The Most Popular Halloween Costumes Every Year Since 2000

Aside from the classics that repeat year after year, each year a few costumes rise up above the rest as the most popular for that Halloween. What costume that is often depends on the most popular or well known movies, television shows, artists, and events that took place over that last year. 

Get ready for a serious blast from the past because below we have listed the most popular costumes every year since 2000, many of them still popular today. 

2000: Austin Powers

2001: Harry Potter characters

2002: Spider-Man

2003: Captain Jack Sparrow

2004: Spongebob Squarepants

2005: Anakin Skywalker

2006: V from V for Vendetta 

2007: Master Chief from Halo

2008: The Joker

2009: Alan from The Hangover

2010: The Cast from the Jersey Shore

2011: Angry Birds

2012: Walking Dead Zombies

2013: Minions from Despicable Me

It's awesome to look at how costumes have changed over the years and which ones keep coming back. Have you ever been any of the above for Halloween in previous years? And what costume do you think will be #1 for Halloween 2014? I guess we will just have to wait to Friday and see!

ONCEKids Publishing is run by literacy advocate and Mompreneur Eileen Wacker.  Click here to find her acclaimed books

Parents want Safe Apps for Their Kids

Around the world kids are playing either on their own or on their parents' mobile devices.  Children of all ages use smartphones, iPods and iPads to play such games as "Angry Birds" and "Zombie Farm."   But parents are worried about the content.  How do we know what's safe for our children to be reading and playing?

There are thousands of parent-screened videos and games organized in kid-friendly age-appropriate playlists.  It's a great idea to sit down with your child and help them browse and find fun games to play together or games they can play alone later with your permission.  The iTunes app store best seller Weet Woo offers the following advice as a resource for us:

For children aged 3 to 5, parents should find nursery rhymes, phonics, spelling, and fairy tales.

For older children aged 6 to 8, there are fun educational videos such as the Science Kid, touring China, or seeing Gorillas at the San Diego Zoo

And for kids ages 9 and up, shows such as Bill Nye the Science Guy, learn about Thomas Edison, or go back in time with Dinosaurs!

ONCEKids' iPad app is a fun game for younger children called  Fuji Scene   The children's game has the user select one of six backgrounds to create a customized scene. The scenes will contain characters which can be dragged and dropped into the creation. The animal characters are colored pandas, bunnies, penguins, hamsters, and other sea animals. The user can then add favorite foods and toys and props to the scene. All the items are Asian inspired. The user can than use dialogue boxes to give the characters some text. The creation can have a banner heading and be e-mail, sent to photos or sent to the ONCEKids site to be highlighted in a gallery. The user can restart at any point.

If you'd like to read more about Fuji Scene, click here.