Halloween 2008

Halloween is almost over. I've tucked an exhausted Barney into bed after a day of desperately waiting for sweets, and then over indulging to the extreme. Annabelle has gone for a sleepover at her friends house, and Jimmie is out in the front garden with 4 of his friends who are awaiting their lifts home.

He has spent the last few days organising a Halloween party for his friends, and I must say that I'm quite impressed with his efforts. He demolished my kitchen making a pumpkin shaped pinyana (I can't work out how to spell that for the life of me, sorry) which he filled with sweets, decorated his bedroom with various spooky banners and wall hangings, then lit the room with various spooky glowing balloons and lamps. It looked very impressive.


So this evening 4 of his school friends arrived, dressed up for trick or treating. This is the first time we have met his school friends and they were delightfully polite and generally likable. They went trick or treating, then hung about in Jimmies bedroom, before heading out to the garden to burn off steam on the trampoline and to break the pinyana. They were all very hospitable to little Barney, despite him being 8 years their junior, and included him in all their games, which made him one happy boy.





















Dan took Barney, Annabelle and Annabelle's best friend trick or treating around the estate. Barney, who dressed as a power ranger, was beside him self with impatience all day long, waiting for Halloween to start. Dan distracted him for a while by carving a pumpkin together. They came back from their efforts with a full bag of sweets each, enough to keep him going for weeks.

Barney had also spent days preparing his bedroom for a Halloween party, which Dan and I were both invited to. He had decorated his room with spooky posters, drawings and stickers. I was amazed to discover that he had made us all party bags full of sweets, had a box full of sweety prizes, a rubbish bin at the ready for all our sweety wrappers, and various party games all set up. I discovered half the food I thought had been stolen from our kitchen was actually being given out as prizes at his party! I was the proud recipient of some plastic witchy fingers, which I wore through out the party. We played sleeping lions, musical statues, had a treasure hunt, listened to Barneys spooky stories and generally had a great time. It was great to be sitting in his bedroom at 9pm playing games and watching him lap up all the attention. I was very impressed with his organisational skills. He had thought out every detail.



This week the kids have been off school with half term and its been a good week for them. On Tuesday we took them swimming at the leisure centre with the pirate ship, flumes and crazy river in Lisburn. Dan took them to the cinema on Monday afternoon while I enjoyed the peace. On Wednesday evening Daddy had a sleep-0ver in Barneys room which made him feel oh so special. Daddy slept on a futon, and they ate sweets whilst watching the Bee Movie together. What a great Dad! I took Jimmie out for lunch yesterday and then treated him to some new jeans and jumpers (the poor boy had grown out of all his clothes). Then today I took Annabelle out for lunch and we mooched around the shops together. I wanted to spend some time with each of them, just to chat and make them feel special. Tomorrow I shall take Barney out for his lunch and chat.