October turned out to be a wonderful month.  The weather was unseasonably mild, full of bright sunshine and blue skies which made a beautiful contrast to the rich red, yellows and browns of the falling leaves.  We spent a lot of our time this month outside, participating in a ‘beat the street’ initiative and then at half term enjoying lots of nature walks, trails and even crate stacking.  Crate stacking is something I wasn’t familiar with before but turned out to be a lot of fun, if not a little scary at great height, balanced on a crate (you wear a harness for safety)

There’s a theme to my non fiction reading this month, joy!  A book which really had me reflecting was Ingrid Fetell Lee’s Joyful : The surprising power of ordinary things to create extraordinary happiness.  It is so interesting and if you have an interest in interior design its a must read, with so much about shape, colour, texture.  I made lots of notes on this book and its made me think how to develop our home.  I also read Susan Calman’s book Sunny Side Up : A story of kindness and joy, it is so uplifting and positive, just what’s needed on dark nights.

This month I finally got to use my Christmas present from 2017, tickets for Wicked.  It was amazing and so different to my expectations.  I loved the way it developed the story, I was expecting a good vs evil story, but the stunning plot has left me thinking about it for many hours since.   I appreciated the links to the Wizard of Oz which complemented the story too.  The music, costumes, lighting etc.. were stunning and it made for the perfect day out with Little Miss.  We really made an occasion of the day, new outfits, dinner out together, I loved it and am planning our next trip to the theatre.

So it was half term and the project homework was to make a Victorian invention.  Little Man chose the London underground.   In our model, we created London on top of a shoe box and when you opened the box, you discovered the underground.  I’m proud of our creativity!  Little Man made an underground train for the tunnel and there is a hole on the side so you can peer into the tunnel too.

Halloween is a bit of a tricky time for us as Little Man gets really scared.  Rather than trick or treat, I made a treasure hunt, inspired by Little Man’s request for an Easter egg hunt for Halloween.  It included the traditional swinging sticky pudding, apple bobbing and lots of treats hidden around the house to find.  It was a lot of fun and enjoyed by all of us.

I also made one of my favourite bakes ever, a pumpkin and ginger cake.  The flavours were perfect together and a brilliant way to use up pumpkin from the carvings.

I do like to theme an outfit for an event, I had hoped to wear emerald green shoes to Wicked but my poorly foot meant it was back to Converse pumps.  However, I did manage to coordinate for a trip to Slimbridge Wetlands, where I wore my swan jumper!

Well after our theatre trip, my big listen has been to the Wicked soundtrack, we know the words well enough to sing along now.  A you can see I love everything Wicked this month.

Just to leave a few photos here of some beautiful days we’ve enjoyed this half term.

Thanks to Morgana for the inspiration behind this linky.