Moldilocks and the Three Scares Book Review

I'll be honest, I'm not the biggest fan of Halloween. I believe it is something that has more American, and event that we've tried to adopt. However, my children whole heartedly disagree with me. They love nothing more than to dress up, pop face paint on and become their scariest selves.

So you can imagine my youngest's delight when a certain Halloween themed book arrived in the post.

Moldilocks and the Three Scares (as you can imagine) is an interpretation of the classic tale, Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

One chilly night Papa Scare, Mama Scare and Baby Scare take a stroll to let their very hot Alpha-Bat Soup cool. But while they are out, a lonely little zombie named Moldilocks sleepwalks into their haunted house, eats their soup, breaks a chair . . . . and maybe even answers the Scare family's nightmares.

#DWTrickOrTreat Challenge Round Up Two

I told you last week about the #DWTrickOrTreat challenge which I had been set. Well here is the second round up of my 13 day challenge, the question is did I manage to complete?

Day seven

We were asked to go to a gym on a Sunday, gah, now that is a trick. I don't actually have a gym membership so I opted to go for a run instead.

#DWTrickOrTreat Challenge Round Up One

The lovely people over at DW Fitness kindly set myself and some fellow bloggers a Trick or Treat Challenge. Over 13 days we were to receive a new task every day but we weren't to know whether they'd be to our liking or not.

Spooktastic Halloween Recipes

It's nearly time for Halloween so the kids have been requesting to bake some spooktastic cakes and cookies. I thought a nice easy recipe would be for some scrummy gingerbread biscuits, gingerbread for me is one of the foods that seem to go hand in hand with the colder months.

These biscuits are easy to make so make a perfect recipe for the whole family to join in making, including any little ones.

We followed the simple recipe provided on the BBC website, they made gingerbread men instead of anything spooky but this is easily adapted by using whatever cookie cutters you may have to hand.

Aldi Lends a Spooky Hand With Halloween

Last year I had the pleasure of receiving a spooky package from Aldi for Halloween. This year Aldi have a new Halloween range in for their special buys and I was lucky enough to receive a spooktastic delivery from them to have a try of a couple of the items myself.

From party decorations and sweets to costumes and noisy toys, they have a great selection of scary things to choose from.

No Tricks, Just Treats

Ok ok, I know Halloween is over and you're all thinking about Christmas now but I had to share with you the lovely delivery that I received from House of Fraser last week, no tricks in sight just plenty of wonderful treats.

Along with plenty of Halloween goodies including books, sweets and masks, the girls were each sent an item from their children's range of Autumn essentials.

Alternative Ideas Instead of Trick Or Treating

I might sound like a mean parent but I'm not keen on trick or treating. It is a tradition bought over from America that doesn't really translate so well over here. I don't like the idea of taking my kids out  walking round the streets after dark and the only trick or treaters I seem to get at my door are rowdy teenagers asking for money which isn't what Halloween is all about.

However I don't dislike the idea of Halloween itself so I have five alternative ideas to trick or treating to share with you all.

1. Halloween treasure hunt.

Now this can be done either indoors or outdoors depending on the whether. I like to hang up spooky clues and directions and of course you either find a trick or treat in each hiding place.

Worms You Can Eat…..

Worms you can eat?? No I've not been auditioning for I'm a celebrity get me out of here, I've been attempting to make jelly worms ready for a Halloween treasure hunt for the girls.

A simple procees that turns out to be a bit tricky in the end….

Ingredients

* 1 packet of jelly in your flavour of choice
* 1 sachet of gelatine
* 2 tsp of food colouring (I chose red)
* 2 tbsp whipping cream (optional)
* 1/2 pint boiled water
* 1/2 pint of cold water
* hanful of straws

Celebrating Halloween With A Little Help From Aldi

You may have noticed a certain theme to my posts this week, yes Halloween is the hot topic at the moment. And whether you are planning on going trick or treating, throwing a party or just doing a spot of Halloween baking, Aldi have something for your every need in their Halloween special buys range.

I was kindly sent a few items from their range to help the kids and I have a bit of Halloween fun over half term.

10 Spooktacular Halloween Activities

Tis the season for trick or treating. Yes Halloween is upon us. I've asked a few other lovely bloggers for some wonderful Halloween activities to share with you all, ideas of things that you can be doing with your kids whilst they're off on half term. So below are 10 spooktacular craft and baking activities for you to try.

