"Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble."

All has been quiet on the blog over the last week and may be for another week or so as I'm in LEGO mode at the moment, We're building something big (all will be revealed soon) and also building lots of little things for some lovely people to say thank you. Because of these addictive bricks taking up so much of my time i managed to skip a Halloween post so i thought i better do a little catch up.

On the build up to Halloween Opeie informed me that he wanted to do some spooky themed painting so we had a fun afternoon painting skulls, spiders, ghosts, bats and pumpkins.

 

 After our trip to the pumpkin patch a few weeks back we had four pumpkins to carve, Opeie requested a 'Mickey Mouse' first which me and Mrs M attempted (apologies for the quality of the pic)...

And on Halloween we were invited around to out friend Tabiitha's for a pumpkin carving session, It was great to hang out with friends and stab fruit together.

If I'm honest I'm not a huge fan of Halloween (said like a Halloween scrooge). Spooky craft sessions are great but that's where it ends for me. The thing i find most irritating is the door being knocked late at night, usually by kids who clearly havent made the effort with their costume and are just wearing a black bag with some fake blood on their cheek (i guess that makes me a spooky costume snob but I'm fine with that). We did however leave some lollipops by the front door for our doorstep visitors. Surprisingly though the door was only knocked once but as we were eating we looked at each other and neither of us made the slightest effort to go to the door (like i said.. 'Scrooge). I hope you all had a fun Halloween.

"Hooray for Peter Pumpkinhead"

As a family we have many annual traditions, an array of things that we look forward to throughout the year. I think it's so important as a family to have these special and personal things that we do. It's a way of bringing us together, especially with all the other things going on in our lives.

One of our yearly traditions is picking pumpkins at Essington fruit farm, When the temperature starts to drop that's when i start looking forward to our Halloween trip. I remember the first visit like it was yesterday travelling by tractor up to the Pumpkin patch, Opeie was 7 months old and when i looked back at the pictures a minute ago i was reminded just how little Seth was. It was cold but a lovely sunny day and we laughed and joked around in the field studying each pumpkin so that we could be sure to make the perfect selection

We missed the following year as the weather had been so awful, the crops had been rained off. Last year though it was all go and we were stomping through the pumpkin patch once more. What we didn't realise last year though was that we were not supposed to be in the field, we just made our own way and helped ourselves, oops. I love having these things to look forward to every year and the boys get so excited, It's nice to think these special family outings are giving them great lifelong memories.

So its that time of year again and last weekend seemed like the perfect time to head out on our yearly hunt for something big and orange to stick a knife it. Opeie was a little more excited this year too being that bit older. When we arrived at the farm we couldn't believe how busy it was. There was a country fare on and there were cars and people everywhere. They always have amazing carved pumpkins on show but this year they had the artists there so you could watch them at work.

The queue for the tractor ride up to the pumpkin field was insanely long so we decided to venture up to the pumpkin patch on foot. When we reached the field as always we were greeted by masses of the Halloween fruit ready for the taking...

We had our usual muck about, or should i say, Me and Mrs M as usual were acting like children...

But we were there on serious business and our 3 and 8 year old children informed us of that. Time to pick our pumpkins. picking the right pumpkin is a big decision and one not to be taken lightly. I cant wait to get carving this week.

Our Pumpkin picking session was cut a little short when a tired Opeie fell over in the field and got prickles in his hand, bless him, we were all getting a little cold though so we waited for the tractor to take us back. This years pumpkin picking adventure was complete, now time to let our creative juices run wild.

On the drive home i had a song stuck in my head inspired by the day. A CD I had bought when i was about 14 (wow 20 years ago that's crazy). I'll leave you with the song i was humming all the way home and i hope you have fun carving your pumpkins...

“Only the knife knows what goes on in the heart of a pumpkin.”

Every year around Halloween we head down to Essington farm to pick our Halloween pumpkins for carving. Last year because of all the bad weather all the crops had been rained off and there was none to pick (sad faces all round). So this year we phoned ahead to see if there were pumpkins for picking. They don't start their tractor ride to the field until next week but they said we could make our own way up there and pick away.

Not the best of days for traipsing around a muddy farm but then that sums us up, picking out door activities to do on the wrong days. It's only a bit of rain though and we make our own fun whether its sunny or gloomy. We made it to the pumpkin field and despite the 'no entry' sign on the gate we headed in, we had been told it was okay after all.

The boys picked a pumpkin each and we brushed them off as best we could and put them in a bag to take them to the farm shop. Opeie's little pumpkin was so cute and were going to do something extra fun with that one.

And then we got told off by a farmer, oops! Apparently we were not supposed to be in that field until next week but we explained that we had phoned ahead of the visit and was told it was okay. Trust us to cause trouble wherever we go. The friendly farmer was fine though and apologised for the confusion.

Well our pumpkins have been brought now so next is a bit of creativity, stay tuned for what we actually use our pumpkins for, should be fun.