Halloweeney 'Half Term'

I had big plans for quite a lot of activities in the week leading up to Halloween but Gaby was on half term, we had several visits from friends and therapists, a few half term activities to go to and we decided to just chill the rest of the time and give ourselves a half term!  We did however have a little Halloween tea party and a friend of James and Charlie's joined us. 

I sat both boys down with a pumpkin just with the idea that they would have a little investigation and wander off, but they were both very interested,

having a good look and feel of the pumpkin, then helping scoop all the seeds and pulp out.  I did the cutting out but both boys really enjoyed watching this and put the cut out bits into the bowl - lots of good sensory food related stuff going on here!!

As Charlie had loved playing with the water balloons recently, I did him some Halloween ones to play with for a few days.

I knitted a couple of Halloween themed toys for general play and to help talk about it all.  I might add to them next year.

We also had quite a lot of fun with this light up flashing pumpkin toy. Charlie is really entranced by these types of things and he did some brilliant communication whilst playing with it.  I made a point of only keeping it on for a minute or so at a time so he would have to ask for more which he did by signing more please in a very definite manner!

I did make some iced pumpkin shapes with orange squash too but they are still in the freezer! I'm going to be more organised next year.  I live very close to a supermarket and went in there and picked up a couple of bargains on 1st November! Including a rather gruesome bowl which I think they will love!

I tried to get the kids doing a few games at our party.  We did some apple bobbing.  Charlie was more than happy to stick his face in the water and lick the apples!  His sister added to the effect by emerging from this with a nosebleed! Oh dear!

I've done this coloured pasta in many situations, including previous Halloween parties.  You just need to add food colouring to the water as you cook it.  It works well in a pumpkin with toy creepy crawlies added, maybe a bit of hair gel for slime and little parcels of sweets wrapped up to find amongst it all with a forfeit attached.  I call it pass the pumpkin and get the children to pass it around to music as you would for 'pass the parcel'.  For the boys and their friend though, I simplified it down to 'Find the Finger!'  I had some chocolate fingers that they had to reach in for at random.  They all had a go - chocolate is a big motivator!

Besides that, we had fun with party poppers and silly string and listened to a spooky CD.  Oh and ate lots of cakes and stuff! That was enough for our guys and I think they enjoyed it!