The Scary Book review

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We love Halloween. Whilst this year might be missing trick or treat fun, we are making sure not to miss out on spooky delights. We’ve visited a pumpkin patch, carved pumpkins, decorated the house and plan on having a Halloween night at home watching family friendly spooky films and munching on sweets and popcorn. We have also been getting ready for Halloween with spooky Halloween reads. Our latest spooky book perfect for Halloween is The Scary Book.

The Scary Book

Published by Prestel The Scary Book is written and illustrated by renowned author and illustrator Thierry Dedieu. Thierry Dedieu is an author and illustrator who has published nearly 100 books. He has received numerous awards, including the Sorcieres Special Prize in 2010. He lives in Le Gers, France.

Enjoying spooky savings this Halloween

There are many people that just love Halloween. The air gets crisp, pumpkins and other goodies show up in stores, and before you know it, your home can turn into the lab of a mad scientist!

Halloween is something that can bring out the inner child in anyone, so it is really easy to get carried away with outfits, decorations and treats. With Christmas being right around the corner, the last thing you will want is to spread your budget a bit too thin.

In order to enjoy a Halloween to remember that is not going to slash your bank account, these are some helpful tips:

Spooktacular Halloween Fancy Dress costumes.

With Halloween on the horizon our thoughts have been focused on how to have a spooktacular night and bring the magic of Halloween alive for Bug.

Now that Bug is in school which is currently rife with Halloween talk he has taken a real interest in Halloween and wants to join in on the seasonal spooky goings-on.   

As we love Halloween ourselves we are happy to satisfy Bug’s Halloween interest and as such we are attending events during the school holidays in the lead up Halloween when we will attend a spooky Halloween party.

So that we look the part for Halloween we need costumes and thanks to funwarehouse.co.uk we have plenty of choices –

The site has a huge range of ghoulish and ghastly women’s Halloween costumes including favourites such as ghosts, devils, zombies and vampires.

Lady gruesome - Zombie scrub nurse - Fever miss whiplash skeleton - Ghost ship princess

Have a freakishly frightening Halloween with ASDA.

If you are celebrating Halloween this year and need to stock up on spooky supplies Asdahas everything you need to have a ‘spooktacular’ evening this Halloween. With over 250 freakishly frightening Halloween products including freaky fancy dress, macabre make up, deadly decorations, ghoulish grub and terrifying treats Asda will help you have a fright-tastic night to remember whether you are having a fancy dress party, taking the kids trick or treating or going to a Halloween party.

Deadly Decorations

Throwing a party? Want to give your home a spooky makeover?

Starting from just £3, Asda has a selection ‘boo’-tiful decorations that will give your home that spooky, haunted look and a range of demon decs that will turn your home into a horror show!

Halloween Books from Little Tiger Press.

At the grand old age of 3 and a half years Bug is starting to take notice of Halloween goodies in stores. Whilst Bug is a little fearful of the very scary Halloween decorations and outfits he loves the kiddy friendly and fun fancy dress outfits and decorations.  He is also taking a strong interest in the yummy Halloween themed treats that adorn the shelves in the shops.

With Bug starting to take more of an interest in the fun of Halloween and being a keen little bookworm he was delighted when Mr Postman recently arrived one morning with a couple of Halloween themed books that had swiftly made their way to us from Little Tiger Press.

Birds Eye spooky Halloween meals.

To help make Halloween fun for little ones Birds Eye has commissioned food artist, Georgina Besterman, to create a selection of frightening food serving suggestions to give meal times a hint of spookiness.

To make so yummy meals with a spooky and fun twist for your little ones to enjoy this Halloween take a look at the step-by-step guides for recreating Birds Eye’s spooky meal suggestions.

Halloween Bat.

What you will need.

*  Birds Eye Chicken Space Shapes

*  Birds Eye Garden Peas

*  Birds Eye Field Fresh County Mix

*  Birds Eye Field Fresh Very Fine Green Beans

How to make your own scarily yummy Halloween Bat.

