Spookaramas

Yesterday - Monday group Halloween party!
F had a lovely time and it was a really good one. Loads of people there and much excitement and noise! F wore her moon and stars pyjamas and a witches' hat (hat for 5 minutes I think!) and we took a pumpkin to carve - her design (a lightning strike on one side and WILBUR on the other) and she helped a couple of times but mainly sat with me offering encouragement! Well, I am hopeless at exactly that kind of craft, but I persevered as other people arrived with huge pumpkins, expertly poked, sawed, scooped and scraped and went off again with masterpieces, leaving me slowly picking away - reminded me very much of school! Anything practical and messy in the craft line - I am very slow at and easily frustrated and don't want to do it 'properly' enough. So what a triumph to actually finish it!
Meanwhile, there was baking and soup-cooking going on and all sorts of spooky food items had been brought, which was lovely - the group felt really good, everyone contributing something and everyone seemed to be enjoying it. M did great face-painting in one corner, others set up apple-bobbing and strung up biscuits to be eaten without using hands. Also available was the ever-popular 'run around in the dark shouting' in the sports hall!
After soup had been eaten, we did some spooky stories in the hall - I read out a couple by T and L which were lovely combinations of TV-inspired stuff and more traditional fears. I also read out a story I adapted from one I found on the Internet, and got my audience to do sound-effects, which is always fun, especially when it's something that has to get louder each time.
Then L read his spooky story out, which I thought was excellent - he writes and reads out really engagingly. The conditions weren't easy either, reading by the light of twenty or so carved pumpkins with candles in and 2 spookaramas - I had meant to bring a torch but...
My feelings about that group fluctuate a bit week to week but I think overall it's a great thing for us. F doesn't often do the crafts or 'activities', she is far more likely to be roaming around outside, which sometimes makes me think, well why is this better than the park? But really, it's the people themselves that make it important, the regular groupness of it, seeing and playing with the same people every time, even the people you don't play with are familiar. There are quite a few other families there that I would (and have/do) arrange playdates with, at the park, or at one of our houses, but I would be very unlikely to have 5 or 6 of those families all at once and that's what makes it. This view of it won't stop me occasionally nagging F to do a craft or activity though, once in a while! And occasionally she'll even do one.

Weekend
Saturday - I took F into town and we bought various items including a pumpkin and the new My Secret Unicorn book. Wished I had taken my trolley as rucksack was so heavy on the way back, despite the fact that F was doing a valiant job of carrying the pumpkin herself (it was a small one).
Later that evening we all settled down to watch Bridge to Teribithia - none of us knew it was going to be so sad! Sobbed my heart out for the last 20 minutes. Made me cross afterwards as it was so full of positive stuff about how creativity and imagination and self-expression can change you and your environment. But then it was as if the characters were punished for having had that, to me. And the 'new' Teribithia was all about rulers and castles and Disney FFS. *is still a bit cross*
So to give F (and me!) a happier end of the day, I read 3 chapters of My Secret Unicorn, despite it being gone 10pm.
The day had started with an enormous row which I'm not going to blog, between F and I, after I had tried and tried to be patient and reasonable (see what a mistake it was to congratulate myself, even ironically, on my post-Alfie Kohn parenting!). I will put it down to her being hungry as it was a late start to the day. She was fine later anyway.

Sunday - Grandma Ju came for a visit, which was fine. She is booking us all to go to the Angelina Ballerina show at end of November. We seem to have a lot of 'things' coming up - I really need to make sure I have them all in my calendar and know what I'm doing, as I feel a bit whooshed.
In the evening, F and I put her spookaramas together - one box had a string of Halloween lights taped into it and a pumpkin light and the other had a glow-in-the-dark jointed skeleton and 2 squishy bats threaded so that they jiggled a bit if you wobble the box and some random glow-in-the-dark bones strewn around plus a rubber beetle. They were great - we tested them with the lights out and felt all Halloweeny.