The rest of half term

I love holidays because it's a time to do different things that we can't usually do and take part in camps.  Every evening Nicholas went to swimming camp which he always seems to enjoy.  It's also a time when you can relax  - even though it may not sound like we did much relaxing, we did - and we had a couple of pj mornings which was great!

Our birthday present to Phillipa was a ticket to the theatre.  She came with us to watch the Nutcracker on Ice.  As everyone should know by now, Danny absolutely loves the nutcracker, and the music often plays in our house so it is all very familiar to us.  This always makes a big difference to the level of enjoyment at the theatre.  The fact that the actors were ice skating made it even more enjoyable and spectacular.  The extra special treat is that Phillipa stayed for a sleep over.  No midnight feasts though because all three kids were asleep by the time we got home!

One day Pete took us to a family day on space at the Royal Institute. It was an amazing event with so many educational things - including lectures, quizzes and experiments - all relating to space. The feeling of greatness is everywhere all around you, amazing being in the building where Michael Faraday actually lectured, and where so many great minds met. We had an amazing time and will hopefully be able to go to many more events there!

After dinner at a Chinese Restaurant in Soho we went for a wander through the heart of London (Picadilly Circus and Leicester Square).  It was unbelievable how many people were roaming the lit up streets.  We saw hundreds of people going to M&M World so we thought we would go and see what all the fuss was about.  A multi story shop all about M&Ms ... I just don't get it ... had to join all the tourists and take a photo though!

Happy Halloween

To get into the mood for Halloween, and because you just can't buy your pumpkins at the shop, I organised an outing for Nicholas and some of his classmates (and their brothers) to Garson's Farm.  We had loads of fun searching for the perfect pumpkin in the field and trying to find the biggest one in the farm shop.  We also picked apples, gem squashes, cabbages and beetroot.  Nice to have farm fresh vegetables for a change!

Picking pumpkins

And apples

And beetroot

Checking out the Halloween display

Carving pumpkins is not something I grew up with even though I lived on a farm, but it has become a tradition in our household.  As the boys get older they enjoy it more and more and this year they came up with their own designs.  I think Dad secretly enjoys the challenge too.  And then there is the dressing up that creates even more excitement.  This year we went for a ghost and a zombie and met up with a skeleton and a werewolf for trick-or-treating.  The 4 boys had loads of fun roaming the streets together looking for pumpkins (which shows that the house welcomes visitors).  People are really generous and we got home with a massive stash that will last months in our house!

Carving pumpkins

The end result of our Jack-O-Lanterns

My scary boys and their pumpkins

Getting ready for Trick-or-Treat with Jake and Ethan

Bumping into a teacher from their school was fun!

Little ghost and big zombie

(old sheets and beetroot juice came in handy)

Counting their loot the next day

I always like looking back on occasions like this!

(2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012)

More Halloween Fun

One of our half term outings was a trip to Petworth House with Phillipa and some of her new friends for Professor Grimble's Magic School.  The boys loved it so much last year so we thought it would be fun to go again.  I find that, at annual events like this, the boys enjoy and learn different things with each passing year.  They both seemed to get a lot out of it this year.  Nicholas Morag and Danny Pepperpot graduated as wizards!

  

The best wizards in town with their favourite witch

Enjoying magic school

Playing in the autumn colours

The monument at the top of the hill