A Matter of Choice

How much magic happens in your house?   Does the Tooth Fairy visit?  Is the Easter Bunny an annual visitor?   Does Santa leave magical snowy footprints, eat mince pies and drink whisky?  (He ALWAYS has mince pies and whisky - no cookies and milk here!)    Will you have carrots left out  for hungry sleigh pullers or sparkly reindeer food scattered outside on Christmas Eve? Do you have a magical Elf that sits on your shelf, and gets up to all kinds of mischief throughout December?  I'm sure it varies but the Easter Bunny passes us by - luckily I'm always on hand to supply chocolate eggs.   The Tooth Fairy is pretty reliable here - only missing one tooth collection due to being ever so busy that night, and of course Santa wouldn't miss his whisky and mince pies in exchange for a couple of stockings here.  No Elf for us though, it was questioned once as to why someone else had an Elf  and I dodged the issue by being reall...

As I published photos from our 2018 Halloween celebrations I happened to notice a blog post saved in my draft folder,  it turns out it was a  Haloween post from 2016 so I thought it was about time I actually published it! Halloween wasn't widely celebrated in the UK when I was a child,   I don't remember anyone 'trick or treating' or the shops being full of costumes.   It was starting to become a thing in my late teenage years,  I suppose once our generation was getting old enough to be able to choose to celebrate without having permission! I went to Halloween themed pub nights but my first proper party was a children's party here in Cyprus, thrown by my Halloween mad friend Sam.  It was really for our benefit I suppose, as our kids were only 1 and had no idea what was going on,  we made it spooky rather than scary with cartoon ghosts and Disney themed decorations.  We've been to Halloween events,   Cyherbia Halloween events are...

This week's Sunday post is a Halloween special!  I must apologise, Sam, if you are reading this, for cropping you out of the photo but it just lent itself to this! We had our now traditional Halloween get together for the kids - well I say for the kids but the get-togethers go on a bit later these days and include a little more alcohol as we are joined by the men and the kids get less demanding. The 'pack'   (as Leo now calls the 5 children we have between us all)  are less interested in the games we used to play,  happy now to disappear off to their bedroom and do whatever it is they do for hours on end, but they still enjoy a few once we 'drag' them out to be sociable. Hanging doughnuts had been requested once again so that went down well No themed gathering would be complete without a Tiny Acorns craft! And of course, you can't have Halloween without a bit of trick or treating. As trick or treating' isn't done generally ...

For the last few years, we have been working with the photo booth  over Halloween weekend at Cyherbia,  providing spooky photos for the hundreds of visitors they get each year. This year due to wedding bookings we were unable to work it but I did get the chance to experience it as a visitor once again when I took the boys up for a few hours on Saturday. I've lost count now how many times we've been to Cyherbia,  it's been a long time since our first visit in 201 3 - where I pushed baby Louka round the maze in his pushchair,  followed by visits with him on reins (also pushing the buggy for when he got tired - which of course he didn't, but undoubtedly would have done had I not taken it!) I loved every visit but it was hard work compared to now - it was always fun, but I would be exhausted once I got home - either from the effort of trying to keep up with them in the maze, trying to get the boys to go in the same direction, or chasing them around the gardens...

After celebrating Halloween a day early with our party and trick or treating at home on Friday, we spent the weekend at what is probably the best family Halloween event in Cyprus. Cyherbia has been running Halloween events now for several years, each with a different theme and attracts families from all over the island for the spooky fun and games.  This year, they had Dr Frankinsect in her laboratory who needed the children to help her find the magic formula hidden in the maze to shrink all the creepy crawlies back to normal size.  Dr Frankinsect AKA Tiny Acorns Creativity For the older kids there was a CSI type game in the 'Freaky Forrest' where they could enjoy solving some unfortunate murders.   There was also apple bobbing, broomstick racing, I-Spy in the Haunted Herb Garden, a lucky dip and face-painting and the Klik Photo Cy 'Kids Kiosk' Photo booth was also there with a spooky makeover offering keepsake photos of the day.  ...

Halloween is now an official event in our family calendar, despite having never actually been to a Halloween party until 2010 its now something to be celebrated along with Christmas and Easter.  I love it, a chance to decorate and dress up and eat far too many sweets - what's not to enjoy! Since the afternoon that accidentally turned into a party a couple of years ago, I have enjoyed planning a treat for the boys so once again this year we invited a couple of friends over for a mini Halloween party. Held a day early on the 30th as we were going to be working over the whole weekend it meant that the fun began for the boys as soon as they finished school. Leo was very excited about it, and I was probably more excited than I should have been! As always, for me the part I actually enjoy the most is the lead up to the event, so I loved Friday morning, tidying up, decorating with Aaron and preparing some spooky food and treats. Knowing the boys would be impatient for ...

After the success of last years Halloween event at Cyherbia Maze and Herb Gardens I was really excited about this year's offering.... yes I know it's for the kids really but I'm just a big kid at heart! Keeping it fresh, and offering something different for this year the theme was 'Halloween in Wonderland'. Inviting everyone to 'jump down the rabbit hole' and explore the 'Magic Maze' the 'Haunted Herb Garden' and discover many more suprises along the way. The Queen ordered her Royal Guards, the Aces to keep watch in the maze.  Our task was to find them, answer their question and collect a card from each of them. Leo and his friend love the maze and Louka ran around happily behind them, not having the pushchair for the first time was a huge bonus for us as pushing it around on the gravel is hard work, especially when you keep going the wrong way! As well as the Aces, the maze was hiding some spooky suprises too... Scattered ...

Trick or treating is not something that I imagine would go down well here in Cyprus but I arranged with a few of our neighbours that we would knock during our Halloween party.   I looked for some party bags or something that I could give the children to collect their treats in but couldn't find any, so went straight to Pinterest for inspiration.  The Craft Train came up trumps with these printable pumpkin baskets. Very easy to make, even for me! I printed the template onto orange paper and then stuck it to old cereal packets to make it a bit more robust.  Then it was just a case of cutting, folding and sticking as shown and adding a handle! I also decided to get a bit creative when it came to the food thanks to pinterest  and the ideas I'd been collecting... Witches hats , which was fun to do with Leo even though it made one hell of a mess! Nice and easy - all you need is melted chocolate, ice cream cones and digestive b...