Halloween Happenings

This year my children have taken it upon themselves to be very busy little bees and have been getting very crafty making things to decorate the house ready for Halloween. They are now of an age where they don't really need to be supervised all of the time and can be left to their own devices ~ so to speak!

My daughter decided that she would quite like to be in charge of carving the Halloween pumpkin this year. She spent a little while doing some research on the Internet for a bit of inspiration, and finally decided that she would carve an howling wolf ~ which sounded just a little bit too ambitious to me! However, this is her finished pumpkin all lit up with a tea light ~ not bad at all for her very first attempt at it!

We have managed to gather quite a collection of Halloween decorations over the years, most of which have been chosen by the children and bought very cheaply for a few pounds each, but they were still very excited about adding to our spooky collection with some homemade bits and pieces.

A little mousy was made out of black card and has been stuck to the skirting board complete with a little mouse hole::

An old wine bottle has been carefully changed into a bottle of blood (!!) to make a spooky candle holder. Candle wax was very painstakingly dripped down the bottle for added effect. I would like to add that I was actually supervising at this point!

More black and orange card has been cut out into all manner of Halloween shapes, there are bats and cats, pumpkins and witches ready to be stuck onto walls and strung from the ceiling. I love how this bat with his red beady eyes has cast a spooky menacing shadow onto the wall behind.

Tonight we will play the traditional Halloween game of  "dooking" for apples and then afterwards we will be getting cosy on the settee and snuggling up to watch a selection of scary Halloween movies ~ with a little bit of Scooby Doo added in for good measure. You can't beat a bit of Scooby Doo at Halloween! I'm also sure that there will be a fairly substantial supply of rubbishy Halloween sweeties and chocolates for munching on too.

Hope you all have a very Happy and Spooky Halloween :O)xx

Half term and Halloween

Life has been pretty hectic around here recently, what with half term and lots of extra time spent working in the library. There has definitely not been an awful lot of time left over to indulge in much crafty stuff ~ although I have managed to snatch a little time to knit up a bit more of my lacy scarf and am now on to my third and final ball of yarn.

I am desperately trying to have a bloggy catch up before some of the moments get lost in the camera ~ never to see the light of the day!

We had our half term a couple of weeks ago here in Scotland and we headed off to the beautiful little village of Alton in Staffordshire to visit family. And of course, a trip to Alton would not be complete without spending a day up at Alton Towers. We scared ourselves completely silly on some of the bigger rides ~ in fact after going on some of them it was almost impossible to walk!  

We were really lucky with the weather the day we visited as it was a beautiful Autumn day ~ very cold but thankfully no rain! The leaves on the side of the Towers were a spectacular colour.

There were lots of Halloween decorations dotted about the place as it was the start of the annual Alton Towers Halloween festival ~ Scarefest.

We hid in giant pumpkins!

And came across some very strange residents!

Who were driving some very spooky vehicles!

The following day we had an enormous amount of fun at Splash Landings ~ which is a water park inside one of the hotels at Alton Towers. There were lazy rivers, crazy cannons and a VeRy fast and VeRy scary Master Blaster water coaster. This is an extreme water ride and definitely not for the faint hearted and most definitely NOT for me! Once was more than enough and I will never venture on it again! Needless to say the kids loved it!!

Tonight, following in our own Halloween traditions, the small people will be dressing up in some scary Halloween outfits and we will play hide and seek in the dark with torches. We will get absolutely soaked dooking/bobbing for apples and then we will get cosy and snuggle up on the sofa to watch some spooky Halloween movies with maybe a little bit of Scooby Doo thrown in for good measure.

I hope you all enjoy your Halloween happenings as much as we will!! :O)xx

Halloween

Every Friday afternoon I drive to the next village along the coast to take my daughter to her dancing class. Last Friday I was driving along, with both kids in the back of the car ~ chatting/squabbling as usual ~ when all I heard was screeches of delight and excited cries of LOOK! and Pleeeeease Mum can we stop? I couldn't imagine for a minute what all the fuss was about, but I promptly did as I was told and this is what we saw...........


An absolutely fabulous Halloween decoration which was outside someone's house! Isn't it super? It must of taken ages to put it all together and all the little details are really lovely. I particularly love the stripey black and purple tights that these three lovely ladies are wearing on their dingly, dangly, witchy legs.

My kids, like most kids, love everything Halloweeny! They love all the dressing up and all the gory and yucky stuff ~ the more gory the better in their eyes!

But, we don't let them go Trick or Treating (or Trickle Treating as it is known in our house) as it's something we just don't feel comfortable with. Instead, we let them do the dressing up bit and then Daddy plays Spooky Halloween Hide and Seek with them in the house with all the lights off. We also play some of the more traditional Halloween games ~ such as dooking/bobbing for apples, which is a lot of fun and we always end up getting soaking wet too!


Later on this evening we will all get settled down in front of the telly to watch a spooky Halloween film ~ this years choice is the not so scary Disney film Spooky Buddies and as always there will be a plentiful supply of Halloween treats to tuck into whilst watching.

I hope that you all enjoy your Halloween activities ~ whatever they may be ~ and I will hopefully see you all very soon :O)x

Halloween Happenings

We spent last weekend in the beautiful village of Alton in Staffordshire, attending the wedding of my younger brother and my very lovely new sister-in-law. The ceremony itself was in the registry office in Burton on Trent and then it was back to my Dad's pub ~ The Royal Oak ~ for the wedding reception. The weather actually decided to behave itself for once and was absolutely glorious and the sun came out to shine on a very perfect wedding day.


On Sunday ~ which was Halloween ~ we ventured off to Scarefest at Alton Towers which was fabulous! The spooky atmosphere and the special effects were amazing ~ the Towers were all lit up in their very spooky splendour and ghostly images were projected eerily across the night sky.


There were also lots and lots of different Halloweeny decorations dotted around the park to add to the spooky Halloween atmosphere.


We had a fantastically spooky Halloween evening and the children are now at an age where they are getting just that little bit braver with the rides that they will actually go on! Although, it has to be said that I just can't do the rides that go spinning around and around and around! I actually can't even bear to watch the children on them without feeling very dizzy and wobbly indeed!!



I hope that your Halloween weekend was as wonderful as ours :O) xx