Our Halloween

Our Halloween was a quiet one this year. Normally we decorate our living room with ceiling decorations, spider webs and wall hangings but this year we just didn't feel like hunting through the attic finding all the boxes just for a day of use.

We didn't go trick or treating this year. It's far too cold out for the children to be walking around with thin costumes on so we stayed home and had a mini tea party.

The food

We had food that I renamed, sorry if this sounds disgusting.

Cheese wiggles/wotsits - fingers

french fries - worms

mini scotch eggs - eye balls

pizza - puke pizza

trifle - zombie brains

The trifle was a hit we had two which the children chose from one chocolate and one strawberry.

We also treated the children to candy apples which they gobbled up in no time.

The children with the candy apples

The children loved all the food and came back for second and thirds.

Darren gutted our pumpkin and I then carved it. It took me about 40 minutes to carve and wasn't as hard a job as I was imagining. The theme this year was Minecraft since we love it and rather than carving a Creeper which seemed to be what everyone carving a Minecraft pumpkin was doing I opted for tools/weapons and TNT.

Front : Pickaxe and sword

Back : TNT

With the flesh of the pumpkin we made a rather yummy pumpkin soup.

The children dressed up in costumes, except Archie he wasn't really that bothered.

Cerys the cheetah

Harvey the vampire

Jorja as Snow White

Gwen as Ariel

Kellan as Pooh Bear

Rory as Sleepy the Dwarf

And of course I couldn't leave out a Halloween nappy photo

Rory in our Fluffy Dreams Halloween nappy

Kellan's 2nd Birthday

Saturday was Kellan's 2nd birthday, I honestly don't know how time has gone by so fast. This year we knew exactly what to get for Kellan for his presents. Kellan has recently become interested in cars and Thomas the Tank Engine and of course dinosaurs are still a favourite of his.

We wanted to get him a dinosaur but not the kind you get in a tub and end up losing so were looking for a fair sized dino. We were in B&M when we spotted a rubbery T-Rex which is quite big. It doesn't do anything but its soft so if it's used as a weapon or thrown and happens to hit someone it won't hurt.

We wanted to buy him some cars but not your normal hot wheel sized cars something chunkier. We looked at wooden cars but they were a bit pricey. I then spotted the perfect set in Argos in the Chad Valley range of toys. The Car Transporter has 3 chunky cars, headlights which light up, a button to make noises and the ramp goes up and down. The Garage comes with 2 cars, has noisy petrol pumps, a ramp, a lift and a car wash for the cars to travel through.

We also wanted to buy Kellan a sturdy Thomas toy which seem to be somewhat hard to find. There are plenty of track sets but thought of those as being too fragile in the hands of a 2 year old. I spotted a Thomas toy in Morrison's whilst doing our food shop that makes noises, the smoke lights up and moves across the floor. It looks quite robust and is a speedy little thing.

We had a little birthday lunch of chicken sandwiches, crisps, chocolate mini rolls and Oreos followed by a fairy cake. The kids gobbled it all up in no time.

Kellan's Grandma popped over with his card and present, a gun that makes noises and lights up. Kellan has played with it so much the batteries have run out already.

I then prepared Kellan's cake. I normally make the cakes but Rory is still feeding a lot so would be impossible to feed him and bake a cake and decorate it too. We bought Kellan a chocolate cake from Morrison's and everyone loved it. We had Gwen asking for second helpings.

We then all sang happy birthday to Kellan and he blew his candles out all by himself.

Rory's 6-8 Week Check

On Wednesday Rory had his 6-8 week check up at our doctors surgery.

The doctor weighed, measured his head and length and checked Rory over from head to toe and everything is fine. Rory is now 12lb 12oz, 61.5 cms long and his head is 40 cms.

The doctor was impressed with Rory's head control. Rory was cooing away during the check up either at the doctor or a poster on the wall, Rory has a thing for pictures on walls and chats away to them for ages. During the check Rory very nearly soaked the doctor with wee, which was quite funny and I now understand how he's out weeing his cloth nappies so fast, lets just say he wee's a river! The nurse doing Rory's immunisations had a good old giggle at that and told him next time to aim a little better and get the doctors shirt.

