For this year’s Halloween festivities we did something completely different as a variation to the usual trick or treating and pumpkin carving. We paid a visit to the lovely Honey Pottery which has recently opened not too far from us.
We’ve visited a couple of times already, but on this occasion they were holding a special Halloween Pottery Painting party, so we went along with a group of school friends and spent the afternoon dressed in our Halloweeniest finery, munching Halloween cakes and painting Halloween themed pottery. The children really enjoyed dressing up and seeing all their friends’ outfits too, and the painting kept them absorbed and occupied for at least half the time we were there! You can collect whatever you’ve painted a week later, after it’s been fired, so we’ll be going back soon to collect 5YO’s green and purple vampire bat and 11YO’s Halloween-themed Willow-pattern plate.
Pottery painting cafes have been a bit of a new discovery for me this year, but I must say they’re a fantastic option for taking the kids when it’s rainy or cold, or just when they want to do something crafty but you can’t face the thought of them getting paint everywhere for 15 minutes leaving you to spend the next half hour mopping the floor and walls. And Honey Pottery is particularly lovely, serving yummy home-made cakes and hot drinks while you paint to your heart’s content. The owners are also very child-friendly and make the little ones feel so welcome that my two girls now rate it as one of their favourite places to go.
After two hours of painting and chatting, it was time to go home, with our Halloween party bags which were a lovely touch to round off the afternoon. Back at home there was just time to decorate the porch with pumpkins and cardboard witches, before heading out in the dusk to demand Haribo with menaces from the neighbours – I mean go trick or treating obviously! We are lucky to live in such a nice neighbourhood where lots of people do decorate their houses for Halloween and are ready with a big bucket of sweets to hand out to visiting trick or treaters. I don’t think my girls have even registered the “trick” part of trick or treat, which I’m glad about, as it’s a part of Halloween which I’ve never liked – doing something mean to your neighbours because they don’t give you sweets, what’s that about?! When we got home, we let them stay up late to play bobbing for apples – or duck apple as we used to call it – and before they dropped off to sleep I think I even heard 11YO say that it had been the best Halloween ever! #jobdone #happymum
kirstwrites 