Halloween is well behind us now and the decorations are back up in the attic. The kids and I had a month of fun leading up to Halloween doing arts and crafts and baking. Who said you can only do this a few days before Halloween?
Chloe and I baked pumpkin cookies and bat cupcakes. We made Halloween garlands and carved a total of five pumpkins. Chloe loves doing this kind of stuff whereas Matthew is not that much into it. I suppose he is a boy and rather does other things on his own. I have to admit I am not the craftiest person either. Carving pumpkins is probably the only thing I enjoy. We had a Halloween party in work last week. One of the games was carving a pumpkin. My team won this part so it is something I am good at.
I didn’t go too overboard with the Halloween decorations this year. The mantelpiece in the living room was decorated the same way as previous years. The only thing I added, was a lantern I purchased from Lidl. Outdoor decorations was the usual such as pumpkins lit up, witch and skeleton hanging on the wall and orange lights hanging in the window. Inside we kept Mister Pumpkin inflated. Chloe loves him that much that he gave him a kiss every time he was inflated. He would have been a bit too much outside the front.
The weekend before Halloween I had booked tickets to go to a pumpkin patch in County Wicklow with the kids cousins. We are trying to mix up the location every year and so we have not been to this one before. It’s actually a garden centre but very popular for its pumpkin festival every year. Some places can be so expensive for the admission and for us it can take a good hour to get to these fields. However this one was very reasonable. We only paid €3.50 for an adult/child and it’s free for children under the age of two.
We had booked a slot at 3pm. Before heading down to it, we arranged to meet the cousins in their house and have brunch. This was a lovely fry and some desserts. We made our way to the garden center which was only a fifteen minute drive from Bray. The car park was a bit horrendous. It was in the middle of a field and some people got their tyres stuck in the grass, including the cousins car. Thankfully it wasn’t raining the day before otherwise I would have imagined they would have had to put down a temporary path or something.
Once we got parked, we walked to the entrance where they ticked us off a list and the girls explained where everything was. On site you could find a haunted house, a coffee tent, a maze and the actual pumpkin patch.
First stop was the haunted house. A small little setup with a few witches, ghosts and skeletons. Chloe was not a fan, she was quite scared so I lifted her through it. It was funny to watch though because she always acts so tough as long as the stuff doesn’t come near her.
Next up we walked to the maze. Matthew and the smallest cousin had a ball running around it trying to find each other. It was actually really well done and quite big.
It was onto the main event… the pumpkin patch. There was a field where you could pick up your pumpkin you want to carve or take home. The price was going by size. We picked up two small pumpkins which were €3 each. A large pumpkin was €10. As it was our first time attending this year, we didn’t know that the carving sets wouldn’t provided. It is additional €2.50 or you can bring your own. I will be doing this next year. There was also the option to hand you pumpkin to give to one of the girls for an additional €5 and they will carve it for you.
The tent had plenty of seating facilities and so we found a seat for all of us without a bother. The carving took a bit of time but this was the part the kids enjoyed the most. Matthew wanted me to carve him a happy face and Chloe got a cat. The two pumpkins were a nice addition to our already three carved pumpkins we did the other day.
Hubby’s sister brought a little treat for all the kids which they enjoyed while carving the pumpkins. It was a lollipop with Halloween sweets on it.
The whole experience took us not more than ninety minutes as far as I can recall. It was the day the clocks went back as well and so the day was not fully over.
The day of Halloween we had a Halloween party in work. Unfortunately only a handful of people made the effort to dress up. That included me of course. I purchased a zombie cheerleader outfit online. It was that kind of costume that didn’t require too much effort painting your face. You could win a prize for best costume and for best carved pumpkin. We were all in a team. My team won best carved pumpkin.
Afterwards I rushed back from work to pick up the kids from creche and go trick or treating. As soon as we were home, the first kids started calling. Matthew’s godfather was staying with us for a few days and so he joined in on the trick or treating around the block, too. There are so many houses the estate, it felt like it wasn’t coming to an end. In the end it started to rain and the kids were getting bored and wanted to go home. We poured out both buckets and rated what we got. Of course they were not allowed to eat the whole lot. When they were in bed, some of it went to the grown ups in front of the TV. I am sure I am not the only one being that sneaky. That’s it for another year now.
