"Use your imagination, not to scare yourself to death but to inspire yourself to life"

It's got to that time of year again where we go into a craft frenzy. There is something so satisfying about decorating the house for Halloween and Christmas and we couldn't wait this year to get going with the spooky fun. Halloween is so much more fun when you have children and I like to think we take full advantage of these cold wet autumn days by filling them with fun activities. Me and Opeie have been researching fun Halloween craft ideas and while out doors hunting for branches, leaves and pine cones to make an Autumn wreath for the front door, we also decided that we wanted to create monster wreaths for the doors inside the house. We wanted to make a fluffy monster wreath and speant a week popping into charity shops looking for something suitable to cut up for cheap. We had no luck and was feeling pretty deflated until I was searching for one of Opeie's toys under his bed and found a huge box of pompoms and lollipop sticks, BINGO!

We cut out a big cardboard ring, fired up the glue gun and started sticking. With lots of bright coloured fluffy pompoms to choose from, Opeie was thouroughly enjoying the craft activity, sitting outside despite the cold. There was a few moments where there was a freak gust of wind and he was chasing pompoms around the street but it just added to the fun as he ran around laughing. With the cardboard ring completely covered and looking very bright and fluffy, we added big polystyrene balls for eyes and some black teeth covered in green slime and Hey Presto! our monster wreath was complete.

Not 100% happy with what we had achieved though and eager to continue our fun Halloween activities, Opeie opted for another wreath because apparently there are alot more doors in the house to decorate. We looked around the house for something else colourful and found a basket full of Play doh lids that I had saved while cleaning out the boys room a while back.I had no idea at the time what I was going to use them for or why I was even saving them but the bright colours sucked me in like some sort of magpie.

I had already cut out a second cardboard ring (clearly I knew he would want to make a second one before he did), so the glue gun made another of his weekly appearences and we got sticking. Im not sure my parents would have let me use a glue gun at the age of 5 (I could just imagine myself pretending I had Han Solo's blaster and making a mess everywhere), but Opeie is calm, loves craft and is really responsible so the gluing was left up to him. Opeie made some lovely bloodshot eyes and mad fangs from lollipop sticks and in no time at all , another door in the house was looking fabulous.

Weve got so many ideas planned for the school holiday with Seth that the house is going to be filled with lots of spooky things. The great thing is, when they all come down, theres no need to feel sad as we can start on the Christmas decorations then! being a dad is AMAZING!

"Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful."

As we took down the trees and the decorations last week we all felt a little gloomy as the house looks so bare once all the colour and glitter has gone. As we carefully packed away all the tree decorations we have collected over the years it made me realise that we needed the next installment of our Gifts from the Pirates fox hunt. Whenever we've been out shopping on the build up to Christmas and spotted a festive fox we've snapped them up straight away. So here are the sly ornaments that were making our trees look pretty this year...

Nanny and Grandad added an extra fox themed book to Opeie's ever expanding collection which was lovely. I love how family and friends pick up on the little quirks that make our family what it is.

Each year we pick a toy to sit on top of the tree (angels are so last season). We've had Holly from Ben and Holly, Cat in the hat and Miffy and this year foxes made their way to the top of two of our trees.

Nanny and Grandad again turned up a few weeks before Christmas and gave the boys a very cute Fox each that spent the build up to Christmas keeping each other warm on our stairs. It was a lovely little touch to our festive looking home, thank you Nanny Roo.

I'm already looking forward to what foxey treats next year has to offer. 

"I am the one hiding under your bed Teeth ground sharp and eyes glowing red"

I'm not a huge fan of Halloween, it always seems like a bit of a pointless holiday, maybe I would feel different about it if I was in the US. Seth gets a little excited though and although Opeie finds it all a little scary he loves to copy his big brother, so despite my reservations it was important that I indulge them both. Whatever time of year it is we always have to fit in a relevant Lego build and this Halloween was no different...

Seth wanted to decorate his room so we made a giant spider to hang from his ceiling and got him some inflatable pumpkins. Opeie wasn't sure what to make of it all but thankfully he didn't freak out.

While we were out at the shops earlier in the week, Seth spotted a 'decorate your own plate' and asked if he could create a Halloween plate. I'm so glad he did because the finished piece looked amazing, I love Seth's drawings...

Opeie joined in the fun too with a little help from mommy...

I know the post is a little late but i got side tracked doing other things, I was pleasently surprised that no one came knocking on our door on Halloween (yes I'm like the all hallows eve scrooge). I'm not surprised though, the only trick or treater i saw was a little girl wearing a bin bag. I wont lie I'm glad its over so that we can concentrate on the real holiday, Christmas. You can be sure that there will be many Christmas posts coming your way

Happy belated Halloween from us.

Ho! Ho! Ho.....ld on a minute that's a Gnome not Santa.

When i was younger there seemed to be Gnomes everywhere, people would proudly show them off on their front gardens and although some of them were a touch creepy they always gave the garden character. I'm not sure if not seeing them about much is because they are not seen as 'cool' anymore or more likely a sign of how our world is these days. People seem to pinch or break anything if you leave it out.

Despite the lack of them on gardens we can be sure that recently they are making a comeback in our local Asda, giant ones. Opeie loves them and always says "Ho! Ho! Ho!" as he thinks they are Santa.

 While we were in there a few days back Mrs M noticed a paint your own Gnome and she picked one up for me and the boys to paint while she was at work. The boys were really excited about getting stuck in. It seems that painting a Gnome is far more entertaining than the rocks we had painted a few days back. But luckily because of our previous craft session we had all the acrylic paints that we needed.

I usually find when painting things with the boys the finished item ends up an all over greeny brown colour as Opeie seems to dislike washing the brush off between colours. This time though the boys took their time and did their best not to go over the parts they had already painted. It kept us occupied for an hour which was great because the boys lose interest in things not long after that (unless it's Lego of course). When Mrs M came home from work she was greeted by our new friend proudly flaunting his amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I'm not sure how well he will hold up in the garden through British weather conditions but either way Mrs M was very impressed. I'm determined now to buy a few more and let the Gnomes make a comeback in our garden.