*  Body: place two Birds Eye moon shapes facing each other with a star balanced on top

*  Face: use one carrot disk out of the country mix and place two peas on it for eyes, a strip fine green bean for his mouth and two shards of cauliflower for his teeth

*  Wings: slice a Birds Eye potato waffle in half, jagged and diagonal 

*  Legs: sticks of green beans with claws cut from carrot disks

Halloween fancy dress costumes.

Lee is like a big kid at the moment, getting all excited about dressing up for Halloween.  As well as wanting to dress up for our spooky Halloween party he is also dressing up for work as they are doing a week-long celebration for Halloween and all of the staff are dressing up in Halloween inspired fancy dress to wear whilst they serve the guests who come to enjoy the celebrations and activities being hosted at the holiday park’s pub.

Whilst browsing the internet for the perfect fancy dress costume to wear to celebrate Halloween this year Lee has found a number of costumes he loves and wants to buy to dress up this Halloween (and being the big kid he is I suspect to wear throughout the year too whenever the mood hits) on mrcostumes.com.

As Lee is a fan of Batman he would love to dress up as the man himself and pretend to be Batman.

Being a fan of the Batman series he would also love to dress up as the character Joker.  

Mrcostumes.com has a gorgeous Joker costume and I am sure Lee would manage to pull of the mad man look very well ;-)

As I love Johnny Depp especially in the Pirates of the Caribbean films I would love Lee to dress up as a swashbuckling pirate.

I am also tempted to get Lee to dress up in a Buzz Lightyear costume as I know Bug would love seeing his daddy dress up as one of his favourite characters, Buzz, from Toy Story.

*  PR collaborative post *

Planning a Spooktacular Halloween Party.

Towards the end of this year we a lot of celebrations happening, a number of birthdays including my mum’s 50th for which we are having a big party, a family friend’s wedding, my anniversary with Lee and of course Christmas.  As there is a lot happening over the next few months I am trying to be organised and plan ahead to hopefully prevent any last minute disasters so that all celebrations can be lots of fun and stress free.

As we have a number of family members and close friends celebrating their birthdays about the same time as Halloween we have decided to have a spooktacular Halloween party that will not only be a celebration of Halloween but also a celebration of all the birthdays happening just before and after Halloween.

As Bug is getting older even though we do not want to introduce him to the scary side of Halloween we do want to introduce him to a wider spectrum of the Halloween season having only dressed him up before in cute Halloween outfits (last year he was a Spooky Cute Spider).  We think the Spooktacular Halloween Party we will be having with friends and family that will be full of fun Halloween costumes, tasty food with a Halloween twist, Halloween themed books and films with a soft spooky side is a great way to introduce him to the fun of Halloween in a friendly, fun environment with people he knows and loves.

In an attempt to be organised and help make the Halloween party terrific I have been browsing the internet for ideas for costumes, food and entertainment.

Dinosaur Train Spooky Adventures DVD Review

When we reviewed a Dinosaur Train DVD we absolutely loved the show. Little man loves the colourful characters and he actually stays still for more than a nano-second and watches the show which is very rare. I loved the animation and was impressed that they had made the show both entertaining and educational for little ones.

Unfortunately we do not have access to Nick Jr. to watch the show but when we visit Dadcu (grandfather in Welsh) if the show is on we always make the most of his sky and satisfy our love of the show by watching new episodes. As little man loves watching the DVD again and again I always keep my eye out for any new Dinosaur Train DVD’s that are released to give little man some variety; so when I heard that a new DVD called ‘Dinosaur Train – Spooky Adventures’ was being released I could not wait to get it and see what exciting adventures the loveable characters from Dinosaur Train go on.

Dinosaur Train Spooky Adventures is a complication of seven episodes which are perfect for celebrating Halloween –

* Night Train

* Fossil Fred

* A Frill a Minute

* T.Rex Teeth

* Laura the Giganotosaurus

* A Spiky Tail Tale

* One Big Dinosaur

Not only does this DVD include seven spooky adventures it also has never seen on TV educational clips from resident Palaeontologist Dr Scott, providing children with added educational facts and information. With the DVD you also get a fun colouring sheet for little ones to add their own creative flair to a Dinosaur Train picture.

