Halloween - A Night of Hope

Whilst many of our children will be donning their outfits and preparing to party or go trick or treating, there are some children out there who's frights aren't just for fun or for just 1 night of the year.

Many children are living in fear of things that we can only ever imagine and as a beacon of hope World Vision is inviting everyone to turn 31st October into A Night of Hope. By simply carving a heart into your pumpkin and placing it in your window or on your doorstep you will be lighting a lantern of hope for children living in fear around the world.

Having just celebrated black history month, my children felt very privileged to be taking part as they have been reminded of just how fortunate they are and hearing about some of the fears that children face they couldn't wait to get started.

We began by downloading the pumpkin carving kit from the world vision website. It includes all the information you need about how to carve your pumpkin safely and even includes extras such as recipes, ideas for left over pumpkin seeds, further information about A Night of Hope and a poster for you to print out and show your support.

We decided we wanted to be a little different with our Night of Hope project so we headed for the craft cupboard.
Armed with glue, brushes, tissue paper and more we settled down to carve our 'pumpkins'

The boys decided that they wanted to take it one step further and make something that would last longer than just a couple of days.

We gathered some old glass jars and cut up some tissue paper.

We glued the tissue paper to the glass jars.

Once the glue was dry we cut away a heart shape and placed a tealight inside. As the boys told me last night "Now there can always be a beacon of hope in our house".

We felt it would be right not to carve a real pumpkin though, so we cut, scooped and carved a beautiful heart in a cute pumpkin.

Please, please join in and make tomorrow a Night of Hope too!

M xx

Weekly Meal Planner

Fortunately for me, I don't have the pickiest of eaters in my children and as they are getting older they are willing to try new and different things which is fab because I love spending time in the kitchen trying out new recipes.
As I have a week off this week I thought I would take advantage of all of these factors by trying out some recipes from all around the world.

Weekly Meal Planner

Monday

Piri piri chicken with spicy wedges

Tuesday

Thai fish curry and rice

Wednesday

Smoked paprika lamb chops with roasted vegetables and cous cous

Thursday

Meatballs and spaghetti in pasta sauce

Friday

Beer battered cod and chips

Saturday

Lasagne and salad

Sunday

Jerk chicken, rice and peas, plantain and macaroni pie

What are you serving up this week?

M xx