Mark your calendars now. Trick or treating in Lancaster County will be 6-8 p.m. Monday, Oct. 31. You've got more than two months to pull those costumes together!!

If you've got pictures of costumes you've created, please share them with other LancMoms parents. And it would be great if you'd include directions.

Hot costume picks for Halloween 2011 are expected to be inspired by summer movies: Captain America, boy and girl Smurf costumes, Harry Potter and Lightning McQueen from "Cars 2.''

Of course, the tried-and-true ghosts, witches, gypsies and goblins are always good standbys.

Below is a do-it-yourself costume idea from parenting.com.

Meatballs and Spaghetti

Cut a hole for the head in the center of a red-checkered tablecloth (or 1.25 yards of 45-inch-wide red-checkered fabric) so that it can be worn like a poncho.

Cut 1/2 skein off-white yarn into spaghetti-length pieces. With a hot-glue gun, glue them in swirls and bunches to a large, sturdy paper plate.

Paint 8 small Styrofoam balls with brown acrylic paint to resemble meatballs. Let dry, then glue 4 or 5 balls to top of spaghetti. Mix brown and red acrylic paint to make a tomato-sauce color; drip that over meatballs and spaghettiSmear a little on the side of a small pot.

Glue the plate to the front of the tablecloth.

Glue remaining meatballs to tablecloth where you like.

Glue some strands of yarn to pot "hat." Tie under chin if needed to keep pot on head.