Halloween Costumes for All Ages

We received free product to facilitate this post. No other compensation was received. 

All opinions expressed are our own.

Halloween is coming! You already know we're ready for our party that night, and now we're ready for trick-or-treating too! My oldest daughter typically begins preparing her costume plans on November 1 of each year. As soon as she takes one costume off, she starts planning for the next. Historically, I've made her costumes but now that I have a toddler as well and am working full time outside the home, my time and energy is more limited. Off to the internet we went, searching for costumes for both girls.

Oriental Trading has so many costume options for trick-or-treaters of all ages! Whether you're looking for something for a baby, a grownup, or anyone in between, you'll find it. Group costumes, family costumes, themed costumes galore. On the top of our list when we look for costumes is a costume that works practically for us. Halloween night is typically cold in New England but no kid likes to wear their jacket on top of their costume. We were on the hunt for something cozy that we could layer underneath for warmth. Stylish, fun, and practical - that's what my girl was looking for.

Introducing our snow leopard and our duck!

I'd love to be able to convince my I'm-not-2-yet-but-I'm-in-the-terrible-twos toddler that she should wear her costume, but her favorite word right now is "no" so that's not happening. Fingers crossed she changes her mind by the end of the month!

I love these costumes and look forward to making memories with them this year! They are creative, fun, cozy, and high quality.

If you're looking to save yourself the hassle of a store trip to picked-over, messy costume aisles, browse Oriental Trading online. I guarantee you'll find something that works for you and your whole family. Happy Memory Making this Halloween!

Peanuts® Halloween Party Planning

We received free product to facilitate this post. No other compensation was received. 

All opinions expressed are our own.

When I was young, I lived in a neighborhood full of friends my age, and trick-or-treating was truly a group affair. Everyone would eat a quick dinner and head out into the darkness (there were not even street lights!) for treats and fun.

We've carried on the same tradition in our family now that I have children of my own, but there aren't many kids my kids' ages that live in the neighborhood so the fun factor is not quite as high. Last year, thinking about our own situation, and knowing that we have several friends from school who live on busy streets that are unsafe for trick-or-treating, we invited some school friends over to our house and then headed out together for trick-or-treating. For one friend, it was her very first time trick-or-treating, because she'd never had a safe place to enjoy the tradition! 

Our little get-together last year was so much fun so it was an easy decision to make this an annual tradition! This year, we plan to invite even more friends, and even picked a theme for our pre-trick-or-treating Halloween party - Peanuts®! We're hoping to catch a peek at the Great Pumpkin this year!

We've gathered together some simple decorations to set the mood. They are so fun!

We'll cover the wall in our dining room with this a-m-a-z-i-n-g Great Pumpkin Backdrop. It's made of three strips of plastic that stick to our wall with static electricity - I didn't even need to use tape! There are only two of the strips hung here because I couldn't fit all three in this space. The completed set is 9 feet x 6 feet. 

I expect that we'll put this life-sized Great Pumpkin Cardboard Stand-Up outside on Halloween, but for now, on this rainy day, it's set in front of the Backdrop. Won't this make for some super fun photo ops?

We'll serve pizza because it's quick and easy, and we'll set our table with this Peanuts® themed Halloween Plastic Tablecloth, along with these themed Dinner Plates, and Napkins.

Hanging Paper Lanterns and Halloween Cutouts will complete the look!

We can't wait to have our friends over again this year... and can't wait to surprise them with this fun Peanuts® themed party!

All of these items - and more - can be found at Oriental Trading! Plan your holiday get-together easily with goodies to match whatever theme your heart desires. There are tons of fun and affordable options available!

Canobie Lake Park - New England Fun for All Ages!

We were provided with complimentary tickets to Canobie Lake Park to facilitate this review. 

All opinions expressed are my own.

Last weekend we took our annual summer trip to Canobie Lake Park! It's always a relief to make the final arrangements for this super fun day trip because I'm asked almost every day of the summer, "Can we go to Canobie Lake this weekend?" Being another crazy summer that included broken bones, we had no choice but to again wait until the end when we were all cast-less and ready to play.

