  Mexican ponchos, sombreros and colorful serapes are perfect attire for your guests.  Senors and senoritas can snack on chips and salsa in addition to bite size fajitas, tortillas and enchaladas.

A pinata and frozen (non-alcoholic) margarita drinks add the perfect touch to your fiesta theme party!   

I hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend and enjoyed the un-official start of summer!  My kids are finishing up their last week of school and then it’s summer break for them.  This week is pretty simple with just turning in books and helping to clean up their classroom and school.   I’m sure the older kids in high school aren’t enjoying this last week quite as much since they have to contend with end of the year exams. 

With June and July being big months for graduation parties, many parents are looking for ways to make their teenagers party memorable.  The best way to do that is by creating a “theme” for your party.  Here are some ideas:

• Hawaiian Luau
• Fiesta
• Casino
• Mardi Gras
• Sports
• College Bound

The most popular theme for a graduation party is the Hawaiian Luau theme.  There is a lot you can do with carrying this fun tropical theme thoughout your party.  Hawaiian costumes, flowered leis, tiki torches and it’s easy to decorate in a tropical theme with palm trees, coconuts and thatch umbrellas. 

HalloweenExpress.com has everything you’ll need to make a fun-filled grad party, Hawaiian style! 

Even though summer doesn’t officially start until June 21st, to many college students it is now summer!  May is also a big month for many grade and high school students to be getting their summer breaks and parents are scrambling to find things for their children to do over the summer. 

I can’t believe Memorial Day is only two weeks away!  To me that is the “unofficial” start to summer.  With the parades and families getting together for grill-outs, it’s always a great time to start the summer.  Don’t forget your red, white and blue decorations, accessories AND costumes!  At HalloweenExpress.com you’ll find patriotic costumes for every age. 

Kids Costumes

A great way to keep your little ones occupied over the summer is with costumes.  Playing dress-up is a fun and creative way for your child to play.  With kids costumes you can let your child’s imagination run wild!  They will play for hours as cowboys and Indians, superheroes that save the world, princesses and knights in shining armor.  Girls and boys will both have fun picking out costumes for their summer fun!

I always thought that May 5th or Cinco de Mayo was an important holiday in Mexico but it’s actually much more recognized and celebrated here in the United States.  It’s observed as a date to celebrate the culture and experiences of Americans of Mexican ancestry, much the same as St. Patrick’s Day, Oktoberfest and the Chinese New Year are used to celebrate those of Irish, German and Chinese ancestry. 

My daughter’s school always has “Cinco de Mayo” day on May 5th where they get to bring in a Mexican dish, listen to mariachis and learn the Mexican hat dance.  I always volunteer that day because it’s so much fun!   Teachers are dressed in Mexican attire of Ponchos and colorful Serapes.    The senorita’s wear beautiful ribbons around their necks and many beaded bracelets.  There are sombrero’s of every shape, size and color everywhere you look! 

What a great idea to throw your own Cinco de Mayo party!  Invite all your family and friends and have them dress in Mexican fashion.  Have a Mariachi band playing and be sure to have plenty of delicious Mexican food. 

HalloweenExpress.com has everything you need to throw the best Cinco de Mayo fiesta ever!

Well we made it through another Easter holiday and I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!  Our “Easter Bunny at home” turned out great and the kids loved getting their picture taken with him. My youngest, Olivia wasn’t afraid of him at all.  I knew that having the Easter Bunny come to our home and the neighborhood parade was the perfect idea to put Olivia’s fears of the Easter Bunny on hold (at least for this year)!  Don’t forget to get your Easter Bunny costume for next year!

Memorial Day and the official start of summer is right around the corner.  I can’t believe the kids only have a little over a month left of school.  My gosh, where has the time gone!  Memorial Day, formerly known as “Decoration Day” is observed on the last Monday in May.  It is a day of remembering all the U.S. men and women who lost their lives serving our country.  It has become both a national decoration day of family graves and a holiday that opens the summer season.  There are many parades,  backyard barbeques and family get togethers. 

Memorial Day is always a big deal around here with a pool party to celebrate the opening of our pool for summer, to welcome the end of the school year, but most importantly it’s a time to remember and honor all the service men and women.  Every year we decorate with a “Patriotic” theme of red, white and blue.  We enjoy watching the Memorial Day parade and waving our small American flags with everyone in our community.

It’s a great time to dress up in a Patriotic costume to show your support for the armed services and the good old U.S. of A.  HalloweenExpress.com has so many wonderful Patriotic costumes to choose from such as an Uncle Sam costume, Statue of Liberty and some great military costumes for adults and children of all ages.  What better way to say thank you and show your love of our American soldiers!

Today is Dr. Seuss’ birthday!  Even though he passed away on September 24, 1991 Theodore Seuss Geisel is still known to this day as one of the most beloved authors of childrens books ever!  He wrote and illustrated 44 books, which have been translated into 20 different languages making him the best selling children’s author of all time.

He has captivated over four generations of children and parents alike by helping millions of children learn to read.  To the average American raised since the 1940’s, the name Dr. Seuss conjures an image of rhymes and tongue twisters and such fun characters as the Cat in the Hat, the Fox in Sox, Horton hears a Who and the Grinch.  

Today is also Read Across America Day in memory of Dr. Seuss and all the wonderful things he did as an author to get children to love reading.  Every year the National Education Association sponsors Read Across America and this is its 12th year!  All across the country thousands of schools, daycares, libraries and community centers are participating by reading to a child.

Last year I took my kids to our local library and they had so much fun.  There were people dressed in Cat in the Hat costumes and the Grinch.  Everyone got a Cat in the Hat red and white striped “stovepipe” style hat to wear as they came in the library.  Balloons were everywhere and Dr. Seuss books as far as the eye could see.  They can’t wait to go to the library tonight for Read Across America with Dr. Seuss!

If you can’t make it to the library, then bring Dr. Seuss to you.  You don’t have to go out to participate in Read Across America.  Simply read a book to your child – it’s that easy!  Let your children know that learning to read can be fun. 

From the words of Dr. Seuss,

 ”You’re never too old, too wacky, too wild to pick up a book and read to a child!”      

Well, it’s that time of the school year again that the children love – spring break!  While parents are busy putting the finishing touches on their travel plans the kids are busy counting down the days. 

This year we’ve decided to take the kids to Florida with a big group of our friends and their children. Because flying is so expensive, especially with three kids, we’re packing up the minivan and heading south.  Of course my husband had to pick a city in Florida that is just about as far south as you can go on the Gulf side, Ft Myers Beach.  From our house the drive can take as much as 18 hours or as little as 15 depending on who’s driving.  My husband likes to drive straight through with minimal stopping, however I enjoy stopping for actual dinners, not just drive thru’s.  When you have three kids in the car you have to stop and let them stretch their legs and get some of the energy out or else the end up taking all that energy out on each other while we’re driving.  And just like his father before him, my husbands favorite line while driving is, “Don’t make me turn this car around.”  By now the kids are pretty familiar with this line and knowing that he really won’t stop when we’re closer to our destination than home, it doesn’t really have much affect.

This year’s Spring break will put us in Ft Myers the week of St Patrick’s Day.  It works out perfectly because I can still have our annual family party the weekend before we leave.  A couple that is going with us love St. Patrick’s Day and want to throw a party on the beach while we’re there for the kids.  They’ll love it and it will be great letting the kids get in on all the fun. 

HalloweenExpress.com has everything you’ll need to throw the best party.  St. Patrick’s Day costumes, accessories and decorations galore are right at your fingertips!