Halloween fun

I really really love autumn, it is most definitely my favourite season, but I am one of those miserable people who hates the idea of Trick or Treating. On the whole I much prefer Bonfire Night (organised events, obviously, not the irresponsible people who set fireworks off at antisocial times and in dangerous locations!) - toasty fire, fireworks, sparklers, woolly hats and gloves, jacket potatoes, pie and peas, Parkin. Brilliant. However, Halloween seems to be getting bigger each year, and it seems to be a big deal in our new area, so I’m trying to embrace the idea without all the door knocking. (NB I do buy sweets for the local kids...I’m not that grouchy!)

With half term for us being the week before Halloween we did a few simple activities to get in the spooky mood.

Our local Wyevale Garden Centre was hosting a range of spooky kids activities and we booked ourselves onto Haunted Heather Planting. My mum and dad were visiting us so they joined us. The activity was, put stickers and felt tip on the plant pot. Plant heather in the plant pot. Done. We were finished in about 15minutes. The kids did like the sticking but my 3 year old daughter declared that it was “too easy peasy” and that she “plants things at home with mummy anyway”. All true, but for £2.50 a person you got a pot, a plant and stickers so not too bad.

After one wet night in the garden the washable felt tip came off the pot, and I suspect the stickers won’t be far behind, but it was fun and a bit different. 

I love our local independent book shop - Cole's Books. They have a nice selection, specialise in signed editions, great services, and they have a little Alice in Wonderland play house in the kids section. My daughter had been after a new Winnie the Witch book for ages (although they seem to have been rebranded as Winnie and Wilbur books) as we’ve been reading the 5 we have from when my brothers and I were kids on rotation. I hadn’t realised there were so many more stories now! We chose “Winnie and Wilbur - The Haunted House”. The lovely woman at the till found a Winnie activity sheet for us and had a rummage for some stickers too.


Obviously, there’s been some pumpkin action too. We bought a cheap Hobbycraft ceramic pumpkin painting set which the 3 year old absolutely loved doing, and she actually did a really good job.


We also carved a pumpkin, which the kids had very little interest in. We popped to Tesco (no Instagram-worthy pumpkin patch photos for us) and my daughter was very particular about which pumpkin we bought. As soon as we got it home and took off the top she was absolutely repulsed by the innards and made a run for it. She did draw her design on the side in felt tip...which I then had to ignore as there was no way I was carving out that teeny, tiny, toddler drawn face.


I have promised a Halloween party on Tuesday after preschool, which will largely involve a witch costume, apple bobbing, and some ghoulish snacks which I am yet to prepare, organise, or even think about! I’ll let you know how we get on!











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