Thursday photo #181

As we fought our way through crowds of people and deflected requests for sweets, it dawned on me. Half term wasn’t going to be the relaxing affair we’d been waiting for. It was going to be chaos, just like every other week.

Days out

I do long for lazy days at home. Playing games, snuggling on the sofa and watching films. But school holidays are so short and I can’t help but make the most of them. So, as usual we’re filling our days.

Half term got off to a great start with lunch in Birmingham followed by the fabulous Disney on Ice passport to adventure. Upbeat music, flying skaters and excited children made for an incredible afternoon of entertainment.

Next stop was Libby’s first swimming lesson with her new group on Sunday. She’s been having private lessons for the past few months and was excited to get back to learning with other children. Watching her happily swimming three different strokes made me realise that it was the right decision to put her in private lessons for a short time.

Halloween celebrations

Is it just me, or has Halloween become more of a ‘thing’ in the UK over the past few years? I know it’s big in America, but until recently I’m sure it was just dressing up and trick or treating around here. Yet this year, I wrote a guide to local days out over half term. Virtually all of them were Halloween based.

Has this always been the case and I haven’t noticed it before? Either way, we enjoyed a brilliant Halloween day out on Monday at the National Forest Adventure Farm. The girls picked a pumpkin each from the pumpkin patch and enjoyed some spooky fun. We’ll probably be going for the no-carve pumpkin approach this year, so I can use the flesh to cook with.

So far, we’ve already made pumpkin curry, pumpkin pie, pumpkin and apple pie and even had pumpkin puree in a bolognese sauce. With another two huge pumpkins to use, I suspect we’ll be glad to wait 12 months before eating it again.

Our Thursday photo #181

The best thing about half term is seeing the girls together. They still miss each other when Libby’s at school. I took our Thursday photo on a tractor ride. They were both so delighted to ride the tractor over to the pumpkin patch. On the way back, they were too busy trying to hang onto their pumpkins to pose for a photo.