HALLOWGREEN

Ari's Mom, aka Helena Osorio, best defines herself as the passionate #1 fan of, well, yes, Ari.  Since his birth in November of '07, Helena has turned all her energy, heart and efforts to being the best Mom she can be. That has meant numerous hours of research on how to teach him to fall asleep on his own, which stroller to buy, what early development classes to attend, and how to finally trust her instincts. In her "spare" time Helena works full time for JWT Advertising as a Broadcast Producer. She also keeps a blog, through which she shares her experiences as a new Mom. Helena lives in Miami, with Abraham her husband, Ari and their two dogs Mafaldo and Felipa. Helean is the mom behind HeleNation’s Megamama, one of the most popular Spanish language mom blogs on the Internet. You can visit her website at: Megamama.

Ever since Ari was born ten months ago, I have become more conscious about the environment...if not for me, for him. I have wanted to give him a healthy start, and want to leave a healthy planet behind so I started changing some of my habits around the house. Even little things like turning off lights, switching to paperless bills/staments, unplugging stuff helps.

When I started thinking about Halloween, I set out to look for "eco-friendlier" options on costumes. Here are some of the ideas that popped into my head:

*Recycle: Ask your friends or neighbors, surely someone has last's year costume. I asked some of my friends and many of them offered, most of them mentioning how it "was almost new", "it was only worn for a couple of hours", or "they never got to wear it." A friend of mine is renting a costume; another is scouring thrift stores and making it a vintage Halloween. Finding their costume will be as much fun as going trick or treating.

*Create: Go through your kid’s closets to see what you can come up with. If I use what's in my baby's closet, he could be a surfer, a baseball player or a superhero. He could even be going on Safari! If you have older kids, it could be a fun activity to have them look through the closets in your house and pull together a costume. Remember how much fun it was to try on your parents clothes and play in them? Or how about doing some face painting? Make sure to buy water based paints that can be easily removed with soap and water, and if you are like me - not very talented with makeup - buy a stencil.

 *Buy Local: This is one of my favorites, I think that buying local and supporting your community is also a great way to go. If you don't know where to start, there are websites like: Etsy, where you can buy local handmade things. I have found many stores in Etsy that offer unique, handmade items made from organic fabrics. Just did a search for Halloween Costumes and found many options, which as an added bonus will be used/played with again.

Green Costumes: In my search I ran into Green Halloween, a movement started in Seattle, which is about making all of Halloween healthier for our kids. On their website they mention Nova Natural Arts & Crafts and Sarah's Silks as stores where you can buy costumes made of silk. I'm still not sure what Ari will be this year, I'm leaning toward Captain Appleasauce, or Super Bather...either way I'm sure this Halloween will be more fun and a "greener" shade of orange.

Interested in eco-friendly Halloween crafts?  Check out Tastybaby's own "Hallowgreen" craft ideas by clicking here.