My kids have helped me to grow to love this time of year even more.

Decorating for Halloween is always fun and turning my kids into cowboys, witches and pumpkins is sometimes a trick and always a treat! This year I'm however having a little bit of trouble. My kids are really having a hard time deciding what they want to be for Halloween.

It's important for me that I know in advance what they are going to be. Although I lean towards the option of homemade costumes, my creativity in this area is somewhat lacking and my seamstress skills are non-existent. So I need to gather my supplies and make a few trips to my mother-in-laws and sister-in-laws house for help.

If you're on a tight budget or are lacking in creativity like I am here are some costume ideas that you can use:

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• Bag of Jelly Beans: This one is more for a girl just because they will be wearing white tights. Get a see-through trash bag and cut two holes in the bottom for legs. Slip the child's legs through and measure where their arms will be and cut two holes for the arms. Fill the bag with different colored balloons and staple together when full. This could be a free costume if you've got all of the supplies!

• Skeleton: Last year I dressed my son as a skeleton and this is what I did: I found a picture of a skeleton in the encyclopedia and had it enlarged on a copier. Then I cut the pieces out and traced them on contact paper. Then I cut them out and attached them to black sweats and painted my sons face white. The costume turned out really good, but the only problem was I couldn't get his "bones" to stay on all night. If I did this costume again I would stitch them on.

• Cowboy: This one is easy for us because my son has all of the cowboy stuff including the chaps, spurs and cowboy hat.

• Butterfly, Angel, Princess: This one will work if you already have a leotard and tights that fit your daughter. Just look for the wings at WalMart. If she wants to be a princess make or buy a wand. You can make a wand with a wooden dowel and a glittered star attached to the end. If she wants to be an angel, you can buy a halo and if she wants to be a butterfly, paint her face like a colorful butterfly.

• Scarecrow: Dress your child in an old, oversized long-sleeved shirt and a pair of big, worn jeans. Stuff their shirt and jeans with toilet paper (or any stuffing you'd like). At the end of their sleeves and bottom of their pant legs, stuff a little bit of raffia around their wrists and ankles. You could even unbutton one of the buttons on their shirts and shove some raffia in there. Top the costume off with a straw hat.

• Nerd: Borrow an old pair of cat-eye glasses from your parents. Dress your children in mismatched clothes and put tape in between the eye's of the glasses and a pocket protector in the shirt pocket. Make sure the pants are too short and the socks are pulled way up!

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