Catch up- October!

It's been a long time since I last blogged so here is a little round up of a few of our favourite things that happened over October. Then hopefully, I'll find some more time to get to November before Decembers strikes and I won;t feel so behind in the blogging world!

So, October bought our first Halloween back in Reading. In London during our fist few years of marriage Luke & I would purposely go OUT on Halloween and make sure all our lights were off once we got home, even if it was late as Halloween just seemed to be an excuse for the teenagers in the area to wear a bin bag and normally some form or freaky mask and ask for money after you offer them sweets (admittedly a little scary and intimidating really!) A couple of years in we used to get a few kiddlywinks come round with their parents earlier in the evening which was fun- filling them up with sweets with all the Mums stood anxiously to the side whispering "now say thankyou!" THAT was a lot more fun than the teenagers! We've also had friends round for Halloween and ran a party for the youth at the church over the years too- so really got into a pattern of at least trying to do something! So this year we were a little un-certain what we'd do. As a kid my parents didn't really like the idea of Halloween, or at least the idea of us knocking on strangers doors and asking for sweets so I wasn't sure what they'd be doing. At church they were doing a Halloween party for all the children under 12 followed by a 'trunk or treat' where you decorate the boot of your car (like I guess you would your house?) then the children come by and see if they can get some treats! It sounded like fun, Mum got us a few of her old decorations out of the loft (she actually had LOADS which Luke & I got quite excited about!) and we went about decorating the boot! We decided to go with a Pumpkin theme- to match Hollies costume so hung up some pumpkin lights and orange tape etc. 

Once we'd got up to the chapel we saw all he amazing boots and had fun decorating with everyone else! We stuck Hollie in her Bumbo in the middle of our decorations and she had a BLAST! Mainly because she spent the entire evening grabbing hold of the sweets from our pots and trying to eat them! (Luckily she has not yet mastered the un-wrapping of packets so we were safely out of the grasp of the sugar monster!) 

Some of the other cars had things that jumped out of the boots and super scary stuff like that! (Yes, they were VERY advanced and exciting!) We used Hollie as our 'scare' factor and told the kids to be careful Hollie didn't bite them when they went to get some sweets! Tee hee hee! It was surprisingly effective! They all seemed a little unsure, but then realised Hollie wasn't interested in anything other than the sweets in her hands she continued to try and un-wrap and walked away happy they hadn't been bitten :o) So, we have done our first trunk and treat! It was so much fun and I'm glad we did it- it made me excited for next year when Hollie may be able to join in a little bit more and walk around the cars with us too! 

Flash on!

Flash off!

Some of the other boots! (I wish I'd have taken more photos!!!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other exciting things that happened in October: 

My Sister in law Naomi turned 30 :o) My clever Mum in law Rosey and Sister in law Erin arranged a girly night for us at a gorgeous hotel for dinner followed by a girly sleepover. Before we got to Harrow, we stopped by Leanne's salon for me to get my roots done! It became just 'one of those days' when Hollie filled her nappie almost the instant we got to the salon, then while Luke changed her she pee'd everywhere so had to sit in just her nappy while her clothes dried!

Here Hollie is oblivious to the drama she was causing us and just excited to be at the salon 'playing'!

 We ended up running a bit late too (my hair is miserably thick so can sometimes take FOREVER to dry!) So Ashleigh AND Leanne dried it together! We were giggling that through the window I must look like a very important customer with two stylists doing my hair! I played along and tried to look important but probably failed miserably!!!! Haha! Hollie also had a blast at the salon (weeing everywhere aside!) as she got to play with Auntie Leanne's dog Murphy! Sometimes she gets a little nervous around Murphy but on this visit she really started to warm to him!

It was SOOO much fun. I was the sap that bought Luke and Hollie along- only because Luke already stays at his parents for the majority of the week for work so it saved him packing up for another night and because Luke wanted to see Hollie after a loooong week apart! It was GREAT fun and I really felt like I got to know my 'sisters!' even better! I really did feel like I was 12 again staying up late talking about boys (well, men now- and we're married to them, but still!) and what we were all like as teenagers! Haha! The brill thing about Luke's family is I've known them and they've know me from about 13/14 so we have a lot of shared memories and stories. When we came back from dinner Luke was in a real grump after just having a generally bad day and Hollie had joined him in not being impressed with a silly giggly Mummy- but luckily we came home with ice cream which cheered them both up and Luke ended up joining in the girly chat as much as the rest of us! 

My Grumpy family VERY late Friday night!!

Hollie with Auntie Natalie and Auntie Naomi being taught which boys to stay away from!!!

All in all, a fab month! Yay for a warm, family filled, fun October!