Our half term holiday week in pictures

Since L started receiving 15 hour free funding at nursery we decided not to pay for a holiday club and spend some time together. With L not napping anymore it was a bit of a mission for me to find things to do!

Unfortunately most Halloween themed parties had a late start (6:30pm) or were sold out weeks before holidays which made me panic a little bit as I felt really restricted with me not being able to drive. But as I was determined to have some fun and do different things every day I (perhaps too eagerly) decided to book few local taxi trips for us to see a show "Hairy Maclary and Friends" and to visit a local farm.
                                         
Oh and we saw a gorgeous pheasant in our garden! I was so worried about him so had to call few RSPB offices but unfortunately no one picked up the phone nor called me back so I can only hope he is safe and sound!

Hairy Maclary show has been mentioned many times after watching the show as L was really impressed with characters and especially a cat! So here are few more pictures from our autumn half term holiday week:

How did you spend halt term break?

Arts & Crafts: Halloween themed creations with Duck Tape

I  am a big fan of celebrations be it birthday party or something bigger like Halloween. I don't take the day itself seriously, as a religious person I shouldn't be celebrating it at all, but as a big kid at heart I don't see anything wrong with dressing up, having a spooky disco or making few decorations. 

For this year's Halloween celebrations we were sent some colourful Duck Tape to help us create ultimate Halloween party decoration. 

" Repair, craft, label and decorate with Duck Tape® Brand Duct Tape. Choose from traditional silver to wide range of colors, prints, strengths and technologies like sheets, mini-rolls, max strength and even glow-in-the-dark. Whether your next project is a simple kids craft or emergency home repair, there’s a Duck Tape® product for you".

So, to create bat decorations as seen here and a pumpkin decoration I have used: Jet wide duck tape (£4) and Glow Pumpkin Tape (£7.99).

Both Duck tapes are self- adhesive and mess -free and were super easy to use.

To create a bat: I have found bat pattern online and printed it afterwards; cut the pattern and used it as a stencil for a cardboard sheet; once the stencil was transferred into the cardboard I cut it and applied Jet Duck Tape layers one by one cutting the excess. With the leftover Duck Tape I was able to create a little curling string.

It may seem like I have created all of these without L's help, but she actually did take part in the process. L was cutting pieces of paper to support me and share responsibilities as well as tried to apply Jet Duck Tape and get to know how sticky it is!

To create glow-in-the-dark pumpkin I have followed similar routine as with the bat decoration. It was really quick and easy to apply, even felt quicker than with Jet Duck Tape. 

Both of the decorations then were applied to the wall and L was absolutely mesmerised to the glowing pumpkin! 

Disclaimer: We were sent some Duck Tape materials to create Halloween decorations. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Halloween themed treats from Choc on Choc

With Halloween and half term fast approaching I started to look into booking some themed activities for myself L to do. Unfortunately some places have very limited availability or a little too far for us to travel without a car so we have opted to celebrate Halloween low-key with dressing up and eating some themed chocs.

L doesn't really know much about Halloween, she would repeat the word itself, but she mainly associates it with the party and dressing up, which is fine by me.

So, in time to celebrate Halloween we were sent Ghost chocolate bar (£5) from Choc on Choc- a British chocolate company.

"Father- daughter team creating colourful and unusual shaped chocolates, made from high quality Belgian chocolate, have flown off the shelves of high street retailers like John Lewis, Harvey Nichols, Selfridges and Waitrose".

Choc on Choc ghost chocolate bar comes in a branded box with a cut out window at the front of the packaging and will make a great present for someone spooktacular with a little personalised message (personalisation service available at Choc on choc).

The Choc on Choc description of this chocolate bar speaks for itself:

"This tasty chocolate bar with its ghostly decoration makes a lovely little treat to have up your sleeve for those trick-or-treaters at Halloween. Lovingly handmade from a blend of luxury milk and white Belgian chocolate, this is perfect for any little monsters at your door".

We haven't tried it yet, as I am hoping it will survive until Halloween itself, but I can tell you it smells very "chocolatey", hoping it tastes as nice if not better! Those those who like variety of designs you can pick between ghost, spider and day of the dead chocolate bars.