Canobie Lake Park is conveniently located in Salem, New Hampshire, just a couple of minutes from Route 93. It's easy to get to, parking is free, and if you plan to spend the entire day there, I can promise you won't get bored!

We have a seven year old and a 19 month old and they both, not surprisingly, had a blast at the park this year.

Our big kid will ride most all the park rides. A few of this year's favorites were the Canobie 500 Cars, the Kiddie Dragon Coaster, the Caterpillar, the Policy Pond Log Flume, the Boston Tea Party (SO WET!), and the Pirate Ship.  We decided to wait one more year before riding the biggest roller coasters like the Yankee Canonball, the Corkscrew Coaster, and Untamed.

Our little one enjoyed her first carousel rides(s) this year! I lost count of how many times she rode the Antique Carousel but the nice things about Canobie Lake Park is that once you've paid for admission to the park, you're good for the day and can ride what you love an unlimited number of times!

Our entire family loved riding Over the Rainbow.

It is so fun to have rides that can be enjoyed by the whole family!

Although our youngest was big enough to ride the rides in the kiddie section of the park, I didn't quite trust her to ride alone and my oldest is a tad too big for those rides. For the most part, these rides have a 48" max height. If this girl wasn't in a phase filled with "no" and some pre-terrible-two defiance, I may have trusted her, but climbing out of cars and boats mid-ride wouldn't be good! Next year!

The food at Canobie Lake Park is always delicious and this year was no exception. In fact, this year was better than ever before with the new Smokin' BBQ! My husband and I enjoyed delicious pulled pork sandwiches with baked beans, coleslaw, and iced tea. My parents tried out the BBQ chicken. My southern husband is pretty critical when it comes to barbecue and he was impressed in this authentic, delicious meal! Smokin' BBQ is only open Friday through Sunday, starting at 1pm, and only until the food runs out. We got there at 1:00 to get the freshest of the batch and we'll do it again next time for sure.

You can't bring food or drinks into Canobie Lake Park, but there truly are tons of options for meal and snack time! We enjoyed popcorn, cotton candy, and ice cream throughout the day. We'd been looking forward to them all year and they surely didn't disappoint!

If you haven't had a chance to make it up to Canobie Lake Park yet this year, it's not too late! There is still tons of fun to be had at Live Shows, the Canobie Petting Zoo, and Screemfest, which begins this weekend! Start planning your trip today!

Halloween Headquarters at Oriental Trading: Costumes and Candy and Crafts, Oh My!

We received free product to facilitate this review. No other compensation was received. 

All opinions expressed are our own.

One of my favorite parts of this time of year is that there is a holiday to look forward to every month for the next several months! We're always counting down the days to something at this time of year. Right now, it's Halloween!

It's so exciting to enjoy fun holidays alongside my children. My six year old starts planning her Halloween costumes on November 1 each year for the following year. She usually changes her mind about 24 times before October 31... usually for the last time about 4 days before the big day, but every idea is super exciting and magical to her, so we just go with it!

This year, as soon as we hit the official first day of fall, we were ready to celebrate! Decorations, costumes, candy, and fun. We were ready for Halloween early this year - thanks to Oriental Trading!

Halloween Headquarters at Oriental Trading has absolutely everything you need to celebrate this year. Whether you're in the mood for festive or spooky, looking for a costume, some decorations, toys, crafts, or even candy, Oriental Trading has you covered. With a huge selection and affordable prices, you won't be disappointed. 

These Jack O'Lantern Dry Erase Stickers are great for decorating your home for the fun occasion! The set comes with one blank pumpkin and two more partially decorated ones just waiting for your finishing touches before hanging.

Our new Peanuts® Halloween Bowl is filled with Black Cat Character Suckers and Mini Swirl Pops. They are cute and something different for us this year. Usually our bowl is full of traditional chocolate favorites. Oriental Trading has those as well, but we went with lollipops this year and loved the look of these. Of course, we've taste-tasted them, and they were winners in that regard too!

