When it comes to face masks, it’s pretty clear I enjoy clay based masks best, with paper based masks being my least favorite. But sometimes, I do come across a mask just too cute and too themed to pass up, even if it is paper. While visiting the Spooky Gudetama the Lazy Egg x Artbox Cafe & Boutique earlier this month, I saw the Hello Kitty Narikiri Face Mask: Zombie and couldn’t resist the cuteness of Hello Kitty and the Halloween theme of zombie!
We returned to Marsh Farm, where we had previously gone to pick pumpkins, for their annual Halloween Festival – an impressive event which has a lot more going on than any of us expected.
Even though the days seem to be getting shorter, and the temperature keeps dropping, it’s more important than ever to make sure that you get out of the house when you can. We’d already travelled to pick pumpkins at Marsh Farm’s impressive Pumpkin Village earlier in the month, and while there we noticed that there was actually much more to the place than a village shop and extremely well laid-out and decorated pumpkin patch. We spotted an entryway reminiscent of theme park booths, and what looked like a carousel. We had to go back and see the whole thing – so we set a day aside and headed there on a quiet Sunday.
In the continued spirit of October, we made our way to Hatter’s Farm, an activity-clad farm which we’d occasionally spotted signs for while heading to the next city over. It had been the Corn (Maize) Maze that had originally caught our eyes – as there aren’t too many of them around this way, but it turned out that they actually had a couple of things going on beyond the opportunity to get lost in a field.
Corn Maze
I’d never actually been to a Corn Maze before, and neither had the kids (although, Jupiter, being from the United States, had been in dozens), so it was a really cool experience to finally manage to get along to one. It sounds really silly, but it’s very bizarre being dwarfed by corn, although the farm staff had done a great job of cutting wide paths through the field. Rather than just being a maze cut from crops there were also nine signposts which, together, served as an anagram for a mystery word. It gave an extra reason to explore all of the dead ends, which was welcome. The place was a bit muddy, with small feet getting stuck here and there!
We love pancakes in our home! It’s something made at least weekly, with berries or homemade jams or syrups on top. As it is pumpkin season, and we have made so much pumpkin puree, it was only natural that we ended up making some pumpkin pancakes. These pancakes taste amazing and bring a lot of Autumn cheer to your breakfast table – perfect for a spooky Halloween breakfast or just a new fall favorite. I am sure they go great with some pumpkin spiced coffee too!
What’s a good blogtober schedule without a dive into carving pumpkins? It certainly isn’t much of one. We’re getting later in the month now, and with that, we’re growing closer and closer to the big, capital-h Halloween on the 31st. I don’t know about you, but one of the most integral parts of Halloween is the carving of pumpkins, almost more so than trick or treating or making everything pumpkin flavoured. Of course, in 2020 Halloween’s trick or treating (at least where we live) is looking increasingly unlikely, and even Halloween parties are – in certain parts of the UK – to be done under a lot of heavy restrictions.
As I wrote out earlier in the month, we went out to a relatively local pumpkin patch (Marsh’s Farm) earlier in the year. We had a great time, and there was a massive variety far beyond places where I’ve been along to before. For a start, it was great to see more than just the standard orange pumpkins – and with supermarkets stocking various squashes and munchkin varieties, it was great to see much more. Size of pumpkin was definitely a major influence on the children’s decisions when it came to grabbing their squashes, and that certainly gave us a bit more to consider when it came to the design and execution of our carvings.
