Well, it certainly was different this year. We’d planned to have the in-laws over for a day of fun at home but after they went into Tier 2, they felt they couldn’t come. Instead we invited a friend from work and her husband, keeping it in the bubbles.

Our day started with a scavenger hunt in the house! Thankfully they agreed that this made up for the lack of trick-or-treating this year – something they’d been sad about since we went for the first time last year and they LOVED it and have been asking about going again ever since!

I think you can tell from their expressions that the excitement levels were high! I hid the pumpkin chocolates and mushroom sweeties in pairs around the house, giving them clues on where to look next which not only raised the excitement factor and minimised messy chaos but also a big bonus as I discovered I could gather them in spots of light for the next clue to get some better photos too! 😉

Next up – a spooky breakfast, a rehearsal (see more later) and spot of telly while Nik and I prepared for our lunch guests.

Our guests arrived so it was time for punch and a puppet show with a cast including a witch, a spider and a ghost…

K drew an intricate spider and P just wanted me to draw her witch which she then spent half an hour colouring in. They weren’t quite getting the shadow aspect until I set up the sheet and lamps! (I added new legs to K’s spider so we could cut it out a bit more easily and I am pretty chuffed with my witch considering I am rubbish at drawing!)

Since Halloween and Day of the Dead are so close together, I decided to make some of my favourite Mexican recipes! I made chilli con carne in the slow cooker (I use mince and diced beef), white bean chilli (as one of our guests is flexitarian), guacamole with added “gravestones” (baked tortillas), plus salted tortilla chips, sour cream, extra coriander and rice. YUM!

And for pudding – purple monster cupcakes!

After lunch we all collapsed on the sofa to watch the new Witches film with a cheeky green cocktail for the grown-ups 😉 I’ll leave you with a few phone snaps as I put my camera down after lunch…

Then it was time to say goodbye and I finally rested 😉

Happy Halloween!