1. First up are some amazing Halloween candles over on In The Playroom. An activity that might sound complicated but is infact easy to do with spooktacular results.

Spooky Fun Baking Hallween Cakes

Last week I was very kindly sent some goodies from Hobbycraft, the package included some lovely Halloween themed cupcake cases, this in turn gave us the idea to make some spooky cakes.

I already had all the ingredients we needed in the cupboard so all I needed was some little helpers.

Ingredients 

for the cakes * 4oz of self raising flour
                     * 4oz of sugar
                     * 4oz of butter
                     * 2 eggs
                     * chocolate chips (can change to whatever ingredient you like)

for the icing * icing sugar
                    * water
                    * red food colouring

for the pumpkins * orange buttons
                            * black icing

Preparing

* Preheat the oven to 180 degrees

* Cream the sugar and the butter together

* Sift in the flour and fold into the mixture

* Crack the eggs and mix in (careful not to get any shells in there!!)

* Lastly add in the chocolate chips

* Place a teaspoon of the mixture into each of the cupcake casings

* Pop in the oven for 12-18 minutes, until golden brown

* Lick the bowl whilst waiting :)

While the cakes are baking away in the oven, it was time to create our pumpkins. This proved to be a messy task as arms and hands kept touching the icing, some of the pumpkins ended up looking a tad smudged!!

Once the cakes were cooked to perfection, we placed them on a wired rack to cool down. Nannie was then upgraded to chief icing maker. 

After the cakes had been covered in scary red icing, the girls then placed the pumpkins and some stars on top of each cake and here we have some spooktastic cakes , almost too frightening to eat!!!

Have you done any baking recently? What are your favourite cakes to make?

xxxx

Draw With Me - Halloween

For those of you that don't know, the lovely Sonia over at This Mummy Loves has been running a monthly linky called Draw With Me.

Each month Sonia and her daughter Maisie set a theme and your child has to draw a picture based on this theme. As an added incentive, at the end of the month a random winner is chosen to receive a fab 'creative' prize.

My girls are all little artists and love any excuse to draw some pictures. This months theme is very fitting, Halloween. My three eldest girls all wanted to join in so I am posting a picture for each of them.

FIrst up we have my 7 year old Elise's entry,

She has described this picture as a Halloween fashion show

Next we have mmy 5 year old Freya's entry

This is one scary vampire ready for a fight

Lastly we have my 3 year Gracie's entry,

She said she was drawing flying witches, Elise did help her draw a witches hat on one of them.

The girls have had so much fun coming up with different ideas, we had to narrow it down to these three, when infact they had drawn quite a few each. Can't wait to see next months theme!!

xxxx

Hobbycraft Halloween Goodies Review

I associate the month of October with Halloween, this includes dressing up in scary costumes, trick or treating and of course spooky arts and crafts.

Hobbycraft are the largest arts and crafts retailer in the UK. With 78 stores nationwide, they provide all the things you need to get craft including : art materials, craft kits, cookware and baking supplies, papercraft, knit, stitch and haberdashery.

Hobbycraft are also celebrating Halloween, stocking decorations, party supplies and craft kits. I was kindly sent a selection of their Halloween range to try out and review.

I was sent : Pom Pom Kit Pumpkins £2.50, Pumpkin Witch Foam Activity Kit £1.50, Amscan Halloween Decoration Tape Banners £3.00, Amscan Resealable Bags 12pc £1.50, 75 Cupcake Cases £2.00 and there was even a couple of bugs and bats thrown in too.

The girls were eager to  get to work with their craft kits. I left them at the dining room table to get creative. 

After lots of cutting, gluing, glittering and stickiness, they were finally ready to reveal their creations. 

Next week we will be making the most of our Halloween cake cases making some pumpkin themed cakes, keep an eye out for that post!!!

We are saving the decorations and the bags for the actual day of Halloween, I'm planning on doing a spooky treasure hunt around the house. 

As for the bugs and bats. Well the girls have been trying to scare me the past couple of days, putting them down in places when I'm not looking!!

All of these items are available on Hobbycraft right now and they even have a spooktacular 3 for 2 offer on all Halloween goodies while stocks last and at already bargain prices, it is well worth the money!!!

Do you have anything planned for Halloween this year?

xxxx

Disclaimer : These items were sent to me free of charge for reviewing purposes however all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Pom Bears - Halloween Review

Can you believe we are already in the month of October, this year seems to be flying by. And you know what comes at the end of of this month, that's right Halloween, time for some spooky fun.

