Don't wait until next October to stock up on Halloween decorations and costumes. You can score some great items at scary bargain prices if you shop this week at your favorite retail store!

You may need to take a guess as to how big your child will be next year, but many costumes secure with simple buttons or Velcro making it easy to fit into regardless of their growth spurt. The early bird gets the worm, so don't wait until the end of the week to find items that will add some tricks to the trick-or-treating event.

Motion sensor ghosts, tombstones, pumpkin lights and other accessories to spunk up the holiday season may be hard to store for a year, but the wait will be worth it when you check your receipt and have everything ready to go for the 2011 Halloween season!

Did you know that MOM Magazine has a Flickr Group? We'd love for you to share your photos with us, and also use it as a place for inspiration.

Let's start out by sharing pictures of your carved pumpkins. New to Flickr?

Here is what you need to do:

• If you have a Yahoo account, you can sign in with that. If you do not, you'll need to create an account by following the prompts.
• Once you have an account, you can upload pictures.
• Click 'Upload' from the menu items in blue at the top.
• Click 'Choose photos and videos'. A box will pop up where you can browse for your pictures on your computer to upload.

***Photo sharing tip*** I use Picasa (not the web version, the one you download) on my computer to organize my photos. From Picasa, I go through my photos and "star" the ones I'm going to share/upload to the web (for Facebook, blog, Flickr, etc.). I then select only my "starred" photos and export them in a smaller, web-friendly size to a separate folder I have just for the purpose of web-sharing. So when I go to upload photos to Flickr, I just need to search for my folder I just exported to, select all the photos, and click upload. It's easier for me because I can get just the photos I want, and they are already resized to the size they need to be.

• Once you've selected your photos, click the pink "Upload photos and videos" button.
• Next, click on "add a description" and you'll have the chance to write a caption and tags. Tags are really important, especially if you are going to submit your photos to the MOM Magazine group. If you are sharing pumpkin carving photos, tag them with: MOM Magazine, Halloween, pumpkin, and pumpkin carving.
• After you've filled out title, description, and tags for your photos, click "Save"
• Next, Click on "Groups" at the top. Search for MOM Magazine. Once you click into MOM Magazine, there should be a place where you can 'join this group.' I've already joined so I am not seeing exactly what that looks like. Once you've joined, you can add something to the group.
• Click on "Add something?" and it will bring up your photos you just uploaded. You can select which ones you want to add to the MOM Magazine stream. Select your photos and Voila!

We grabbed a bunch of gords and squashes when we went to the pumpkin patch yesterday. I love using them as fall decorations that can double as a sidedish between Halloween and Thanksgiving. These cute butternut squashes looked like a little family of ghosts, so I gave them fun google eyes with a black sharpie pen.

I've actually become quite attached to the little guys as they look down on us from the fireplace mantle. I just don't know that I'll be able to throw them in the oven.

"What initially started as "kids behaving badly," sexting has grown to become a significant threat to the safety and bell-being of children.  Now, the newest trend, using "sexted" images to blackmail, is making sexting a major tool for child predators and molesters."  Read the following guest blog for more information about this phenomenon and how we need to protect our children: http://www.tofoilapredator.com/blog/2010/10/16/sexting-blackmail-what-every-parent-needs-to-know.html

Fall into fun this season with a trip to a real pumpkin patch to hand select that perfect jack-o-lantern! There's still time to visit pumpkin patches such as the one offered at the Country Mercantile store as you head south on highway 395.

Along with pumpkin fun, you and your family can enjoy a corn maze, straw-bale maze for little kids, petting zoo and more. Pony rides, hay rides and other venues make a trip a great family outing to kick start your fall season. The Country Mercantile is open 7 days a week but the fun ends October 31^st. The store and fun is open from 9 am to 6 pm.

You've got their costumes ready, but what about their treat bags? Don't be so quick to rush out and purchase a trendy Halloween bucket. With a little help from Crayola and your youngsters, you can create a Halloween bag that carries the theme of their costume while being kind to Mother Nature.

