"I want to run towards something. Not away."

Autumn is by far my favourite time of year, Unlike most I'm a big fan of the temperature drop, Ive always had a thing about my coat going on, making our outdoor adventures that little more cosy. And who doesn't love the colours on the trees, that autumn change is pretty magical. For the boys it's an exciting time of year because we get to go up the loft and start bringing down those end of year decorations. It's always so nice to transform the house and make it that little more interesting and of course that always includes some spooky LEGO building. We were all wrapped up one evening with hot chocolates making Halloween characters and a big sign for the wall in The LEGO room.

Opeie requested we build a witches house another evening and despite not feeling in a creative mood we stuck with it and it all turned out pretty lovely. The LEGO building really got us into the build up to halloween festivities.

With the decorations out and the house feeling a little more spooky we were pretty excited about the fun that was going to be had. Pumpkin carving at home and maybe a spooky party.

Then at the last minute our plans changed and a couple of days before the big spooky celebration we found ourselves driving down to the Cornish coast to Boscastle to for a few nights away. With a mass of negativity starting to muscle its way into our lives at home I think we were both really needing to get away for a bit.

Halloween ended up being an awesome day at Tintagel, adventuring around Merlins cave, Stomping up some big hills and finding waterfalls, perfection.

Happy Halloween ya'll.

"Would you do it for a Scooby Snack?"

Like a true old timer, I have just been standing outside the house talking to my neighbour about how we never did anything for Halloween as children. I don't EVER remember going trick or treating or decorating the house and as we stood there draping spooky lights over our hanging baskets and getting things ready for the kids to carve pumpkins and make Halloween spiders, I thought how much this time of year has changed since way back then. I do love decorating the inside of the house every year, the boys get excited and it is one of the many things that I look forward to doing as a family each year.

The shops are getting better each year making it easier to pick up decorations etc but the one thing I don't like (and it may make me sound like a grumpy old man), is the costumes aimed at young children. Do children of the boys age really need to look like half of their face is missing or that one of their limbs has clumsily dropped off.  last year I asked the little girl that lives next door what she was dressing up as and she said "zombie red riding hood with blood dripping from my eyes!" Ewww!

Thankfully the boys aren't really into the 'Frightening' side of Halloween and Opeie went for a full on cute approach to the All Hallows' Eve celebrations after a fun package arrived through the post last week. Scooby Doo was one of my favourite shows as a kid (until that scrappy appeared anyway) and I can't believe he's still going strong, but even more crazy is that he has now been immortalised in my favourite brick and has even starred in his own LEGO movie too! Clearly the lovable pooch is here to stay. Opeie has been keeping his awesomeness alive this week by virtually living in a Rubies Scooby Doo costume that he got for Halloween. 

Mini Scooby Doo has been everywhere with me and surprisingly has been great entertainment for the older folk in the supermarkets. He's been making people smile everywhere we've been, especially because of the mini Scooby Doo he's been carrying under his arm too. There's no surprise at all that because of this new Scooby skin that he has acquired, it has been a pretty Scooby Doo heavy kind of a week, Episodes, Books, LEGO and Magazines. It's been touch and go a few times whether we were actually going to get him out of the suit for bed.

Part of me is a little jealous that I can't just dress up as a character I love and pop to the supermarket to get bread, I guess I'll just have to continue being his less interesting side kick. Whatever you've  dressed up as this year, I hope you've had an amazing Halloween.

"Christmas... is not an external event at all, but a piece of one's home that one carries in one's heart."

I feel like it's been months since I last wrote on here. So much has been going on that it just made sense to go quiet for a while until things were a little more calm. Christmas can be a stressful time of year for a lot of families but for us this year it wasn't the festive preparations and gift buying that was piling the pressure on but the fact that not only was Mrs M starting her new job, we also moved Gifts from the Pirates HQ two weeks ago. (If you can avoid it, moving house this close to Christmas is a crazy idea).

That being said though, we are now in and slowly getting settled. There are boxes in every spot that isn't used regularly and trying to find specific things amongst items still packed has been quite testing. Despite this and the fact we are living without Internet at the moment (it's like being back in the 80s), it's great to be in our new home, which so far has been quiet and very relaxing.

We didn't get to put our Christmas tree up till the 16th of December which was a little grim, being the big Christmas fans that we are, but being able to find a new space for the decorations and even have the extra space for a second tree (thank you Gary and Ruth) was awesome. We filled the house with festive cheer which put a smile on everyone's face and took our minds off the piles of boxes scattered around each room.

As expected it was made quite clear early on that the styling and design of the boys room was going to be my remit. But that's where my creative flair ended and the remainder of the house belonged to Mrs M. Suits me fine though as most of my time in the house is spent playing with the boys in their room. Their room was the first to be organised the weekend we moved in (sorting a place for the LEGO was most important). It was great to unbox all of their books too as they took up a lot of boxes. I'm loving the library/LEGO area they've got now and I'm looking forward to getting some photos and art work up over the next few weeks.

We still don't have internet and probably wont have for a couple of weeks but having my trusty phone means that i can get back in to the swing of writing and play catch up over the next few days. 

I hope you all had a great Christmas and new year.

A little bit of craft to break up the day...

Today while we were out getting our food shopping for the week we popped in to a couple of shops to get some Easter craft bits for Seth's school. We picked up some plaster of Paris chicks and bunnies for Opeie to paint which we got straight to when we got home. It meant that i could keep Opeie occupied while Mrs M made us a tasty lunch.

I can never work out whether its the actual painting that Opeie loves or just making a mess, he had used up most of the paint painting the plate before it hit the Easter decorations, he had a lovely smile on his face though so he was having fun.

I probably shouldn't find it funny but I'm always entertained when Opeie gets paint on him or food down himself, he has a mini panic attack and needs it off him straight away. So it was most important that i had wet wipes at the ready.

We finished the painting and Opeie had a well deserved snack break before moving on to his Batman sticker book.

Opeie loves stickers (or stickies). They usually end up being stuck everywhere but he will happy work a room sharing out his stickers making sure that everyone is well covered, he's generous like that. No to think of a craft activity for tomorrow...

For more craft activities check out our other blog giftsfromthepiratescreate.com