Starting the week by writing the Monday Happy List  is something I’ve been doing for a while. It’s a chance for me to sit down and reflect on the things that made me happy in the previous week, as well as to record some of our family adventures. It’s a post I always love to write.

Monday Happy Things {Week 368}

We have had plenty of half term adventures over the last few days. Although we stayed at home we had lots of days out and time at home playing games and cooking together. We spent a great day at Hughenden which is one of our favourite NT house and gardens. We walked through the woods, explored the walled garden, and had huge slices of cake to escape from the rain.

We were gifted a copy of Kids Against Maturity which is the perfect family games for Autumn days. We spent the weekend learning how to play it and had so much fun. the kids learned lots of new phrases which I’m hoping they don’t come out with at school! We’ve written about it here if you want to find out more.

Yesterday we made spooky Halloween pancakes for breakfast, carved pumpkins from our trip to the Pop Up Farm, pulled Halloween crackers, and went Trick or Treating in our neighbourhood. This year Little Sis carved a Pikachu on her pumpkin, and Big Brother carved a scary face munching on a smaller Munchkin. We hardly had any Trick or Treaters so it looks like we’ll be eating sweets for weeks!

It’s been a while since we went to the cinema but Little Sis and I watched Ron’s Gone Wrong, the story of an awkward kid’s adventures with his deeply dysfunctional robot buddy. It’s about the sweet but awkward Barney Pudowski as he tries to navigate the social minefield of a US Middle School just as the launch of the super-connected must-have B-bot robot buddy – ‘Your Best Friend Out of the Box!’ – puts any kid without one at a massive disadvantage when it comes to making friends. My 9 year old loved it, and I found it pretty watchable too.

The kids spent the weekend baking Christmas cakes and Christmas puddings with my mum. They enjoyed some hands on baking and got to make cakes and puddings for all the family. The house smelled amazing and I can’t wait to watch them decorate them and then eat them. We always have traditional food at Christmas and it wouldn’t be the same without homemade Christmas food.