Thursday 3 November 2011

Behind Again

It seems to me that for the past couple of months I keep getting behind on writing blog posts and then doing a big catch up. This is another of those. Oh well, better late than never I suppose. My scavenger hunt for October will also be late (surprise, surprise) and I haven't managed to get them all either.

So last week was half term. Monday was spent with my sister for her birhtday, Tuesday G and the children went to Salisbury and Wednesday morning we spent indoors playing Just Dance on the Wii. I do enjoy that. In the afternoon we went to the local duck pond and fed the ducks, walked through mud and puddles and the children ran around for a while too which always pleases me to see.



I became slightly obsessed with taking photos of all the different berries but won't bore you with all of them, just these blackberries


and these 'traffic light' ones.




Thursday was miserable weather wise and was spent indoors. T was off colour all week as he hadn't gone to school on the last day of term and we all got a bit grouchy with each other, so let's move swiftly on to Friday when we did our annual Hallowe'en trail through a country park. Which we followed with a trip to the garden centre to have a look at their Christmas decorations and enjoy a hot chocolate in the newly opened restaurant. Very nice indeed, will definitely be going back there again.




On Saturday G and I had ANOTHER night away! Get us, 2 in one month! It won't happen again now for AGES. This one had been arranged a while ago. Friends of ours are nearing the end of the adoption assessment process and felt a bit of hands on experience would be good. So they offered, we accpeted and off we toddled to Reading. Neither of us had visited this town before and G was in charge of booking a hotel and found a good deal so that's why we ended up there.


We wandered around the town centre for a couple of hours and during this time came across a meeting of a few troupes of Morris Men which we stood and watched for a while. I love the sound of all the bells and the wood when they knock the sticks together. There is probably a more technical name for that!










G's back was starting to give him a bit of pain so he went back to the hotel and I carried on looking around. I could have stood in front of the John Lewis window for ages, it looked so festive.




The next morning we took a different route back to the station and found a lovely restored Victorain style park




which had this magnificent lion in the middle.




We also found the town hall and art gallery building which is stunning.









Really I should have done a bit of research into Reading before we headed off but as I explained in the last post I have been preoccupied with work, more than I realised, plus T had another MRI scan on Monday morning. I know his doctor says they are just routine but I can't help worrying all the same. Well it's part of the job description isn't it?!

Monday afternoon saw me sat on the floor tracing and cutting out bat shapes from black card and then sellotaping small chocolate bars and fizzy sweets inside and then folding the bat wings over and securing with another piece of sellotape. Talk about leaving it to the last minute. I saw this idea ages ago on Pinterest, but they got done. I made 35 of these. In total I had nearly 80 trick or treat callers. Thankfully I had other sweets but in the end I did run out and had to put on a sign on the door to say 'sorry sweets all gone.'




I took a quick snap of both T and S before they went out too. T went with friends and S went with G. The mask T wore was really scary, just little holes for his eyes. S was much more excited this year than last and was very keen to get out there.




Finally I must include our 30 minute craft project from last week. Another idea from Pinterest, mummy lights. Empty glass jars wrapped in toilet roll with black card shapes for the faces and tea lights popped inside.. S's is on the left, mine in the middle and T's on the right. We were very pleased with them.




14 comments:

  1. I never saw any Morris dancers during many years living and working in Reading. Many office workers spend their lunch breaks sitting in the Forbury gardens - in good weather of course.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love the Morris Dancers - one of my most favourite things :)

    How nice to get another night away. We're planning something for early next year - delayed from September (well you know why).

    ReplyDelete
  3. How lovely to get away & looked like a lot of fun too. I love your Halloween makes & the children look great all dressed up.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Looks like you all had lots of fun. I miss Halloween, not having any littlies any more.
    A trip away together is worth it's weight in gold!
    xxx

    ReplyDelete
  5. My daughter won't play Just Dance with me. It's the ONLY wii game that I'm any good at! (Hark at me, disco dancer extraordinaire). Love your pics as usual. Those bat sweeties are excellent. You are good going to all that effort. I bought 2 bags of Haribos and ran out after 3 lots of visitors. Ooh er.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I know what you mean about being behind!

    Looks like you had a lovely weekend.

    ~c~

    ReplyDelete
  7. You have been busy, and off galavanting for the weekend again, lucky you. Looks like you had a good time, but hope G's back is a little better now. T and S looked great in their Halloween costumes. I didn't even carve a pumpkin this year, Daniel isn't remotely interested and Eleanor was out all evening, first at her singing lesson and then at drama. I'd got plenty of treats in for any callers through, yet we didn't have one. Looks like I'll have to eat them myself then, oh well. I love your bat idea for the treats, and those mummy lights are brilliant.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Your kids look so cool! Hope they got lots of sweets!

    K xx

    ReplyDelete
  9. Sounds like you have had a good week or so. H

    alloween is no fun for us with no children plua Dave can be a bit of a misery - he has no childhood spirit left! I've never been trick or treating and never had a trick or treater at the door so it escapes me every year!

    That JL window display looks great, I would have gone in for a browse too!

    ReplyDelete
  10. How very dare you go off and have a life and ;leave us all behind! You have been soo busy enjoying yourself - just how it should be. Tell T I know he will have been very brave in his scan. Lots of love to you all and I just love the photos of the babes xxxxx

    ReplyDelete
  11. Ahh Halloween is no fun when you live in a top floor flat!! I can't imagine having 80 trick or treaters call - chaos!!

    I love the berries - I'm obsessively taking photos of autumn at the moment, it's so beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Who knew Reading was such a lovely place? Do hope T is OK, Lisa - such a worry when they're not right, isn't it? xx

    ReplyDelete
  13. I am glad you have being doing some fun things and managed to get away for a short time. You were very industrious getting all those sweetie bags made up! x

    ReplyDelete
  14. You all manage to have the best adventures! My favorite was the traffic light berries! But I'd also love to watch some Morris dancers...

    ReplyDelete