pumpkin

The Pumpkin Parlour

October 31, 2019 by Anne Sweet 4 Comments

For the last few years we’ve been going pumpkin carving at a local farm’s Pumpkin Parlour. My kids are generally the eldest there, well, the girls are. But we still enjoy it because it gives us a focus to do our pumpkins and we don’t have to deal with all the mess. Also, we have all the tools we need provided for us.

It’s very cold though!

The Pumpkin Parlour is set in a marquee on the farm car park. Once inside it’s very spooky with some fabulous decorations wherever you look and the staff helping are dressed up as witches and ghouls. We had four witches and a Dracula helping out on our Day. I’ve not been asked to write about this but the Pumpkin Parlour is held at Beckett’s Farm just off the M42 in Birmingham and costs just £2 per child. You do have to bring your own pumpkins but you can buy them from the farm shop for £3 or two for £5. It really is worth it, but you’ll have to book in advance as it’s very popular.

Pumpkin Parlour.

The Pumpkin Parlour is held in a marque and it’s decorated perfectly for Halloween. This is just one small side of the marquee and a fraction of the decoration, but it gives you some idea. It is a marquee though, so it’s very cold inside, make sure you and your kids are wrapped up warm.

They have long tables for you to sit at with your pumpkins and all the tools are arranged on the tables. The Scary helpers are there to assist at any time, and there is music playing with scary songs to add to the atmosphere.

Pumpkin Carving

The carving is set into easy to follow steps. First you take out the innards of the pumpkin with the scoops provided. They are just like ice cream scoops and do the job perfectly.

scooping the innards of the pumpkin — *Scooping the innards*

There are black cauldrons provided for the messy insides. I think the kids really enjoy digging it all out.

Next step is to choose your design. They provide templates or you can take your own. Star always like to do a Pokemon and she did Mimachu this year, which will look best with a candle in the dark. Boo and The Little Man both picked templates from the parlour.

Boo contemplating what to carve on her pumpkin — *Thinking is hard work!*

The next step is to stick your template onto the pumpkin and they provide masking tape to do this. It can be tricky sticking masking tape to pumpkins but you can perservere. Then you have to go around the black lines of your design with a pin pushed into a cork. The kids love this part and you can see their concentration as they pin away.

pinning the designe on the pumpkin — *lot’s of concentration from the Little Man as he pins his design on the pumpkin*

Once pinned there is a bowl of chalk dust (or skeleton bone dust) on the table for them to rub over their pin marks. Then the adults generally take over to cut out the designs with the very sharp knives provided. We did let the girls make a start, but it’s not an easy task doing the carving. To keep the kid’s occupied while the adults take over they get to colour some little pictures. I was happy with this as I need some pictures for our Halloween Scavenger hunt today. They are already cut out for me with holes for hanging too.

Carved Pumpkins

The Little Mans minecraft themed pumpkin was first finished so I thought I’d play around with the innards and make it look like it was being sick. Well, he did look a little green!

I think Boo made a really scary pumpkin too, but I didn’t get a good photo of Star’s pumpkin so I’ll try again later when they are all lit up for Halloween.

A scary pumpkin carving. — *Boo’s Scary Carving*

How do you carve your pumpkins? I love that the kids get hands on at the Pumpkin Parlour (rather than leaving all the work to me) and that I don’t have to worry about any of the mess. They also love the atmosphere and event.

This is my final post for Blogtober19 and big thanks Annette from 3 Little Buttons for hosting the linky. to I’ve really enjoyed taking part this year and I’ve found some really lovely new bloggers to read. I hope that I’ve found some new readers too! If you are a blogger then I do a linky on Friday’s Called Word of the Week for weekly summary style posts. I also do a book blog link up every month on my other blog At Home A Lot.

So, maybe I’ll see some of you tomorrow on my linkies.