Since we've spent much of this year dealing with some food allergies in our youngest, we were glad to see that Oriental Trading has stocked their shop with lots of non-food Halloween treat options. We ordered a Teal Pumpkin this year in honor of food allergy awareness - to signify that we'll have some non-food treats to offer to kiddos who may not be able to eat all the candy. 

We've filled a second treat bowl with these adorable Halloween Bears and Jack-O-Lantern Rubber Duckies. The vinyl bears really are the cutest and they come in sets of 48. My daughter has already gifted one to each of her classmates and we still have plenty to give away on Halloween night! These treats will be a fun option for any visiting kids who may not be able to eat our candy offerings. Most likely, we'll let everyone take one, because who could look at these cute faces and not want one?!

No holiday is complete without stickers, right? Actually in our home, no day is complete without stickers. These Peanuts® Halloween Stickers are great for the season and my daughter has been loving creating crafty cards for her friends with these. The roll comes with 100 assorted stickers.

We've also been doing some seasonal crafting with this Halloween Witch Clothespin Craft Kit. I adore these foam craft kids from Oriental Trading. They are so easy, mess-free, yet totally adorable and very fun for little crafters.

Perhaps most excitingly for this time of year, Oriental Trading has tons and tons and tons of costume options for both kids and adults! If there's something you have in mind, Oriental Trading is sure to have it. And if you just can't think of what to dress up as, Oriental Trading will give you some great ideas!

My daughter has decided to be an angel this year and Oriental Trading had the perfect costume for her. This Angel Costume with Wings & Candle is simple, sweet, beautiful, and perhaps most importantly, practical. I wasn't sure that I would love these feather wings but I do! They look fantastic and really fancy this costume up. You never know what the weather will be like around here on Halloween, but often it's a night to break out the winter jackets. This white angel dress will fit over whatever jacket we use. The only downside to this costume is the lack of halo, but we'll be able to make one of those without too much difficulty. Here's a costume sneak peek... I'm hoping she doesn't change her mind!

I know some of you might be surprised that we're not dressing at Shopkins this Halloween! For all you Shopkins fans, rest assured Oriental Trading does even have a costume for you! Strawberry Kiss and Cupcake Queen are full of glittery goodness, so if Shopkins are your thing this year, Oriental Trading has you covered.

We were so excited for Halloween this year as always, and even more so now that Oriental Trading hooked us up with everything we need for a great night. Check out Halloween Headquarters at Oriental Trading for anything and everything you need this year!

Celebrate Halloween with Oriental Trading

We received free product to facilitate this review. No other compensation was received.

All opinions expressed are our own.

Fall is one of my favorite times of year and I think one reason is that decorating for the season is just so fun! I typically start my decorating in November but this year I started in early October with the help of Oriental Trading and their fantastic assortment of Halloween decorations!

Oriental Trading has everything you need to kick off your Halloween season. Whether you're looking for crafts, indoor or outdoor decorations, candy, favors, costumes, or accessories, Oriental Trading is your one-stop-shop!

Because my daughter is young, I wanted to stick with Halloween decorations that were cute but not scary or gory and The Pumpkin Express Train was a perfect fit! With adorable characters and details and a sweet fall and Halloween theme, we fell in love with this little train as soon as we took it out of the box. Teddy bears, ghosts, and kitties and pumpkins - you really can't help but smile when you see this, right?

I'm also a fan of classic decorations and love decor that will last me beyond one holiday and work for the whole season. These Orange Metal Lanterns are beautiful. They come as a set of two, with candles sold separately. I ordered two Square Flameless Candles to use inside them. With two AA batteries (not included), these real wax LED candles flicker like the real thing! They make a lovely addition to our fireplace area, but my plan is to move them outside to the front steps on Halloween to help light the way for our trick-or-treaters! These will decorate our living room throughout the fall season.

