Stay Safe this Halloween and Bonfire Night

I adore Halloween. Ask anyone and they'll tell you it's up there with Christmas for me, I'm not so keen on bonfire night but since I've had the children I do let them watch the fire works from our skylight as this is less noisy for me and A who have very sensitive ears and is still good fun. We stand outside with our sparklers too which is great fun.

As fun as these special events may be they can also be dangerous. There are naked flames, frilly clothing, pumpkins with candles lit inside both out and in the home. There are Battery or switch operated lights which can cause fire if faulty or if plugs are overloaded and of course there are fireworks, bonfires, sparklers and in the case of Halloween and trick or treating, there's stranger danger. I'm not here to scare the heck out of everyone, I love this time of year but I want everyone to enjoy it and after last year where several children were badly burned by their fancy dress clothing setting alight and the accidents involving sparklers and fire works a yearly problem, I wanted to share these tips and great infographics from Eacapade.

My Tips
Make sure any costumes meet the European Standards and Regulations. This should be on the label of the clothing and all companies must have this on them.

Try these fantastic lights from Escapade to place in your home and in your pumpkins to completely avoid the dangers of fire. These are great and still look fab giving off enough light that you won't be disappointed by them not being real candles. They are much better than my pound store lights which ran out quickly and these even change colour.

Watch my video!

These are my tips but please visit the safety guide which has been written in collaboration with
St Johns Ambulance, London Fire Brigade, South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue: Kevin Ronan, Head of Community Safety and Buckinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service: Oliver Franklin, Community Safety Officer. Please share and download the below info graphics so everyone can stay safe over this very fun and enjoyable few months.

Cupcake Mumma

This Weeks Reasons to be Cheerful

Today I'm feeling a little blue so writing one of these posts is the perfect antidote I believe. I've had an earache on and off all day, it's something that always happens now it's cold but I still can't get used to them! It's also piddling it down which hasn't bothered me until now! Anyway, let's get on with some cheerier things shall we?

1) Fireworks night and Halloween are now all over for another year. This year both celebrations were so good and I have some lovely memories to keep. On Halloween I did my usual tea party for my two and their cousins. My niece stayed over night so we took her Trick or Treating which was good fun. Everyone was so polite and friendly. We had a lot more this year than last, perhaps thanks to Jack?

Firework night isn't something I go all out on. I guess I just don't believe in it and what it stands for. Having said that, I feel it's such a possibility for cosiness and memory making so I'm no scrooge! We had homemade fish and chips with butter drizzled corn on the cob for dinner, watched the neighbourhood fireworks, took some lovely photos, did our own sparklers and made our own version of s'mores (which I am now going to label free from Wagon Wheels! So watch out for that!)

2) I'm seeing my best buddy and 2 of her gorgeous clan next Saturday and I'm super excited..Bet you can't guess who it is? I've dug out Little A's Moses basket which has brought back memories! It's only one night but I'm still so excited.

3) Now half term is over I am pleased to be back into a routine. I get some quality time with Little A, Midge loves being back at school, the hours don't drag so much and I get some me time too- which is ever so important! I get a long hot shower, or to read in peace and do some snail mail. I also love that Little A and I are back to watching our morning trains after dropping Midge off. We love waving to the drivers, watching the birds waddle about looking for dropped bacon sandwiches but mostly I just adore watching how much A likes to see his train and watch it disappear around the bend when everyone is aboard. Isn't it great when your children just really love something!?

Lastly, we have heard back from the SEN department and they're going to observe A in nursery before having a little meeting with us which is such good news. Whilst I don't believe he has any specific behaviour problems or anything, he does need more help with his speech and communicating with him still isn't easy, even though I can see how different he is even from a few months ago. I just want to hear him talk to me like all the other children in nursery talk to their parents about what they want or what happened in their day. I'm happy to wait for it though.

Cupcake Mumma

Our 5th of November Fun

As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm not all that keen on Bonfire Night. However, I seem to have had a change of heart all of a sudden. Seeing Midge and Little Man get all excited when they heard the bangs outside and Midge desperately peering out the window to see the fireworks, seems to have made me feel a little different about the event.

We started off by wanting to make toffee apples...but I didn't have enough of the essential ingredients. So, we looked for some chocolate in order to make chocolate covered apples! I didn't have any chocolate in the cupboard either...I did have marshmallows though! We melted our marshmallows (which I wasn't sure you could do and am slightly annoyed that you can do this after buying the American marshmallow Fluff for £2.99 over the last few months) I have to say, marshmallow apples beat toffee and chocolate apples hands down for me! 

After we had dinner and had tucked into some marshmallow apples we went into the front room, turned the lights and TV off and whipped out our glow sticks! Little Man had such a great time playing with the glow sticks and went absolutely nuts dancing around with them. Midge had a great time swishing them around and letting me take photos of her in action!

I really love how these photos turned out. I Can't wait to show Midge tomorrow.

Finally, as there were no firework displays we could get to this year we went into our back garden and lit some sparklers. This is the second time Midge has had a go on the sparklers and she was much more confident this year. Standing there waving her hand about but watching her brother's every move was lovely to see. She did stay very close to her pot of water as well which was oh so sensible! 

When the children were in bed I managed to sneak outside for 5 minutes to watch some fireworks in the distance. It was quite nice having a bit of fresh air and some 'me time.' I must admit that the fireworks were totally rubbish but I was very far away so they weren't going to be amazing and were very low. Our sparklers more than made up for that though.

Bonfire Night may not be my favourite celebration of the year, but I like it a lot more than I used to! What did you get up to tonight? I'd love to see your posts.

CupcakeMumma

A Whiz of a Week and Bonfire Plans

I'm finding it hard to believe its been half term this week. We haven't done anything very half term like (going out to places and doing 'stuff' for example) but it seems to have just whizzed past at record speed!

We had our amazing party on Halloween which was enjoyed by all and ended October in a really lovely way. The children hadn't been together properly for a long time since they ended up going to separate schools so seeing them all playing and bonding was just lovely.
I always enjoy hosting a little get together, making sure everything is perfect for my guests big and small! I think the day was a hit and the children seemed to enjoy it which is the main thing!

We'll be going out on a walk tomorrow to collect feathers, leaves and other things as part of Midge's homework. We've been doing a bit of reading but I've noticed not actively getting her book out and reading with her everyday has set her back a bit. I feel terribly bad for this but know she'll be back up to speed in no time at all. Lesson learnt!

As Bonfire Night is on Monday and the Husband works evenings there will be no firework displays for my 2 this year. The reason for this is the firework display is a bus ride away now it's darker and I'm not going there on my own, in the dark with 2 toddlers, one of which I have no idea how will react to the noise!
We've decided instead to a nice, low key celebration tomorrow. We'll have a tasty roast dinner, get some little sparklers and I've still got some glow sticks from the Halloween party so we'll turn the lights off and go crazy with the glow sticks! I think some crafts should come out too.

What are your plans for Bonfire Night? As you can see it's not really a big deal for me. Some people hate Halloween but I'm the opposite. I love Halloween and quite dislike Bonfire Night! Idiots being allowed to purchase fireworks and terrible stories of people drinking too much and posting them through letter boxes has left me a bit 'couldn't care less' where this celebration is concerned. Still, there's a history lesson to be had here and if I try to celebrate in some way every year, my children will asks questions and learn about old Guy Fawkes and his plot.

I shall leave you now because I have a date with a rather yummy looking rice pudding!

CupcakeMumma