Halloween thomasYeah, yeah, the kids aren't even back at school, football season hasn't started yet (don't remind me) and the apple orchards are still a good month away from getting trounced by families with long sticks. But as we've learned the hard way, it's never too early to start hunting for Halloween costumes!

We got a Lily's Kids catalog in the mail yesterday and it was completely full of Halloween costumes. I love looking through that type of stuff. Halloween's definitely my favorite holiday and I can't wait till the kids are older and we can really go nuts decorating, creating haunted houses and having a big blowout party. Back in my bachelor days when I was living with a few guys (Uh... no, not that like, you perverts... we all were just friends), we went all out for Halloween. Huuuuge party and costumes were a must. We were all big comic book geeks, er, fans so we'd always make our own costumes and pick crazy obscure characters. If I can find some photos I will definitely post them so you can all laugh and say, "Uh, who the heck are you supposed to be now?" But we also decorated the house with 500 pounds of spider webbing, black-and-orange streamers, balloons, rented a helium tank or 2, made appropriate food like Jell-O mold brains or onion dip inside a giant carved out skull, etc. Had lots of games like "Bobbing for Stuff." We filled a giant tub with 8 jugs of Kool-Aid Ecto Cooler (lime green) and then dropped in various toys, props, whatever and had people fetch em out with their teeth. Yeah, those were the days. Oh, and can't forget the bodies. We'd dress up our 2 mannequins (made out of chicken wire) in clothes and then hang one half off the roof and another underneath our car as if it'd been run over. Fun stuff!

But I'm just a tad bit off topic here. Back to the Lily's Kids catalog... my older son loved looking through it and said he wanted to be Wolverine. (Woo!) Then he wanted to be that cool shiny robot. (Oh. Okay.) Then he wanted to be James from Thomas & Friends. (Sigh.) But after my wife said she's make costumes for all of us, everything changed. We're now taking the Mario Brothers to the street! That's right, as of this moment, my kids are going as Mario and Baby Mario, I'm going as Luigi and the wife's going as Princess Peach. Of course this could (and probably will) all change in the next few weeks. But we're getting started on the costumes early! And since a few other smart folks out there may want to get a jump, here's a few coupons for costume/party stores to help you get started:

10% off online orders over $30 at BuyCostumes.com
Use coupon code AFFTEN. Valid through: August 24, 2007
Valid on in-stock merchandise. Cannot be combined with other coupons. Not valid on Clearance items.

5% off online orders over $65 at BuyCostumes.com
Use coupon code FRANKEN5. Valid through: October 31, 2007

Free Shipping on online orders over $75 at Costume Express
Use above link to get the promotional keycode.
Valid through: December 31, 2007
Offer applies to standard shipping on merchandise orders of $75 or more within the contiguous U.S. only. One coupon per purchase. Not applicable to previously placed orders. This offer cannot be combined with other coupons.

$5 off online orders over $50 at ShindigZ.com
Use promotion code SZCJE7 at checkout.
Valid through: December 31, 2007

There that should be plenty to get you started. Now you have no reason to egg my house, right? Right? Damn kids in my yard again...