Bonoween 2024

A little bit late on the Bonoween 2024 blog update which actually took place on Friday 1st Nov. Anyway finally here is a picture dump from the our annual Bonoween family get together (a bit mixed up and not in the correct order).

This year the costume award was probably a unanimous win for Amy in her inflatable dinosaur. The pumpkin carving  had a clear winner of Holly with her "Stitch" carving. Then the recipe winner was not so clear cut. It was agreed that in the interest of fairness Nicky's Mummy Frankfurters were to be rued out this year as they tend to win every year. So I think the next best was suggested to be my Spiced Pumpkin loaf, however I have to say my vote was for Lea's Twix Rocky Road chunks which I was still  enjoying several days after.

The sparklers were fun as usual. Pumpkin throwing was very poor this year (with me probably top of the list in terms of poor throws). Then Matt gave us his annual display with his swinging fire balls. Whilst over the park we also speared Holly's winning pumpkin carving on to the gates to Wick Country Park.

Scary pumpkin Rory.

Halloween Lisa and David.

Me and wifey (aka Bat Girl and Jason Vorhees).

Amy in her winning inflatable dino costume.

Amy eating Lisa.

Cunningly moved the Rocky Road to the side and not on the table so that not too many people eat it and I have left overs.

Nicky with her dinosaur costume.

Complete with back plates and tail.

The two dino's together.

Matt and Holly.

Amy dino eating pumpkin.

Some of the pumpkins all lit up

Our Halloween inflatable arch still going strong.

Min and Lea.

Lisa and David looking very orange and black.

Dead dinosaur Amy.

Rory and Holly playing Halloween Twister.

More Twister fun.

Sparkler time in the front garden.

Only Holly participated in the sparklers out of our 3 kids this year.

Rory was really looking forward to the sparklers.

He was a brave little boy and held them very safely.

More sparkler fun.

Holly's winning pumpkin carving sitting proud on the Wick Park Gates.

Holly with her winning pumpkin.

Matt with his fireball display.

New "Dad-cam" got some great pics of him.

There is a Matt in there somewhere.

Down on a knee making fire circles in front of his face.

Our house all decorated for Bonoween.

I think we did pretty good with the food spread again and as usual far too much.

Happy Halloween from the Smiths.

Me and wifey again.

We did buy Brandon a football pumkin t-shirt but he didn't wear it, much to our disappointment.

God she is growing in to a young lady much quicker than I would like!

Nicky's Mummy Frankfurters which are a staple of Bonoween.

Amy not feeling to good as the evening went on.

Zoe dressed as a character from Mulan (I think).

Help!

Lea's Twix Rocky Road - delicious.

Nicky being a proper Stegosaurus.

Dinosaur battle in our kitchen.

Love this picture of Matt.

More of Matt with his mask on.

Rory ready for some pumpkin throwing.

My shark pumpkin looking better lit up at night.

More sparkler fun with Holly.

Lisa loves the sparklers.

Not sure how my living room turned green!

Matthew joining in with the sparklers.

And I even had a little go myself.

Looks like a witch casting a spell.

David joining in with the sparklers.

Spooky 3 Mersea Crescent.

Our Family picture for Bonoween 2024.

Greek Style Spaghetti

Holly made the school newsletter again this time for her classes effort cooking some Greek style spaghetti. Super proud of Holly as she is not very adventurous with food and drink, but she made this, tried it, and enjoyed it.

Learner Driver - Joshua's Journey has Started

Here are a few belated pictures from Joshua's recent 17th birthday. Better late than never. Present wise was pretty boring this year as all he wanted was yet another iPhone so that kind of wiped out most of the budget. He had a few other gifts like a case for the phone, some new joggers, a Westham T-shirt, some choccies and a few other odds and sods. For his birthday meal he chose to go out to Five Guys which is always a winner in our family.

For his birthday we also bought him some magnetic L plates and his provisional licence as he is now old enough to start learning to drive. As he currently doesn't have a job then I have said I will take him out in the Fiesta for his initial lessons to get him up and running and then hopefully we can minimise the cost and get away with just half a dozen lessons at the end to tune him up for the test. So far I have taken him out twice and the second time was such a massive improvement. His pull aways and braking was so much smoother and also introduced him to reversing in a straight line and reversing around 90 degrees. In fact he got on so well on the second lesson that I even got him doing 3 point turn (or turn in the road as they are called now!) and he nailed it easily.

The journey towards the driving test has started. Poor old Tina is very nervous about Joshua driving her car!

Not much for Joshua to be surprised about as he knew his main present would be a new iPhone.

A Westham t-shirt commemorating their European victory a year or so ago.

Ripping in to his new phone case.

Some new jogging bottoms.

Trick or Treat 2024

As with last year it was just me and Holly for trick or treating this year. Joshua chose to go rugby training and Brandon manned the door to our house and readied himself to hand out about 200 bags of Haribo's to the hoards!!! I had to split Holly's trick or treat session in to two in order to drive Josh over to Billericay for training as Tina was working. But it was all worth it in the end, me and Holly had a lovely walk around the neighborhood and she certainly got a great haul of goodies. 

We also managed to get our pumpkins and recipes prepared ready for Halloween/Bonoween. Holly did an amazing pumpkin of her favourite character "Stitch". I swear to god that all I did was mark the pumpkin for her and she did all the carving including cutting cardboard ears and sticking them on. The end result is actually incredible. Brandon also joined in with a "INK" to represent Ice Nine Kills who are currently one of his favourite bands. As for me, well my pumpkin had to be a shark of course.

For my Bonoween recipe I made a pumpkin spice loaf which just smelt and tasted incredible. For something I knocked up whilst working from home I think it came out really well and is definitely one of my better recipes with pumpkin as an ingredient.

Wick Palace all decorated for Halloween and ready for the hoards of trick or treaters.

Holly's amazing Stitch pumpkin which she made all on her own.

She was very proud of this one for sure.

Brandon's Ice Nine Kills pumpkin.

And finally my shark effort for 2024. Joshua didn't want to participate this year.

Holly all dressed up and ou trick or treating.

Holly's Trick or Treat haul for 2024.

And finally my pumpkin spice loaf rising nicely and smelling amazing.