* Night Train

In this special spooky episode Dad, Buddy and Tiny ride the Dinosaur Train at night. With help from the friendly Conductor they learn about nocturnal animals that are active after dark. The episode is filled with startles and scares as the Conductor tries to surprise Buddy and his family. Night Train climaxes at the Big Pond where under the full moon a spooky scavenger hunt happens.

* Fossil Fred

In this enjoyable episode Buddy, Tiny and Don search around the Big Pond for fossils as they have fun playing ‘detective’. They succeed in finding fossils, ending up finding an entire skeleton of a Jurassic dinosaur.

* A Frill a Minute

In this episode we see the Buddy and his family help Tank Triceratops with his awkwardness about having a huge head, they help their friend but showing him how amazing his features are especially his frill.

* T.Rex Teeth

In this episode Buddy loses a tooth and so that he can learn about T.Rex teeth his mum takes him to Rexville where his Tyrannosaurus friends help him learn that he will grow new teeth to replace the old ones.

* Laura the Giganotosaurus

In this episode Buddy and his family spends time with Laura the Giganotosaurus who is a large dinosaur who always rides the Dinosaur Train and keeps an eye out for any dangers ahead on the track. They learn that, like Buddy, Laura is a three-toed theropod and they also learn that she is an avid bird-watcher.

* A Spiky Tail Tale

Whilst on a day out Buddy and Tiny help settle an argument between two very big dinosaurs, Morris Stegosaurus and Alvin Allosaurus; one has a very spiky tale and the other has a mouthful of sharp teeth.

* One Big Dinosaur

In this episode Tiny and Buddy meet some of the biggest land creatures ever when they visit a dinosaur family of Argentinosaurus. Whilst visiting the Argentinosaurus family they learn about the benefits of being really big as well as learning that it is also great to be their own size.

It is great to see the very cute Buddy have fun exploring with his family and meet new friends on the exciting adventures in the great episodes included on this DVD. Night Train is a great episode and it is interesting that an exciting adventure happens during the night. Little man is fascinated with this episode and it always catches his attention when I put it on; I believe this is partly because Dad, Buddy and Tiny stand out in the darkness due to their bright colour, making them very eye catching. I think Night Train is the spookiest episode on the DVD and little man giggles as Buddy and Tiny are spooked throughout the episode and he finds the Conductors fun antics entertaining.

I personally think it is a shame that there are not any more episodes on the DVD where Buddy has an adventure during the night as I think the night adds a spooky element to his escapade. Even though I would have liked to have seen more episodes with an emphasis on a spooky adventure I still think the DVD is great as it is full of fun episodes that little man loves to watch.

Little man enjoys watching all of the episodes and loves the bright colours and interesting dinosaurs that feature in the different episodes. Often when watching the DVD little man has had a little dance to the fun, entertaining songs that have performed within the episodes. I like the inclusion of songs in the show as it makes it more fun for little ones and they learn language skills, creativity and music skills through listening to the songs as well as develop their co-ordination and motor skills if they have a little dance to the songs.

This DVD is great for pre-schoolers and even though it is titled Spooky Adventures which suggests it is perfect for Halloween, I am sure all of the episodes would be enjoyed by little ones any time of year; I know little man will love watching this DVD throughout the year. In spite of the title being Spooky Adventures the episodes are not too spooky or scary for little man and instead of being scared he was intrigued. I think the show has achieved a great level of spookiness for pre-schoolers to enjoy, combining a hint of spooky with fun making entertaining episodes for children to love watching.

As with all other episodes of Dinosaur Train we have watched the characters are great and Buddy is his adorable, loveable self. The antics of the family in each of the episodes make for great entertainment for young children. I love the combination of entertainment and education that is included in all of the episodes and I think the show achieves the perfect blend of fun, amusing and interesting stories with loveable characters and scientific facts and information.