We then headed through to the nurse for his first immunisations. Rory is the first of my children to have the Rotovirus vaccine, which is given orally. Rory didn't mind the taste of it and thankfully it was a colourless liquid so he didn't get covered in anything that wouldn't wash out of clothes.

Then he had an injection in each thigh which he really didn't like. He fell asleep not long after being dressed and placed in his buggy for the walk home.

He hasn't had any reaction to the immunisations thankfully and didn't need any calpol that evening. He did sleep a lot during the day which is very unlike Rory.

Rory

School Photographs

The children had their profile photographs taken at school at the end of September and we got the proofs last week.

We usually aren't very keen on what we see when we get the proofs and sadly this year is no different. We will be buying Gwen and Harvey's photographs though as we only buy reception and year 6 photographs.

Here are their photographs;

Gwen - Reception Class

Jorja - Year 3

Archie - Year 4

Harvey - Year 6

Group photograph

The children all look pale and ill and they are far from it, probably down to the use of a white background. We wish we'd get just one year of good photographs but I think that's a million to one chance especially whilst this company takes the photographs.

Rory's New Head Wear From Lactivist

Last week I noticed a post on my Facebook feed from the Lactivist page with a sale on their stock. I had no idea it was a closing sale when I first noticed the post and wasn't until Wednesday that I read they were reducing all the stock they had. I then went for a look on the website to see what they had and just had to get Rory a Lactivist hat.

The hats are normally £6.50 with free postage but were reduced to £4. I

then remembered a code 'autumn2013' the Lactivist page had given out and tried that at the checkout and it worked so I got the hat for £2.80!

I chose the 'Better than any old cow' 100% organic cotton hat.

The hat arrived today and is lovely and soft and fits Rory with room for growth. All the kids have had a little giggle at the print on the hat. I wish I'd bought one when Kellan was a baby.

Rory in his new hat

Heres the link for the Lactivist t-shirts, bags and hats - click *here*

Lactivist nursing necklaces and bracelets - click *here*

Lactivist network, news etc - click *here*

Superhero Art

For Christmas last year we gave Harvey acrylic paints, brushes, sketching pencils, canvas in various sizes, drawing pads and other extras. He enjoys art and so we went a little overboard.

Today Harvey completed his first canvas inspired by Superman.

He's now planning his next piece. He's aiming to create a collection of superhero logo's on canvas and putting them up in his bedroom, which is where his Superman canvas art is.

Registering Rory's Birth

Today we made the trip in to town to register Rory's birth. Usually we'd go to the Registry Office in Canterbury which is situated just outside of the town center but they've changed where the births and deaths are registered to the updated library on the high street.

Rory is an official person!

We had to ask a couple of times where we had to go to register a birth and finally reached our destination. It was very strange sitting in a library and can't imagine sitting there if you needed to register a death. It didn't feel very warm and welcoming it was quite cold and unfriendly in our opinion. 

We were given a little book bag with two books, Making Friends! Just Like Us by Jess Stockham and What a .. Busy Baby! by Rebecca Patterson, baby's first shapes booklet, a book start rhymes booklet and a guide to books for babies.

Once we'd registered Rory we then headed to buy something to eat and bought some pasties from the West Cornwall Pasty Co. We've had pasties from there before so know just how lovely they are. I had a Sunday Lunch pasty, Darren had a chicken and bacon pasty, Darren's mum, Trish, had an original Cornish pasty and Kellan had some mini pasties which were pork and apple. They were delicious and Kellan loved eating his mini pasties whilst sat in the park.

We then found a little bakery on the high street and bought some cakes and a biscuit for Kellan. 

Kellan attacked his before I managed to take a photo

Cerys received a post card from school today in the post. It's from her English teacher.

Cerys didn't know she was getting a post card so this cheered her up. It's nice hearing from teachers. We are so far from her school that we can't get there for parent teacher interviews so these let us know how she's doing.

Harvey came home from school with his e-safety ambassador certificate today, it's now pinned up in our hallway.