If this Halloween you are attending or organising your own party Choc on Choc has something spooky up their sleeve: chocolate spooky teeth, chocolate eyeballs and a variety of chocolate skulls, sounds and looks pretty scary, don't you think?! 

Disclaimer: I was sent Choc on Choc ghost chocolate bar for this Halloween feature. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Halloween with Gel-a-Peel #Geloween

This Halloween is a little bit more special to us as L celebrates it at the nursery for the 1st time. Last year we were lucky enough to spot cute spider outfit set with tutu skirt, alice band and a wand, but as it's quite a "dark" set I wanted to add a little bit more fun and colour to it by using Gel-a-Peel Neon Creation Kit (£14.99).

"Create your own jewelry with Gel-a-Peel! Use colored gel tubes and design templates to make necklaces, bracelets, earrings, rings, headbands and more!"

The set comes with 16 design templates, 3 neon gel tubes, 5 nozzles and accessory hardware.

It's hard to say who was more excited to try out Gel-a-Peel but save to say that L and had lots of fun experimenting (mainly me of course). 

First of all, few things to remember, do not leave your child with Gel-a-Peel without supervision (the kit is suitable for 8 years+), the gel tubes can be easily opened and end up on clothes, skin, carpet the list goes on. If the accident does happen I would suggest to leave it to dry and scrape the remains after, otherwise you may end up with very sticky, sponges, brushes etc. The gel itself has a very strong aroma if you are allergic I would recommend to wear a protective mask or not to use the product at all.

The application process is very simple, just place the template under the clear sheet supplied, choose designer nozzle for the silicone gel tube and get creative. 

Few things learned from the process:
- do not leave the set for young kids to play with
- do not make fine lines, go over your design few times to make sure each line is thick and is connected to the rest of the design
- it may take a lot of practice to make desings similar to the ones shown on templates, at first they may look blob alike and flimsy, but once you get used to the process and textures it will get easier and better, don't give up just yet!
- do not stretch the end result when pulling of the clear sheet or when in use as it may break
- if your end result is sticky it means that it needs more time to dry
- drying time varies from few minutes depending on the design and it's thickness, sometimes few hours of drying is needed
- clean the tip of the nozzle and your fingers with tissue, the rest of the gel can be easily cleared from the nozzle once it's dry
- if you are not good at creating accessories or do not like the end result, Gel-a-Peel can be perfect for creating window decorations!

It certainly was an interesting experience with lots of product wasted and a little bit left, which I will either keep for future parties or make few rings and decorations for L and I.

Disclaimer: I was sent the item mentioned above for the purpose of this review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Arts & Crafts: Halloween addition

Oh I'm so excited to show you our super easy Halloween themed crafts activity we did the other day- toilet roll's tube monsters! 

You would need:
-cardboard tubes left from toilet rolls
- acrylic on any other type of paints available
- small sheet of plain white paper
- glue stick
- scissors
-black marker or a pen

I have seen this ideas online (as always) but painted on cans, as I don't have a paint that will withstand the metal/aluminium plus I didn't want L to hurt herself on open tops so opted for a simpler option.

I have painted 3 tubes with finger paint and 1 tube with acrylic black paint, which dried relatively quick. Drew facial features and cut them out for Frankenstein, Pumpkin, Ghost and left Black tube aka cat to be finished with L.
Once L was ready to have some fun, I have asked her to apply glue on little cut outs, then I have applied little facial features on our monster and that was it!

                                     

With the cat thought it was a little bit more complicated. We have tried crayons, pencils, fingers paints and lastly acrylic paints to draw eyes, nose and whiskers. L was too excited about drawing whiskers so I had to save the day and fix our little kitty. 

I am very happy with the result, especially Frankenstein. Which one is your favourite?

University Games- Googly Eyes board game giveaway

I'm a big fan of board games and Halloween, even though we don't normally have time to play games or forget to bring the game with us when on holiday I always thought of boards games as a great way of entertaining yourself when you have nothing better to do. From what I remember my little nephew liked to be busy playing or doing something rather than sitting and watching TV, if you little one is just like him this giveaway might be just the right treat for the upcoming Halloween!

