Starting the week by writing the Happy List is something I’ve been doing for the last few years. It’s my chance to sit down and reflect on the things that made me happy in the previous week, as well as to record some of the adventures we have as a family.

Five Happy Things {Week 524}

On Monday evening the kids came back from their hill walking and gorge walking adventure in North Wales with Scouts. They had an amazing time with their friends and spent two days climbing different paths on Snowdonia. They were really lucky with good weather and were rewarded with the most amazing scenery. It was good to have them back, even with rucksacks full of smelly washing.

It can be hard to impress teens but this year we booked tickets to the Halloween trail at Blenheim Palace. We often try to go on a winter trail but Halloween trails seem like something new here in the UK. We’ve visited Blenheim Palace before (you can read about a previous visit here) and it’s a beautiful building and grounds. The Halloween trail took us on a path around some of the gardens, full of spooky light installations and the odd actor is costume too. The teens enjoyed it and we all stocked up on yummy food from the food trucks at the end.

My daughter went Trick or Treating with friends on Thursday night. They all dressed up as ghosts with sunglasses and went round our local neighbourhood. We also had plenty of visitors to our own house and ran out of sweets quickly this year. My daughter decorated our house for Halloween and did a great job, I was a little sad to take it all down today.

Over the weekend we went suit shopping for my son and husband as we are going to my niece’s wedding in a few weeks time. We decided to hire suits and it didn’t take long to get them measured and kitted out. My daughter and I already have our outfits so we are all ready for the big day.

This year we found a haunted gingerbread house kit in flying tiger. We’ve made our own Halloween gingerbread houses before but this year we actually found a kit! We bought icing too and it didn’t take long to put together. It didn’t come with decorations so we added spooky eyes and some Halloween chocolates. My 12 year old made it and enjoyed eating it too.

What made you happy last week?