Halloween 2016 review round-up - featuring Poundland and HARIBO

The days are getting shorter, the temperature is dropping and the shops are stocked with spooky, seasonal goodies. Yes, it's nearly Halloween, one of my favourite times of the year!  We enjoy celebrating the season and having some family fun with a scary twist.

If you want to enjoy Halloween, but want to keep to a budget, check out Poundland for some great items at just £1 each. From decorations to fancy dress to sweeties to tableware, you will find loads of fabulously themed things to keep the kids happy. We were sent a selection from their range.

This year's designs include a rather cute family of monsters, who appear on everything from paper plates to trick or treat bags. They also feature on the cupcake set that contains cake cases and toppers. Perfect for making some spooky cupcakes.  The tableware is excellent value and makes entertaining easy. Plates come in packs of 20, napkins in a pack of 30 and cups in a pack of 40, so there will be plenty to cater for a Halloween party. You can dress the house with Halloween decorations including character lights and bunting.

Poundland also has some good dressing up accessories, Freddy picked out a Freddy Krueger style bladed glove so he can dress like his namesake this year. Don't forget to stock up on some sweets for Trick or Treaters, which you can hand out from Poundland's Trick or Treat bowl.

HARIBO always do some great seasonal limited edition sweet packs, which are perfect for parties or for handing out to the little monsters who come knocking on Halloween night. Haribo kindly sent us a selection in a spooky package, which we will enjoy distributing to our local Trick or Treaters.

This year, Haribo have a Halloween Duo pumpkin pack, Trick or Treat mini bags, TangfasTricks and Scaremix ready to please the kids and the young at heart grown-ups!

The Duo pack comes in a lidded pumpkin shaped container, which looks great on a table laid with Halloween goodies. Inside the tub is two large bags of Haribo Halloween sweets (Scaremix and TangfasTricks) which can be poured into each of the divided halves of the bowl. It makes a lovely colourful display.

Haribo Scaremix comes in an assortment of spooky designs and flavours: Dracula Rings in Blood Orange & Apple, Apple & Blackcurrant and Blackcurrant & Blueberry; Boo Bears in Cherry, Lime and Blood Orange; Witches' Brew in Blood Orange; Vampire Heart in Blackcurrant & Bubblegum and Monster's Eyeball in Toffee Apple. They come in funky colours too, adding a Halloween twist to some old classics.

The TangfasTricks offer an opportunity for daring sweet eaters to dive in and take a gamble on which sweet they're going to eat! They look normal enough, but not all the sweets are tangy - some of them are super sour and some are HOT! Will the one you choose be a treat or a trick?  It will definitely make for a fun game this Halloween.

I hope they will do a veggie friendly range one day so I too can indulge in the happy world of Haribo!

What's New? A Round Up.

Things are definitely changing.  The weather for one!  Summer is but a distant memory and we are now in the grips of cold, wet and windy Britain.  It's time to dig out our jumpers and coats and wrap up warm, but at least we've got Halloween and Christmas to look forward to, so it isn't all bad!

Here is a round up of some the products and services I have recently experienced and what I think!

The Toby Carvery

As a family consisting mainly of vegetarians with one vegan in our midst, eating out can be tricky.  This weekend we visited our eldest son Joe, his fiancee Jade and our grandchild baby Ted.  We went to the Toby Carvery in Northampton, as Joe likes his meaty roast dinners.  We anticipated vegan Megan having to eat a plate of vegetables while her brother tucked into his turkey.  How wrong we were!  For a carvery, which prides itself on its meat, the Toby is the most veggie and vegan friendly restaurant chain we have been to. It offered five vegetarian options to go with the carvery vegetables, two of which were vegan.  The menu was clearly labelled and the dishes cooked to order.  We had vegan Nut Roast Wellington, a puff pastry case filled with a sweet potato, parsnip, carrot, nut and butter bean filling.  It was delicious.  They also have a vegetarian gravy, clearly labelled which was also gluten free.  Hats off to Toby Carvery for not overlooking your guests with different dietary requirements and for providing something delicious that can be enjoyed with all the roast dinner trimmings. All too often veggies have to settle for a disappointing bowl of risotto while the carnivores get a full dinner.  We like roast spuds and yorkies too!  Thank you Toby for realising this.  I wish other restaurant chains would take note!

Morrisons Big Christmas Bonus

I have started collecting my vouchers to claim a huge £40 off my Christmas shop! Simply collect 9 out of the 10 weekly coupons received when you spend over £40 and redeem them between the 16th and 31st December to get £40 off any transaction.  I really love all the special offers that appear at this time of year.  Don't miss out on this one!!

Swizzels Matlow Halloween Range

With Halloween approaching bringing the annual Trick or Treaters we are stocking up with sweets that we can dish out to the little witches, vampires and ghosts that come knocking.  I like Swizzels Matlow bags of individually wrapped sweets and lollies. Perfect for handing out on Halloween.  They include everyone's favourites such as Love Hearts, Drumsticks and Refreshers.

The Country Candle Company from QVC

These premium homemade candles from Wiltshire use quality wax and exceptional fragrances to produce hours of candlenight and scent to your home.  The little Sparkling Spice candle that we received smells absolutely gorgeous - a real Christmassy fragrance to get us in the mood for the upcoming festive season.  

Keep an eye on the QVC shopping channel and QVC website  for gifts for the home, fashion and beauty products, electronics and jewellery.  

Matey

Over a third of parents agree that bathtime is the best part of the day and a great time to bond with your child.  Yet, a further 23% of parents admit to finding it stressful as their children got upset by getting wet.  To help make bath time more fun and enjoyable for all parents, Matey has produced a limited edition bath time book written by a mum of two whose story was chosen by the judges to be published. The story featuring the Matey characters helps create an adventure around bath time.  I received a copy and it is a nice little bath book with rhyming text encouraging child interaction as they make things using the bubbles in their bath tub such as a beard or a shell.

Matey bubble bath is something I tend to buy every year as a stocking filler for Freddy.  He has a thing for Molly Matey and her long hair!  RRP £2.37

Snowflake The White Gorilla DVD

This film from Lionsgate features Snowflake, an albino gorilla who embarks on an adventure with her friend, a red panda called Jenga, to find a witch who could help her get what she wants more than anything - to be normal.

The film is a mixture of live action and animation, starting with Snowflake's capture from her homeland to her becoming an attraction in Barcelona Zoo to her big perilous adventure.  A rather odd bad guy plans to kidnap Snowflake to use her heart in an evil spell to get eternal life which adds to the drama.  Meanwhile Snowflake's first owner Wendy attempts to track her down and save her.

The film is dubbed using the vocal talents of Jeanette McCurdy, Christopher Lloyd and Nathan Kress.  Sadly, the lip sync of the live action parts of the film isn't great and if you can't get over that you will struggle to watch the film (Ian couldn't cope with it at all)!

If you can see past the lip sync issues, the animated characters are quite cute. It is quite an odd film though, set in a strange time and location!  The moral of accepting the differences in each other and recognising who you are inside is the message of this quirky film.

Certificate U
81 minutes
Available now at Amazon £8.00
(We received a check disc to watch the film).