Simply use a white, recyclable paper bag with or without handles (they're easy to add with strips of paper and a dab of glue) and let your child tap into his or her inner Picasso. You can also use kid-made, earth friendly bags for birthday parties for a personal touch.

Have your little ones draw a picture of a birthday cake or write the age of the child on the bag for the party you're attending. Add stickers, glitter glue, feathers or any other art supplies you can think of and you'll have a unique bag that has you going green without spending a lot of green. Want to go ever greener? Reuse the brown paper bags from your local grocer. For more craft projects and creative Halloween ideas check us out as Mom Magazine was recently featured on KEPR TV at http://www.keprtv.com/news/adventures/105553638.html.

We're fortunate to have a variety of sports teams in the Tri-Cities with Fever Football, Tri-Cities Dust Devils and American's Hockey. It costs a great deal less to attend a local sports team than to pay for travel and accommodations for a Seahawks game (not to mention ticket prices) but there are also other ways you can expose your kids to community events. Even if you don't have teenagers in high school sports, Friday Night Football games can be a fun family outing to teach sportsmanship while enjoying all the fanfare of a major team.

Nachos and hotdogs are affordable and fun to enjoy while your kids learn the game with great seats and easy access to the exit signs if they get fussy. Try taking your child to a sports team of a family friend with a high school student playing on the field, or even to the school they will eventually attend.

It's a wonderful opportunity to build their interest and gauge whether they're ready for a long trip to a major city. If high school sports keep them engaged, move them to the next level with minor league sports to ensure the entire family gets the most bang for their hard-earned buck!

Monkey Dooz is wild about style, and we are wild about Monkey Dooz.

Monkey Dooz is not only a full service salon catering exclusively to children, they also host some of the most fun birthday parties in Tri-Cities!

If you are looking for a special place to take your child for their first hair cut, or need an super indoor setting for a birthday party, check out Monkey Dooz.

My son is a very organized little 2nd grader. And while I'm very proud of him for that, it sometimes doesn't match with my more care-free nature. In short, I stress him out.

Yesterday he and I had an hour to spend together before school, so I excitedly announced that I was taking him out for hot chocolate. "Um, maybe we should just go to school mom."

"No sweetheart, we'll be fine. No one is at school yet. Now just relax and let's enjoy a treat together." We sat at a table playing hangman and laughed like crazy people. It was fun. As I guessed his letters to a rather long puzzle and he began hanging my man - I started to figure it out... So I finished my hot chocolate and we left for school - 30 minutes early.

Here is a great recipe to use a pumpkin, even after poor Jack has been squashed in the street. Joan Beneke, my amazing mother-in-law brought all the ingredients to the house and we enjoyed making it together. The entire family had a blast eating dinner right out of a giant pumpkin!

Ingredients

• 2 onions, chopped
• 1 pound hamburger
• 1 pound sausage
• 2 Tbsp. soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp. brown sugar
• ½-cup mushroom, drained and sliced
• 1 can cream if chicken soup
• 1 can water chestnuts (8 0z.), drained and chopped
• 1 bell pepper, chopped
• 1 jalapeno, chopped
• 2 Tbsp. pimientos, drained and chopped
• 2 cups rice, cooked
• ½ tsp. black pepper
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1½ tsp. Creole seasoning
• 10-12 pound pumpkin
• shortening

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brown and drain beef along with onions and sausage. Cook until no longer pink and drain well. Cut top off of pumpkin and reserve. Clean seeds and strings from pumpkin. Clean well. Coat pumpkin skin with shortening. Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl.

Spoon ingredients into pumpkin. Place top back on pumpkin. Wrap foil over the stem.

Bake on a cookie sheet for 2 to 3 hours depending on the size. Do not over bake. The pumpkin should not begin to brown. It will shrink down as it bakes.

Place stuffed baked pumpkin on a platter and serve directly out of the pumpkin. Be sure to scrape the cooked pumpkin meat out with the casserole. It has soaked up the amazing flavor and tastes delicious. Enjoy!