Thursday 31 October 2013

Hallowe'en 2013

I have been looking forward to this Hallowe'en since Rowan was born.  I love Hallowe'en, with all the costumes, games, and fun baking.  Whilst I know Rowan is too little to understand all the hype, I still wanted to make his first Hallowe'en awesome.
I spent the night before carving a pumpkin, making pumpkin pies and baking a batch of monstrous mouldy muffins.  Gareth had the idea of using some hand and foot prints from Rowan as the basis of the carving pattern, and I hacked away at the pumpkin with a scalpel (no fingers lost this year. Result!). I have to say the overall effect was really good!

Too little to carve his own pumpkin, but
we still involved Rowan for his first
Hallowe'en 

I was pleased how the hands/feet looked
like a happy face

Rowan went to nursery sporting his 'my first halloween' shirt from his nanny.  When he got home, he stole a piece of pumpkin pie I turned my back on briefly.  

Mmmm... pie...

We haven't had a lot of trick or treaters over the years, but luckily Rowan was awake to see the first visitors. Can't say he was overly moved by the experience, but he stared at them for an uncomfortable amount of time.  
We are now stuck with a ridiculous amount of Haribo. Erg.
Rowan went to bed in his new Hallowe'en baby grow (it glows in the dark!  In. The. Dark! How cool is that? I may or may not have been a child of the 90's...) and I read a scary(ish) story, The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson because Stephen King's the Shining was a bit long.

Sleepy bones!

Finally, the monstrous mouldy muffins I mentioned previously were made for Gareth and I to take to our work places.  They were just a basic muffin mix with copious amounts of green food colour. I then added some more drops of food colouring on the tops when they were nearly baked. I added white chocolate chunks, and dollops of jam in the middle.  I'm quite proud of how terrible they look:

The mould effect came out better than I though it would

Tuesday 29 October 2013

Trips to the park

When we first took Rowan to the park, aged 8 months (to actually go on the swings instead of merely carrying around a floppy headed baby), he wasn't too thrilled.  Despite an obvious lack of enthusiasm, I was determined fun would be had so persisted with our family trip:

'I want to go home...

... Like, now.'

A good time was had by
all. Really.

Trip To The Park II was marginally more successful, with Rowan at least trying to look like he was enjoying himself.  I believe he cottoned on that if he made the right noises etc. the ordeal would be over quicker.  He cheered up considerably when we ventured away from the park equipment and let him go free-range on the grass.  

Aged 10 months

 A climbing wall that in years to come will give us
heart attacks watching Rowan climb it

'Let them eat grass'

Happiest in a field with his dog.  His mother's son
alright!