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! 

Halloween with Home Bargains

Halloween is one of my favourite times of year and it's great that Elliot has inherited this love of mine! We will be hosting not one but two Halloween parties this year so we've been on the look out for spooky things that will make our parties extra special. Home Bargains have a brilliant range of Halloween supplies and we were sent a bumper box of goodies to try out...

They have literally covered all angles with decorations, costumes, crafts, sweets and even pumpkin carving kits!

The first thing Elliot picked out of the box was the skeleton costume - he loves dressing up so is definitely going to get lots of wear over the Halloween half term week! Home Bargains have a fab range of costumes and prices start at £4.99 which is an absolute bargain.

If your little skeleton isn't a fan of masks (they never stay on Elliot) then there is always the option of painting their faces instead. The family make up kit is only £2.99 and has a range of sponges and colours so you'll be able to have a practise before the big night! (There are some great Halloween make up tutorials on YouTube that I've spent far too long watching this morning....)

Make up kit - £2.99
Skeleton costume - £4.99

For all your trick or treating needs, Home Bargains have plenty of sweets, treats and even a ghostly loot scoop! Elliot was very taken with his loot scoop and has been testing it out all week ;) The big bags of sweets are great value, the only trouble I find is that I'm tempted to open them early and by the time Halloween comes, I'm out of sweets! (Just me?!)

Loot scoop - 99p
Pumpkin Jar with marshmallows - £1.99
Swizzels monster treats - £1.99

As we are hosting two Halloween parties this year we will be going to town on decorating and I love getting Elliot involved too. One of the most effective things you can buy is the spider webs and spiders - for only 99p you get a really large bag and I find this goes a long way. The more you stretch it, the creepier and cobweb-like it looks! The pumpkin LED lights are a great idea as they are battery powered and obviously don't need plugging in which gives you a bit more flexibility in where you are decorating. I like to drape them over my fireplace with lots of LED candles (safer!) and plenty of cobwebs. The plaques are great value too at 79p!

Pumpkin Lights - £2.99
Web & Spiders - 99p

Halloween Plaque - 79p 

The last thing for us to test was the pumpkin carving sets (99p)- the kits come with a tool that has a serrated edge, perfect for making your pumpkins as scary as possible plus a really useful scooper for getting the insides out. (That is my least favourite bit about pumpkin carving!). If you're not feeling very creative then you can also buy pumpkin push-ins (59p) which is a fantastically cheap and cheats way of making your pumpkin spooky without the work!

I'll be posting lots of photos from our Halloween party on our social media (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram) so look out for these and let me know what you think of our decorating skills!

The Halloween range at Home Bargains can be found online  and instore

*Disclaimer - All items were sent to us for the purpose of this review. All views are my own

Fancy Dress for Kids

The words "fancy dress" can strike fear into some mum's hearts but I am one of those embarrassing types who uses any excuse to dress Elliot up! I love fancy dress myself so it came as no surprise to my friends and family when Elliot spent much of his first Christmas in an elf costume....or a reindeer...although I resisted the Christmas pudding one ;)

So here is a selection of some of his amazing outfits he has worn over the last 2.5 years....

Top Row, L - R

- The outfit that started it all, a Christmas Elf baby!

- A sleepy little reindeer 

- Celebrating the Royal wedding with a patriotic babygrow and a crown

Middle Row

- Elliot the baby Elephant

- Blending in with the background at our local farm

- A bumblebee (I adored this little outfit and was gutted when it got too small!)

Bottom Row

- A fearsome pirate for his 1st birthday party

- Little vampire for the toddler Halloween party

- Another Elf, this one at 13 months!

Top Row L-R

- Another day, another pirate party!

- In his Planes outfit

- About to measure up as Bob the builder

Middle Row

- The Gruffalo's Child at his 2nd birthday party

- 2nd Halloween, 2nd vampire costume! 

- Yet another Elf, this one 25 months

Bottom Row

- Elmo, this outfit won his best dressed at a birthday party!

- My favourite costume, Farmer Elliot! The ginger sideburns looks AMAZING!!

- Dressing up as a knight for World Book Day - he loves this costume as you can see from the big grin on his face!

As you can see, we're quite fond of the Elf costumes....I'm wondering how long he will let me dress him up for, you don't see many teenagers dressed as Elves these days!

Are you a fan of fancy dress or does the mere mention of it make you feel stressed?!

Linking up with...

World Book Day 2015

If you've not heard of World Book Day (where have you been!), it's a celebration of books, authors, illustrators and reading. It also gives kids the chance to go to school dressed as their favourite character from a book - I'm sure you saw lots of this on your facebook timeline! Elliot hasn't started pre-school yet but this didn't stop him having some fun for WBD.

One of his current favourite books is Sir Scallywag and the Deadly Dragon Poo and he's also a big fan of Mike the Knight so I wasn't surprised when Elliot picked a knights outfit to get dressed up in. I found that George at Asda had the best fancy dress selection and they had such a wide range for kids and adults. Elliot's Knight costume is £10 which I thought was good value, the material feels like good quality and I know he'll be getting alot of wear out of this!

Elliot enjoyed being a knight and charging round the garden with his Grandad!

*Disclaimer: We were sent this fancy dress outfit for the purpose of this 100% honest review. All views are my own