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This was my first time ever carving pumpkins, and I think I did a pretty darn good job. Of course the snowstorm messed everything up and I didn't finish the last two. I did get Wolverine all carved but never got to take any pictures. The fourth was probably going to be the Hulk, but that pumpkin still sits completely intact in my frigid house.
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| Iron Man Jack-O-Lantern |
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| Yoda Jack-O-Lantern |
In honor of Halloween coming up on Monday, I thought it would be fun to share this infographic with you. These are favorite pop culture Halloween costumes over the past five years. Normally our boys all dress up as Star Wars characters but this year we are going with Marvel characters. The little guy will be Spider-Man and the others will be The Avengers: Captain America, Iron Man and Thor!
What are your kids dressing up as for Halloween?
It has been years since I have dressed up for Halloween. The last time I wore a costume was probably before I was married when I dressed as Padme Amidala from Star Wars Episode 2. (Yes, I am a dork). For some reason this morning I got the itch to search for eco themed costume ideas and that is when I started seeing some great Mother Nature costumes. Most of these are handmade and are really quite pretty.
Mother Nature Costume at StarCostumes.comt
Is it weird that I like this dress so much that I actually want to buy it so I can wear it whenever I want?
Can you believe that Halloween is less than two weeks away?! With four children to get costumes for every year, well it can be a little scary. There have been plenty of
years where my boys have used hand-me-downs either from their older
brother or from older cousins. This year, however, we needed three new
costumes. Every year we do a theme with our boys. Last year, and pretty much ever year before that, they were all Star Wars characters. This year we decided that since they love Marvel super heroes so much and we already had masks and helmets, that they would each be a Marvel comic book character. My oldest decided to be Captain America, the twins wanted to be Thor and Iron Man and the toddler is going to be Spider-Man (hand-me-down).
WholesaleHalloweenCostumes has a wide selection of costumes for everyone in your family. I was particularly impressed with the various kids costumes they had in stock. We were sent the "Boys Classic Muscle Captain America Movie Costume" to review for my six year old. This was our first time ever using the costumes with muscles so I couldn't wait to see how he cute he looked. While I waited for that to arrive, I headed to buy local party store to look for costumes for the twins. While there I noticed that the prices were about $10 MORE than the prices on Wholesale Halloween Costumes. That is a pretty significant difference, especially when shopping for multiple kids. I grabbed an Iron Man costume but then decided to go back home and order the Thor costume from WholesaleHalloweenCostumes.com. I placed my order late on a Friday afternoon, October 7, and paid for expedited shipping. Once my order was placed it said the costume would arrive guaranteed on October 11. Their shipping is awesome and fast! I can't tell you how surprised I was when it arrived a day early on October 11 which was also Columbus Day.
The Captain America costume comes with a jumpsuit with muscles in torso and arms, attached boot tops and a character hood. The shield is sold separately but luckily we already had one. My son loves this costume! I ordered him the Medium which fits boys size 7 - 8. I was a little nervous about the sizing as he currently is at a stage where 6 is either too small or just good enough and 7 is too big. So I was worried that this costume was going to be huge on him. Thankfully it fits great. The length of the torso is perfect and the legs are only a little long, which is good because that means he can use it for dress up for a while. I really like the muscles as they are subtle and look so cute. He put this on within minutes of the UPS man dropping it off and he was walking around flexing and telling me to look at his muscles.
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| Posing in his costume. |
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| Avengers Assemble! |
I was hoping to have pictures of our carved pumpkins for today, but we still haven't done them yet. So instead I am doing a Halloween Flashback of each of my boys' first Halloween.
William's first Halloween as Yoda.
I was just reading a report from the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics this morning that is more than a little disturbing. They released a new study, entitled Pretty Scary, which basically says that they have found heavy metals such as lead, nickel, cobalt and chromium in childrens' face paints. Even more upsetting is the fact that these ingredients were NOT listed on the labels. Here is a small excerpt about what they found:
For this report, the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics sent 10 children's face paints to an independent lab to test for heavy metals. Among our findings:
- 10 out of 10 children's face paints we tested contained low levels of lead, ranging from 0.05 to 0.65 parts per million (ppm).
Experts say there is no safe level of lead exposure for children and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that parents avoid using cosmetics on their children that could be contaminated with lead. Lead exposures early in life can lead to hyperactivity, impulsive behavior, IQ deficits, reduced school performance, aggression and delinquent behavior. It can also impact fertility, including increasing risk for miscarriage and reducing sperm quality. Early-life lead exposure can even increase risk for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.- 6 out of 10 products contained the potent allergens nickel, chromium and/or cobalt at levels ranging from 1.6 to 120 ppm – far above the safety recommendations of industry studies.
Nickel, chromium, and cobalt can trigger skin rashes that appear throughout life with subsequent exposures.