BLOGTOBER 2019 POSTS

Blotgober Day 1 – All You Need is Love
Blogtober Day 2 – Coppafeel – Breast Cancer Awareness.
Blogtober Day 3 – Out of Spoons (a poem)
Blogtober Day 4 – Smile
Blogtober Day 5 – Autumn Fashion
Blogtober Day 6 -Baking
Blogtober Day 7 – missed
Blogtober Day 8 – The School Run
Blogtober Day 9 – Avon Give Away
Blogtober Day 10 – What I’m watching (or have watched) Lately
Blogtober Day 11 – Blogtober
Blogtober Day 12 – 6 Reflections on Autumn
Blogtober Day 13 – Impractical Jokers
Blogotber Day 14 – Weekly Meal Planning
Blogtober Day 15 – Everybody Hurts Sometimes
Blogtober Day 16 –The Horrible Craft Book
Blogtober Day 17 – missed
Blogtober Day 18 – Word of the Week – Worry
Blogtober Day 19 – Christmas Crochet Along
Blogtober Day 20 – My Sunday Photo – About Me
Blogtober Day 21 – Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus – review
Blogtober Day 22 – missed
Blogtober Day 23 – Explaining the Different Types of Eating Disorders
Blogtober Day 24 – Stiff Person Awareness Day 2019
Blogtober Day 25 – Word of the Week – Sleep
Blogtober Day 26 – missed
Blogtober Day 27 – My Sunday Photo – C is for CAL
Blogtober Day 28 – This is Halloween
Blogtober Day 29 – missed
Blogotber Day 30 – Fear and Horror Stories
Blogtober Day 31 – The Pumpkin Parlour

My Sunday Photo 4th November 2018

November 4, 2018 by Anne Sweet 15 Comments

A Celebration of Autumn

Autumn trees at the bottom of my garden losing their leaves. — Trees

This weeks selection of photos are a celebration of Autumn. The trees at the bottom of my garden are fading fast, the once green leaves have been through stages of orange and red and are no a pale brown and yellow. Apart from the ones that just refuse to change, even leaves can be stubborn sometimes. I took this photo because I could see a reflection of the moon. But it’s hard to see now. Isn’t it strange how a blue sky like this a couple of months ago, set behind a row of bright green trees would paint a much warmer picture.

A pumkpin carved with the Pokemon Salandit, a kind of salamander crossed with a dragon. — Salandit pumpkin

This year we went back to Pokemon stencils for our pumpkins. I’ve already shown lots of pics of them but I thought Salandit deserved a second showing, maybe because it’s the photo that came out the best. The others looked just as impressive on our front doorstep on Halloween.

A dark image with the sparkle of a firework — A Firework Fountain

Finally, Autumn would not be complete without bonfire night and fireworks. We went to a friend’s house for a garden display last night and although we had a lovely evening I think the decision is made that we won’t be doing this again. I have never really been a fan of garden fireworks although I like big displays. Last night the cold was too much for me and the noises set of my startle reflex. The Little Man and Boo lasted for a couple of fireworks but really didn’t like the noise and ended up going inside. Star, surprised me by lasting a little longer but she was with a good friend so I guess that helped.

a bright sparkler against a dark background — sparkler

One thing all the kids really enjoyed though was the sparklers. I think we would have been better off buying a hundred packs of these and letting the kids run around with them. It probably would have been cheaper too!

Word of the Week 1st November 2018

November 2, 2018 by Anne Sweet 7 Comments

Hello and welcome to the new home of Word of the Week, a nice and simple weekly linky, with everyone welcome to pop by and share. You reflect back on the past week and sum it up in one word. Then share your word with us in a blog post, with as little or as much explanation as you like.

This linky has been hosted for a long time over on Jocelyn’s blog The Reading Residence, but now she has handed over the reigns to me. I hope all the regular linkers will come and join me now.

There are not too many rules with this linky, just remember to read at least another couple of posts in the link up after adding your link. Do try to stick to the theme of summing your week up. I will read and comment on all posts and tweet them out for you. Please add the badge below to your post so that others may find us and join in.