The lovely guys at Pom Bear have bought back their limited edition Pickled Onion flavour crisps in some ghoulish packaging. We are massive fans of Pom Bear crisps in this household, including me, so when I was asked to review their Halloween edition crisps, I was more than happy to oblige.

Pom Bear are lovely crisps that are are cooked in sunflower oils and are low in saturated fats. They contain no artificial colours, flavours or preservtives and are made in a nut-free factory. These crisps are even approved by the Vegetarian Society so are suitable for many many people.

I was impressed when the crisps arrived complete with scary cob webbed packaging, getting right into the spirit of halloween. 

My eldest two girls each took a packet of the Pickled Onion Pom Bears to school in their packed lunch whilst my youngest two girls had a taste of them with their lunch at home.

I think the fact that all the packets were left empty speaks volumes, the girls really enjoyed eating them. 

Of course mummy had to have a packet too, you know all for testing purposes *cough cough*. I was really impressed, same great crisps that I know and love just with a different flavour. 

A lot of crisps have very strong flavouring but the Pickled Onion Pom Bears had more of a subtle flavour, I think this is much better for children, although for me personally the stronger the better.

I wouldn't hesistate in recommending these to others but you best be quick as they won't be around for long!!!

xxxx

Disclaimer : These crisps were sent to me free of charge for reviewing purposes however all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Holidays Traditions

I hate to remind you all but since school is now back in session, this means that the Summer is over, which in turn means that Christmas is in sight. I mean you must have seen the Christmas aisles in all of the supermarkets, no time like the present to get prepared I say :)

This got me thinking about holiday traditions, not just for Christmas but for Halloween and Bonfire night too.

I think in recent years, Halloween has become more popular over here, we have taken on the ideas of the Americans and trick or treating is becoming a traditional thing to do over here too. I try to take the kids out early afternoon as I don't think they are old enough to be walking around in the darker evenings. If the weather is bad then I always organise a type of treasure hunt indoors for them and they then go around the house with their pumpkin buckets collecting the sweeties that they find.

Anyone who knows me will also know that I am a sucker for costumes. Not only do I love dressing the kids up, I have also been known to put on a Witch costume myself.

Just take a look at this post from 2 years ago and the picture on the left is from 3 years ago, scary how time goes by so quickly.

I couldn't find the pictures from last year so I can't remember what the kids were wearing.

My 3 year old has already informed me that she will be dressing up as a cat and I am tad excited about dressing Layla up in a teeny tiny costume.

I wonder if this year's costume picks will be anything like the Halloween costumes predictions in this infographic from fancy dress ball? I'm thinking maybe we could choose a theme for the whole family this year.

Bonfire night isn't a time that I particularly like, I am not a big fan of fireworks, as a little girl I was extremely scared of all the banging and even now I refuse to hold a sparkler. My kids on the other hand love it. We don't have any traditions really, I think we try and go to a different fireworks display each year. Last year because it was raining, so we decided to drive the car to the top of the cliffs and watch everyone else fireworks, meant we got to stay warm and dry and an added bonus for me, it wasn't so loud!!!

Christmas is my favourite time of the year. I am one of those people that wishes it could be Christmas every day. I have even started a board in pinterest  to show just what I love so much about it. Christmas for me starts in November, this is when I break out all of the Christmas films and it is also a tradition to buy a new Christmas film each year to add to my collection. My favourites are Elf, The Snowman and Santa Claus the Movie.

Of course there is the traditions of leaving a carrot for rudolph and whiskey and a mince pie for Santa, as well as stockings at the end of the bed and the massive Christmas dinner which has to include brussell sprouts!!!

Every Christmas Eve I read The Night Before Christmas to my children as this is also what my dad used to do for me and I think it is nice to carry that tradition on.

Oh and not forgetting the costumes!!!

Each year I buy the girls new costumes to wear on Christmas day and sometimes I may go a little over board and they get costumes for Christmas Eve and Boxing day too.

I wear the same Mrs Santa outfit every year.

And last but not least we leave a key outside to make it easy for Santa to get in because we don't have a chimney for him to climb down, got to make sure he can deliver all of those presents ;)

So what are your traditions for the holidays?? Are their family traditions that you have carried on?

xxxx

*This is a PR collabaration*