Regardless of the season and decor, we always save room around here for homemade decorations! Oriental Trading has an enormous assortment of crafts and DIY projects for both adults and kids. My daughter was thrilled with this sweet Halloween Owl Ornament Craft Kit. In fact, I was just as pleased! These little owls come in a set of a dozen individually packaged kits with adhesive foam pieces and instructions to create your own adorable owl friend. We made several of these to add to our decorations and also used them as a group craft at a pajama party with several other kindergarten girls. They were a huge hit with everyone!

Needless to say, Halloween is not Halloween without a good assortment of candy. While you're online shopping for your decor and crafts at Oriental Trading, you might as well pick up some trick-or-treat candy too! Whether you're looking for name brand or novelty candy, you'll find it. This Wrigley's Grab Bag Candy Assortment had a little (or shall I say a lot) of everyone in our family's favorites.

This was our first year shopping with Oriental Trading for Halloween, but it certainly won't be our last. With a huge assortment of Halloween related items - over 400 new items live on the website right now - you're sure to find whatever you're looking for during this fun and festive season! And shopping from the comfort of your own home? Well, in my opinion, that can't be beat!

Oriental Trading is giving away $250 in Halloween products of your choice weekly! Visit www.spooktaculargiveaway.com today and enter to win! Plus, they're giving away a $25 gift card every day! Contest ends October 17, 2015, so get your entries in today! Good luck!

Canobie Lake Park - A Perfect New England Day Trip!

We received complimentary admission to Canobie Lake Park to facilitate this review.

All opinions expressed are our own.

A day trip to Canobie Lake Park is an absolute must if you live in New England! Just a short trip north, this family-friendly Salem, New Hampshire amusement park is one you don't want to miss. It's been my absolute favorite since I was a kid... and now that I'm a mom, I love sharing it with my whole family!

My five-year-old loves amusement parks and is at a really fun age (and height) that allows her to enjoy both the kiddie rides and many, if not most, of the bigger rides at Canobie Lake Park. Whether you're a scenic train ride type person...

 or a roller coaster enthusiast...

 you'll find plenty to do on a trip to Canobie Lake Park!

Our favorite ride this year was the bumper cars. Perhaps the best part is that there is a version for grown-ups and bigger big-kids and then a version for kids my daughter's age. There was a wonderful staff member who explained to the kids exactly how to get their bumper cars unstuck - before they even started! Maybe I would have enjoyed bumper cars more as a kid if I had known this!

The trick to getting unstuck in a bumper car is to turn your steering wheel all the way to one side and press down on the gas until you move! It works like a charm every time!

Our daughter also got brave enough for the ferris wheel this year! You'll see from the picture that I was taking this picture for the ground... I haven't quite outgrown my fear of heights yet and this ferris wheel is huge!

Besides great rides, there are many other great things about Canobie Lake Park.

The park (including bathrooms) are so clean considering the number of people that are running around there any given day. We went on a busy Saturday and were very impressed with the cleanliness throughout.

Parking is free, free, free, and there is tons of it!

There are plenty of options for food and drink inside the park. You cannot bring food in from the outside, but you'll find pretty much whatever you might be in the mood for on the inside. There are sit-down options as well as snack stands and you can find everything from burgers, to pizza, to fried clams, to ice cream. In fact, within the free Canobie Lake Park Map mobile app, you can open the Menu feature and see a listing of foods and how close you are to them. This made my Root-Beer-Float-craving-pregnant-tummy very, very happy!

The app also provides a map of the park, a ride sorting feature, and even a tool for marking your vehicle's location in the parking lot and helping you find it when you're done with your day!

As I mentioned earlier, there are so many ways to have fun at Canobie Lake Park - whether you're little or big or somewhere in between. You can read more details in our last review or on the Canobie Lake Park website.

If you haven't made it up to Canobie Lake Park yet this year, don't despair! They are still open every weekend through October! Although you'll need to skip the water park portion, I guarantee you'll still have tons of fun! Canobie offers some really fun fall programming that you won't want to miss, like a petting zoo, pony rides, and a pumpkin house - we may need to head back up for those extras! Check out the Canobie Lake Park website for more info on hours, pricing, and programs!

 We can't wait to make our way back up to Canobie Lake Park again soon!