I would like to offer to win an exciting new board game from University Games called Googly Eyes (recommended for ages 7+ with RRP: £19.99).

"Googly Eyes, the hilarious drawing game involving crazy, googly glasses that challenge your vision and leave you googling for more.

Simply put on the zany, vision-altering Googly Eye glasses and start to draw whilst the team tries to guess what you’re drawing- and on a time limit!

Googly Eyes is perfect for the whole family and the zany, googly glasses are great for picture opportunities and Halloween silliness".

If you would like to be in a chance of winning, please enter the Rafflecopter form below (ends on 22 October):


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck!

What Little L wore- Halloween feature

Yesterday L tried her Halloween outfit for the first time and to my disappointment bottoms are too big for her ( Nutmeg 12-18 months). 
Nonetheless it's a cute outfit!

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Arts & Crafts: salt dough pumpkin ornaments

I was browsing Pinterest for ages in order to find something quick and easy to do with L in time for Halloween.
I found a blog with a recipe for a DIY pumpkin ornaments which we have tried to do over the last 2 days.

L didn't show much interest in creating a pumpkin shape but was very keen on making a foot dough ornament. On day 1 I have made a salt dough ornament and as L's foot is a little bit bigger than pumpkin cookie cutter I just made the shapes and put them in the oven to cook.  

It is very easy to do if you follow the correct recipe, the one I found originally wasn't correct, you will see why later on.
- 1/2 cup of salt
- 1/2 cup of flour
- 1/4 cup of water
- mix and knead the dough, add a little bit of flour if sticky
- create an ornament/shape
- put in the oven for 2-3 hours under 100 degrees. (I left mine for 2 hours under 200 degrees as per blogger's recipe as a result my pumpkin ornaments were burnt).

On day 2 I decided to use the rest of the salt dough and made a hand impression for my mum to take home. Sprayed my burnt pumpkin ornaments with white primer to hide burnt, brown colour and left them to dry. After they were dry I prepared finger and acrylic paints for us to use. L helped me a little bit to spread the paint but soon lost interest and opted to play with a finger paint pot. Once painted I left them to dry until hard. 

Overall, I'm quite happy with pumpkins, can't wait to try more arts crafts with L!

L's first visit to the pumpkin patch

I was planning this for few weeks as thought it could be a great opportunity to introduce L to the world of pumpkins.

We have called few local farms to see if they have planned anything but on the day when we wanted to go (Sunday) some of them were either closed or didn't have any activities. 
We have opted to go to the farm which was just 20 minutes away, the paid £6 per child and £3 per adult. 

They had different activities throughout the day: ferret encounters, pumpkin picking and carving, tractor trailer rides and much more. As L is just little we picked what we thought she would like to do- visiting farm animals, pumpkin picking aka touching, playing in the big sandpit and running around.

Pumpkin picking was a little bit different to what we expected, the "pumpkin patch" was an allocated area with pumpkins scattered everywhere for little ones to pick. I must say it would be more adventurous for me if it was a real pumpkin picking, but nonetheless we had lots of fun!

Have you ever been to pumpkin patch?

L's first Halloween

Freedigitalphotos.net

We don't normally celebrate Halloween but now we have L and it is time for a change!

At 4 months old she won't understand a thing but as it is a very first L's Halloween I would like it to be special!
We bought her a " little mummy's pumpkin" sleepsuit which she will be wearing on the day. 

We won't be trick or treating but we will certainly take her for a walk in this outfit. 
I would also like to do something creative this year, something like a pumpkin photo session. My plan is to buy a pumpkin, take all the bits out of it and to use the pumpkin itself as a prop.

Depending on L's mood (she started teething) I would like to take some cute pictures of L sitting or maybe even playing in the pumpkin. Can't wait!!

I hope to introduce each year more and more "Halloweeny" bits into our life. Need to start thinking about how to explain the spooky part of the celebrations.

What's your plan for this Halloween?

I have written this post to enter an amazing Next competition.