Looking back at our Halloween Half Term!

I had all good intentions of writing about Halloween straight after but as it often does, life got in the way and it's only now, two weeks later that I'm able to sit down and talk about what we got up!

Elliot had the week off pre-school as it was half term so we had lots of exciting things planned...and several different fancy dress costumes to wear!

On the Wednesday we met up with some of our close group of friends at one of our favourite places, Kingston Lacy. We all have National Trust memberships so it's always a nice cheap day out and the kids absolutely love it there! We took a picnic and did some Autumn crafts - my friend Louise also brought some print outs for the kids to do. This was a fantastic idea, they had to tick off certain items from their sheets and they all had different themed sheets such as fairies and pirates - they loved it!! All the activities were downloaded from https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/naturedetectives/activities/ - we will definitely be doing this again :)

Later on that day I took Elliot to a local garden centre who were holding a special Halloween event for children. They had lots of things happening such as fancy dress competitions, spooky stories, pumpkin carving, spooky food and a scary tunnel. Elliot didn't win the fancy dress competition but there were over 40 kids in his age bracket so lots of competition and lots of little Dracs! The scary tunnel was actually really scary, we got about a foot inside and Elliot decided he didn't like it so we had to turn around and come out again....maybe one for the bigger kids! Although saying that my 29 year old sister was freaked out by someone dressed up as a zombie so she made a pretty hasty exit too!

Strutting his stuff on the catwalk!! 

On the Friday we hosted a little Halloween party for Elliot's friends - it's become a bit of a tradition  and we love hosting! It was a great excuse to decorate the house and of course, another excuse for Elliot to wear a different costume :)

It gets harder and harder to get a photo of all the children looking in the same direction!!

On the Sunday of Halloween weekend we couldn't decide what to do but Elliot wanted to visit Corfe Castle...even though he'd been there just a few days before with his grandparents! It's another brilliant National Trust property here in Dorset and we love visiting. There were lots of special activities on as it was half term, such as teddy zipline, spooky story telling and a Halloween themed quiz. 

Over the weekend we also managed to get a bit creative in the kitchen to make some spooky food thanks to a lovely hamper from the Co-op. Our favourite were the smores which were lovely big thick chocolate chip cookies with melted marshmallows and jam inside....yummy! To see some of the recipes head over to the Co-op website.

Finally on Halloween itself, I took Elliot trick or treating with one of his little friends. This is the first year he's really understood it and was so excited about getting some treats! We were planning on just knocking at a few houses we knew such as friends and family but on the way we spotted lots of houses decorated with pumpkins so we did spend a bit longer out than planned...both kids were sooo tired at the end of the evening!

Hope you all had a fun Halloween!