Halloween

There were lots of parts to halloween this year which is why I have been a little slow in making a post of it!!
One of my favourite activities was the bubbling cauldrons I cooked up with the boys!

 THe Cauldrons came from the pound shop filled with sweets I used for my halloween parties! I popped a few drops of green food colouring in the bottom of each and then asked the boys to first spoon in some bi-carb and then pour in a cup of vinegar. The results were of the definite hubble bubble variety and the boys loved it!

Another fun activity was bath bomb making! Basically 2 parts bi-carb to 1 part citric acid, food colouring, a few tea spoons of olive oil and a couple of sprays of water. We also added dried lavender from the garden and a few drops of food colouring. Pressed into ghostly silicon moulds and dried for a day, then lots of fizzing fun at bath time! 

We later repeated the experiment with scented bath oil instead of olive oil and sneaked in bath confetti half way through the mould process to combine halloween baths with firework night!

 Yes it should have probably been orange but the bath oil I like is blue!!

It was exciting when the bath confetti stars fizzed out (more so than the fire works we later tried that had been sitting in the garage at least a year!). I probably would evenly space them a bit more next time though for a better explosion!

I was working at a local shopping centre in Leamington Spa making halloween balloons for Spangles Restaurant on Halloween itself but the boys came with me with Jess our babysitter,  and had lots of fun - and lots of food and treats! They loved their eyeball sunday! 

The boys looked so cute in their outfits!

 We then went off trick or treating! Well we started anyway - on the 3rd house we ended up at my friend Jane's who has a little boy the between age of my 2 and they started to play so beautifully, and Jane had just opened a bottle of wine so we didn't get much further! I find the exciting part of trick or treating though is the going out on a night time adventure rather than the asking for sweets part so we had fun!

Over all a great Halloween! Even the fairies had a witchy visitor!

Oh - here's my pumpkin this year....

And here is Eden's ...

We used the some of the reduced pumpkins after halloween (10p each!!) with pin, golf tees and elastic bands to talk about shapes (triangles and squares) and just have some good hammering fun!

Purses!

I have been wanting to try making a framed purse for a while. I have always been a little reluctant as it looked complicated with the metal frame but after finding this great tutorial here and all the supplies I needed here I had to give it a go!
Here is my first attempt! I used the Melody Miller fabric left over from the lampshade and the lining fabric was left over from the bunting. I have had great satisfaction swinging it over my shoulder!

For my second attempt I thought I would try a slightly different shape with a laminate. ( In the hope it would be easier to keep clean!) This frame had no loops to attach a chain to so I improvised with straps inside which seem to work well. There is certainly a bit more room for a purse, phone and keys inside which is great but the laminate does tend to make it a slightly less grown up look. Oh well - goes with the rest of me then!

I'm having lots of fun making the purses though and hope to find the time to make lots more!

Lampshades!

I bought a lampshade making kit from the Knit and Stitch show I visited with Auntie Peggy last month and used my gorgeous Melody Miller fabric to make this great lampshade for the landing!

I had such fun making it that I ordered another kit and made one for the hall with this Echino fabric! 

I'm really enjoying adding little touches to our home!

Star Wars Lightsabers

The boys watched Star Wars (episode 4) with Dan the other weekend whilst I was at work. I'm not sure if they are old enough for it yet but they have been playing it non stop since!

What really impressed me though is the craft activity that Dan got up to (yes - Dan!) after the film - the boys wanted lightsabers and so he went and bought silver and black Gaffa tape, cut pool noodles down to size and created these fantastic lightsabres!! Needless to say the boys love them! 

Pupil of the Week and a weekend with Morgan Bear

We are so proud of JJ this week having been chosen Pupil of the Week in his class.

Along with the trophy came the honour of looking after Morgan Bear for the weekend so here is what he got up to.....
 Friday night football, followed by cuddles in bed and a bike ride the next morning!

Then on Sunday Morgan Bear went to Dan's work and even got to sit in the F1 car.

JJ had lots to write about in Morgan's diary!

Knitted Wreath

I thought I'd make a knitted wreath this year for Christmas!!
It was a great project for a long car journey as there weren't really any rules - I just grabbed a few Christmassy colours from my wool scraps and started knitting stripes! Eventually I ended up with this:-

 I had some pipe lagging left over from another project and thought it would make a perfect base.

I nicked it to help it curve into a circle..

 I then squeezed a smaller section covered in Gaffa tape and inserted it into either end of the circle to again help hold the shape. I then gaffa-ed it all together.

 After joining the ends of the knitting I formed it around the pipe lagging and then began to seam it up. As it was to be the back it didn't matter too much about the seam but I wanted to make it as neat as I could.

 And here is my finished result! (With added bunny!) I'm looking forward to putting it up at Christmas!!

Legoland

We used our Tesco vouchers to go to Legoland last weekend. It was ideal for the ages of the boys and we all had a great day. We didn't see half of it so will certainly return. 

Joplin has been talking of the driving area ever since. Thee was an area for 3 - 5 year olds which Eden loved and we said Joplin was 6 so he could go on the more suitable one. He really paid attention to all the road signs and traffic signals, and was very proud to get his 'drivers licence' at the end. 

 Another great area was the Atlantis submarine ride. We headed for this early and missed some of the queues as it is a popular one. I loved all the Lego mermaids and fish amongst the real fish, sharks and rays.

 A small but fun ride was the Bouncing Scarabs. Myself and Joplin couldn't stop laughing at the funny tummy jumps it gave, but Eden gave a decided "I don't like it!!" and buried his head in my arm for most of the ride!

 Even the carousal horse ride had Lego passengers!

 The really impressive part of course though was the Lego Mini Land made of 25 million bricks!!

The day was finished off fantastically with a firework display, and other highlights included the 4D cinema and great Pirate show. The car park does need a bit of sorting though as it took an hour and 15 minutes to get out. Overall though a fantastic day!

Centre Parcs!

I have been a bit slack at posting lately but am going to try and have a catch up tonight! 

Around a month ago we went for a lovely long weekend at Centre Parcs in Sherwood. 

Here are a few of the highlights!

The pool was where we spent a large chunk of the holiday - twice a day. The outside part was great fun both in daylight and night and the hot tubs were fab. I loved that it was your decision whether your child was up for the slides / hot tubs etc and the relaxed guidelines showed respect for their customer.

 We had a few vouchers to use and the boys had a blast on the mini jet skis!

Joplin was very brave on the big slide!

The playgrounds were great for all - big and small!

 It was just lovely to ride around on our bikes everywhere on family bike rides!