Best Costume Site

As the mother of a 4 year old boy who is VERY into costumes (the other day when he was complaining about being dragged to various activities I asked him what he would want to do and he said “be at home wearing costumes every day”), I have become quite familiar with the various costume stores and websites.

My favorite is anytime costumes - they have a wide variety of choices and sizes (we mostly search superheroes). And with Halloween approaching, they have one-stop shopping.  Looking for Batman size 3? They don’t offer just one option, they have a few – at different prices and with different “accouterments”.  For me, this is very important as we sometimes get pieces of costumes for “chores charts” (i.e. utility belts, green lantern rings), while Halloween or Bday presents are the whole shebang.

Right now, they’re offering 30% off.  See code above!

An Amazing Garbage Book

I recently read an amazing and life-changing book called Garbology by Edward Humes.  Humes goes into detail of America’s problem with waste and garbage, and illustrates just how much garbage we produce (50% more per person than other countries)…And it’s well-written and extremely fast-paced.

Even for those who somehow aren’t too worried about our environment, the cost alone of our waste management is staggering.

With Halloween approaching, I couldn’t help but think about all the extra candy wrappers, candy bags, trick or treating bags, etc. that would be generated for this “holiday”.  Now, I’m not going to tell anyone not to participate – we all do it, but I do think this read is an extremely important book for parents and puts life in a new light.

Some lessons I took away were – why are we trained to think we need new things, when many of our old things are perfectly fine? This didn’t used to exist.  Americans of the 40s/50’s were much more thrifty.  But marketing made us think we always need new clothes, new furniture, etc. Getting yourself out of the “new wants” trap is empowering.  I know we all have issues with our kids and consumption – they’ve caught on to this wanting something new all the time idea. Breaking it can help them and the earth. Additionally, eliminating plastic grocery bags from your life makes a BIG difference.  I really liked this part as I felt like it was something I could really take control over – and do – and it would actually make a difference! 

There is so much more history, insight, and truth in the book – it’s a must for parents and all enlightened adults. We want to leave more than trash for our kids!