Trick or treat!

I did Halloween for the first time ever with the kids and it was FUN! We spent half term at my parents mainly because I had a lot of running around to do for work and I knew they'd have a good time with my mum. She had them carving pumpkins, baking bat-shaped biscuits and she would have whipped up some pretty impressive costumes too, if I hadn't already ordered them from Tesco. 

Originally I had ambitious plans to sew a very bling princess-witch costume from black lace and millions of sequins and a bat with folding articulated wings, but the sewing machine was acting erratically and time just seemed to slip away from me. The children were beyond excited when we picked up their supermarket outfits. Little P put on her princess dress (not very halloweeny, I know!) in the confectionery aisle right next to the Haribo party buckets and little M struggled into his devil onesie by the tea and coffee. 

I spent the day in St Leonards and saw this fabulously ghoulish shop front.

I've only ever made flying visits to St Leonards, but I must go back and spend a day exploring properly, maybe when it is not so cold and miserable.

Back at my parents' house, this splendid sight greeted me.

Predictably the children were too excited to eat any tea, so as soon as it hit half past five, we took to the streets for some trick or treating. Some people had really gone to town on the Halloween decorations; pumpkins, fake cobwebs, candelabras and dry ice. The children initially refused to approach a front door with a blood spattered sign reading "Zombies Beware!" but the thought of more sweets spurred them on.

Next year we need to remember to take little bags for collecting the treats. My coat pockets were stuffed to bursting and we kept forgetting whose sweets were in the left and whose the right pocket. They nearly came to blows over an unidentified chupa chups. In the end, there was more than they could eat anyway, though they gave it a good bash.

Pimp my pumpkin

We're not usually big on celebrating Halloween. There are various family birthdays and our wedding anniversary around that time, so it doesn't usually get a look in. Also we are usually fighting the first round of autumn bugs, so traipsing the streets in the cold trick or treating doesn't feel like the best idea. But this year, the children are full of talk of ghosts and zombies and witches, so I don't think I'm going to be allowed to skip it any longer.

The PTA at little M's school organised a pumpkin carving competition, so we got into the spirit early. I am not sure whether they actually expected the children to carve the vegetables out themselves, but I got little M to draw a face, which big M then cut out for him. After a rootle through the craft drawer, I gave the kids some t-shirt paints to decorate their pumpkins. I figured, if it sticks to fabric, it'll stick to pumpkin. It did.

Little P in the background was running a temperature of almost 39 degrees, hence the tears. I only discovered that post-pumpkin painting clearly.

Looking good.

To finish it off, they sprinkled on some glitter for a bit of Halloween glitz. I was pretty certain, little M was in with a chance of a prize, but the winning pumpkin was this amazing, intricately carved work of art, that clearly no child had had anything to do with. He got a lollipop for entering, so he was more than happy.

And here is his teeny tiny little pumpkin next to the biggest monster of a pumpkin, I have ever seen. 

Happy Halloween!