If you are unfamiliar with the Word of the Week linky then please feel free to ask any questions. New linkers are always welcome, we love to hear what you have been up to in the past week.

My Word of the Week

This week has been Halloween week and we started off on Monday by going to a local farm for Pumpkin Carving. The kids love this event and Becketts Farm is a fabulous place to visit and just up the road from us.

A collage of two photos of children busy carving pumpkins — Pumpkin Carving at Beckett’s Farm

We didn’t actually complete the carving at the event but we made a good start and finished the pumpkins off at home.

What do you think? We have two Pokemon, Salandit and Mimikyu done by Star and Boo. The Little Man went for something a little easier, a spooky cat. (He did manage to finish his at the event.)

Pumpkin

So my word of the week this week is Pumpkin of course. We didn’t do any recipe’s with the pumpkin’s innards because I’m the only member of the family that actually likes to eat it. We did make some spooky Halloween biscuits though.

a collage of three photos, the first a green monster biscuit and the other two a selection of decorated biscuits — Monster, ghosts and wizard hats for Halloween

Now it’s over to you, come and tell us how your week has been.

I’m trying a new badge this week, please let me know if you have any issues with it.

Raisie Bay

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My Sunday Photo 28th October 2018

October 28, 2018 by Anne Sweet 13 Comments

Halloween

my two girls dressed up as witches when they were much younger, the photo has been turned to black and white and distressed. — Hubble bubble toil and trouble

It’s Halloween week and we are on half term, yay! On Monday we are going to a local farm to pick our pumpkins and carve them in a special workshop. Here is our photo from last years efforts.

a line of my three children with their carved pumpkins with a purple witch. — Pumpkin carving at Becketts Farm

The kids are planning to take their own templates this year to carve. I think last year was the first time they carved alone, I’ve usually done most of the work. I don’t mind but it can be hard work and the mess is horrible. So I’m glad we’ve found somewhere to go and do it, we just bring the carved pumpkins home so no mess, and the kids will be provided with all the tools needed and assisted with their carving.

Here’s Some I Made Earlier

Three carved pumpkins lit up in the dark. — Three carved pumpkins

I’ve a big feeling that the templates will be pokemon ones as that’s what they have requested for me to carve in the past.

I don’t think we will be doing much this Halloween. The kitten has to go in for his pre-op in the evening so the kids will have no-one to go trick or treating with. We will probably have neighbourhood kids knock on the door so I’ll have some treats ready for them.

My kids have not really enjoyed dressing up for years now, the Little man is only eight, but he’s never enjoyed dressing up, even though he’s had some fabulous costumes like The Gruffalo and Scooby Doo. So, we’ll leave out the costumes for this year. Maybe we’ll celebrate with a kid friendly spooky movie like Casper and some Halloween baking treats.

Here are some Halloween baking treats we’ve made in the past.

Pumpkin and Orange Cake

Meringue Ghosts and Chocolate Sweet Cake

Night Terror Torte

Toe Nail Dusted Sweet Cakes

My Sunday Photo 29th October 2017

October 29, 2017 by Anne Sweet 11 Comments

We finally got our pumpkins!

We had a great time carving them, it was so good to have somewhere to do them and have someone else clean up all the mess. I wish I had bought some pumpkin seeds home to roast though…I may just have to go and buy another one now.

Until we moved into this house four years ago we didn’t really do anything at Halloween. However, our new neighbourhood enjoy all the fun of trick and treating. I’m really not sure if I actually approve or not. I don’t really see it as a time for celebration and the kids going around begging for sweets just doesn’t seem right. But then I like seeing them getting dressed up and having fun, and it brings a sense of community with all the kids knocking on the doors. We’ve never had any trouble, all the kids are well behaved and they always have parents with them.

I don’t decorate the house, or have a party, but we do like to put our lanterns outside.

Here’s one for this year, all ready to go.