Halloween and all that

So where are we; halloween, family parties, children learning stuff and making mess, ah life as usual.

Last Friday, Gordon's Mum came over to mind the children for a few hours in the evening and Gordon and I went out for a meal. It was the first time we'd been out together for ages, and it was lovely. Then on Saturday night I was gallivanting again. This time Gordon stayed at home and I went to the home town with Dad and G for my cousin's engagement party. I always have such great crack when I get together with all my cousins and aunts and uncles. The bonus was, I was asked by yet another cousin to help pick the fancy dress winners in the party he had organised downstairs from our party; the power, the POWER!! (For the record, the grim reaper won, with 2nd and 3rd places going to the naughty policewoman (she must a' been foundered) and the gangster.)

I stayed the night in my Dad's place, and had a long lie in the next morning. It was bliss.

On Monday, we started the day with a walk to the beach. I should really have prepared for the wet trousers and socks that ensued, but I hadn't, so Thomas had a cold, wet walk home. Duncan had removed his trousers, socks and wellies and strode into the sea with his two skinny pale legs sticking out from his big winter coat. He insisted on being carried most of the way home which was knackering. I'm hoping to get a Major buggy for him soon. The occupational therapist has ordered one. Then when he's feeling overloaded or tired, he can just sit down and hide behind a Thomas book or something, instead of wanting to be carried.

For the rest of that day, we all worked really hard, with everyone concentrating mainly on reading skills. Lady took one of those reading tests and although she had a score which was just the same as her chronological age, it was clear that she simply guessed lots of the words, when I knew that she would be able to 'sound them out'. So we did a bit of the 'Toe by Toe' phonics reading book we used when she was younger then she read some of her 'Pippi' story aloud.

She really loves the Dorling Kinderly 'explorer' CD Roms we have. Both she and Duncan played the World Explorer one quite a bit recently. Duncan particularly likes the bit about the Pacific Ocean; he recites chunks of it now!

We took Duncan over to spend some more time with his Granda, and the rest of us went to the folk museum where there were special events for Halloween. Lady had dressed up as a witch; I had painted a (crude!) web and spider on her green face, and she wore some deep red lipstick. It looked good actually. Thomas wore his Harry Potter quidditch costume, not really scary but he liked it! They both had small toy brooms, and Thomas sat on his and rode the whole way rounds the museum. Lady began to feel self-conscious as she was the only child with her face painted and she started to get grumpy and negative about the whole thing. Everything was starting to wind down by the time we arrived too, even though there were 2 hours to go before closing time. It was cold and windy so got back in the car to go get Duncan. We decided that we'd buy a spooky DVD, go home, cook the burgers I'd bought earlier and have a home movie night.

The film we choose was 'Pirates of the Caribbean' and we all snuggled on the sofa to watch it. (The film was OK, funny in parts but far too long; the kids liked it though, especially the ghoulish bits which would have freaked the bejesuz out of me and my equally wimpy siblings when we were their age.)

So now I'm all caught up again!