This Dinosaur Train Spooky Adventures DVD along with other episodes of the hit show satisfies little man’s fascination with dinosaurs and trains and I love that whilst he is watching a colourful, brilliantly animated show that he loves and is fascinated by he is also learning about dinosaurs, natural science and history and Palaeontology. Also I love the fact that as well as teach children about science and dinosaurs in an entertaining way the show also teaches children about other facts and skills including team work, problem solving, investigating and language skills.

Tim Henson's Dinosaur Train Spooky Adventures was released by StudioCanal in the UK on the 1st of October 2012 and is available to buy from all good retailers including Amazon, Tesco, Play.com and HMV.

More information about Dinosaur Train.

Spooky cute spider

Both Lee and I love Halloween and like to do a little something during this spooky time of year even if we only carve a pumpkin, watch some scary films, go to a Halloween party or dress up.  We would love to do more and have a real spooky celebration but because of the rising cost of living money is tight and we cannot afford to go all out on a spooktacular event.  As money is sparse and best spent in other ways that really benefit all of the family it is fantastic when we can pick up a few things that are perfect for Halloween at bargain prices.

With so many people wanting to celebrate Halloween yet save their money and get a bargain for their buck there are quite a few retailers offering value for money for novelty Halloween items.  This year for Halloween we got a few items for this spooky time of year from Asda.  I was impressed with their range of decorations, treats, make-up and party items all for an impressive bargain price of £1 each.

Daddy I'm A Zombie! DVD Review

As it is a spooky time of year with Halloween tomorrow I enjoy watching scary and spooky films.  As well as enjoying classic Halloween and scary films for adults I do have a soft spot for films that combine the magic of animation with a hint of spookiness.  During this spooky time of year I think it is nice to spend time as a family watching a family friendly film with an eerie edge to get in the mood for Halloween.

With perfect timing for Halloween, this week we were sent a DVD of a new family friendly film that claims to be perfect for Halloween.  The DVD, “Daddy I’m A Zombie” is a feature length film of a mysterious adventure through a magical and spooky world with Zombies, Witches, Pirates and Mummies.

November Already....Where Has The Year Gone?

I can’t believe we are in November already….this year has flown by!!

At the start of the year I still had a big bump and it’s unreal that I now have a 7 month old baby boy.  He’s growing up so fast and time is going way too fast!!  I’ve recently had my birthday, another year older but definitely none the wiser….still using baby brain as an excuse for being so brain dead :)  The clocks have gone back signalling the end of British Summer time and the weather is getting colder as we move into winter. 

Halloween has also been and gone.  I like Halloween but I have never really done anything to celebrate it apart from when I was younger and it was just another excuse to go out on the town and have a good time.  We never did anything big to celebrate it, just a quiet night in together.  Lee got a big pumpkin and carved a scary face, this year is the first time I have ever got a pumpkin at home for Halloween.  I did get Tristan a little Halloween outfit….he was my little pumpkin.  We live in the sticks and as expected we did not have any Trick or Treaters….never had any in all the years I’ve lived where we are, a bit off the beaten track for people to come visit us.  Me and Lee also watched a scary film together….a lovely, quiet Halloween.

Guy Fawkes night has also said goodbye for yet another year.  When I was little my mum used to take me and my sister every year to watch fireworks at a local castle and I have fond memories of the excitement of the night and watching pretty sights in the dark night sky.  Every year on the same weekend of the fireworks there is a local rally and we used to go watch it after the fireworks late in to the night.  This year there was no rally for me and we decided not to bother going to watch any fireworks.

This month is my sister’s birthday and just before Christmas I’ve also got Lee’s birthday, his first being a daddy and my mum’s birthday the day after…..it’s a busy time of year for us.  Everywhere there are reminders that Christmas is round the corner and the countdown has begun.  I am not ready whatsoever, need to get organised and decide what to buy for everyone.  This will be Tristan’s first Christmas and the second Christmas Lee and I will have together.  Last year I was nearly 6 months pregnant and thinking how this year we would have our little son.  I am very excited about having Christmas with my little family.  I’m also looking forward to New Year’s as New Year’s Eve is me and Lee’s second anniversary.

Happy Halloween

Silent Sunday