Paper Dolls

Halloween party plans almost complete?  Our pre-Halloween Pumpkin Decorating Party at our house was a success, although I didn't take enough photos!  Pumpkins were decorated, party snacks and drinks were eagerly consumed and the homemade caramel apple dessert activity was a hit. If you're still stumped about a non-sugary treat for the goodie bag or a pre-trick-or-treat activity for your celebration, you really must check out Frecklebox's FREE collection of PERSONALIZED Halloween printable coloring and activity pages!  Actually, they have over 40+ pages in different designs and holiday themes that you can print with your child's name or the names of your guests.  For example, these are perfect for an early ice breaker among the Crayola set: If you've got the time, why not print 4-5 pages per child, staple or bind together with colorful Halloween ribbons, and present to your guests as a non-candy party favor alternative?  My daughter loves activity ...

Very busy weekend with out of town visitors, family holiday photo shoot and one literary pumpkin (more on that later) so I didn't get everything done that wanted to do!  Thus, a belated "weekend edition" of my 31 Days of Tricks & Treats for your delectation. Do you love printables?  I do.  I am a paperaholic .  (As if you didn't know already from the name of this blog!)  I am a bit of a paper hoarder, much to my husband's dismay, although this has been a tiny bit reduced since digital papers were introduced.  So now I love digital papers and embellishments as much as real paper.  My digital collection grows apace. The TREAT of the weekend is courtesy of Smilebox .  They have some adorable Spooky Party Circles available for download TOTALLY FREE!  They are too cute.  Four each of four different Halloween designs, absolutely perfect as cupcake toppers, party bag decor, etc.  They match perfectly with Smilebox's Spooky...

Welcome to Day 1 of Sweetest Whimsy's 31 Days of Tricks & Treats!  The trick or treat of the day will be posted either here, on the Paper Dolls blog, or here , the Sweet Spot blog.  Who knows what you'll find each day in October?!  (I'm sure I don't.  And I totally mean that.) SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE Today's little TREAT is a trip to my favorite online Halloween costume shop, The Party Works !   In addition to offering all things party related, they also offer a mother lode of costumes for everyone in your entire family.  Yes, EVERYONE.  Including Fido: Monkey Dog Rider Pet Costume Bloomin' Snout Pet Costume Need I say more?  In addition to pet and human costumes for all ages, they also offer Plus Size costumes , which is a nice nod to a large portion of our population. One really nice thing, from a budget-conscious parent's point of view, about this online shop is that The Party Works offers the same costume in dif...

Every August, we do 3 things in our family: 1) go on a vacation; 2) buy school clothes, shoes, supplies, etc.; and 3) order Halloween costumes.  Yeah, #3 is completely strange, I know.  It's something we started when my oldest child was 3 years old and we had to order a costume online.  Not that there aren't any local stores with costumes around here, but that year she decided on a character that I knew wouldn't be that easy to find: Madeline.  In an old house in Paris that was covered in vines, lived twelve little girls in two straight lines . . . the smallest one was Madeline. Madeline Child Costume So a family tradition was born!  One good thing about deciding what you want to be for Halloween sooooo early is that you're not rushing around last minute in October choosing among whatever sizes are left in the costume you might want.  Perhaps even more important, your kid can't keep changing her mind after you've bought the costume! This year will...