England - week 15 [halloween]

you may have spotted that SpD hasnt gone home after 3 months! when she arrived her mum asked whether it would be a problem if she had nearer 4 months, and clearly it isnt. so we said fine :) and what a happy choice that is as we are loving having her live with us as she is a really lovely person with a great laugh. This, though, is her penultimate week with us. Time seems to have gone so quickly!
So this week SB was at cadets camp until Saturday, and didn't want SpD to get all lonely, so invited her friend E to come and stay on Monday and Tuesday and to visit a Halloween themed eveing thing on the Monday evening with deependers H and TB older kids - so quite a group. Apparently it was initially v scarey, but the ideas started repeating, so got less so. it is the first year they have run it, so it might get scarier in the future!

it was good to chat with NE when she came to pick E up as well :) the 2 girls had lots of giggling and watching real rubbish on the tv!
weds my mum and dad brought up my niece and nephew to stay for the rest of their half term :) I love having a houseful! as M is in his gcse year, we devoted mornings to homework and afternoons to craft, baking and just messing about :) . we had a lot of fun!

we also played board games, particularly with Mum and Dad

on the saturday, dad had a real desire for a steam train ride, so i looked around, found one that was only about an hour a way, and loaded everyone into the car - thank goodness for the galaxy as we all fitted! obvs dad worried about my driving, what was my speed blah blah, and telling me which lanes i would need to be in - do love him, i have lived here for 10 years! [we are v alike] and we got there way early! I was a little disheartened when i got there to see that things seem to have got grubby and unloved looking, and mum and i were worried that dad was disappointed. we were even more worried when they said that the steam train was limping in, and we might need to have a diesel! luckilly they were wrong. and once we got onto the train, the day got brighter, and all was well :) the kids loved being in a 'harry potter carriage' i had sweets and bought drinks :) lovely. lunch at the cafe also lovely with the sun shining. phew!

this is a really long blog post. i am tempted to divide it up. unfortunately OCD dictates that since I have done all the previous weeks 'as one' I need to do this one like that as well. we are nearly there! just halloween to go :)
So when we got back from the train trip, SB was there back from cadet camp and utterly exhausted! we got ready to go out trick or treating in the village [well, treating!] and so the girls all got costumed. M has decided he is too old really, and I think if SpD hadnt been here, SB wouldnt have gone either. However, we went round, and were really impressed with some of the village displays. the kids got buckets of sweets and the weather was good :) . on our return, DH had dinner ready and made a spooky dining room :)

the big 3 then stayed up and watched scary films in the playroom [we could hear constant shreiking!] whilst we watched something less scary with the younger 2!
i did an all american diner brekkie the following morning - help yourself to pancakes with various toppings, sauted potatoes [from the leftover jackets] baked beans, veggie sausage and a spinach fritata. very yummy indeed! a bit of games playing, and then mum and dad took the kids home. A lovely half term :)