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October is Matthew's birthday, and this year he had a "big" party for twenty-something of his friends in the local village hall (bouncy castle, disco, that sort of thing). He also set the usual cake challenge - this time it was to make a polar bear. At least white icing is not hard to come by. Grandma and Grandad L came down to stay, to help out and to join in.
October is also, of course, beach holiday time! When it came to half term, in need of some sun we decided to visit friend Susanne and family in the south of France for a few days. The weather was splendid, and unseasonably warm, even for the Cote d-Azur. We took all the wrong clothes, of course. Bridget had a paddle in the Med, whilst James and Matthew built sandcastles.
In Monte Carlo (very close to Susanne) at this time of year it's the Prince's birthday, always an event to celebrate. There's a large funfair right down at the marina, at the west end of the town, and we spent a great afternoon there. James and Matthew had a go at air hockey, Matthew with a little help from Malcolm. James drove a go-kart, and Matthew rode a small roller-coaster. We stood and watched for some time as a man made a large batch of gooey sweet stuff using lots of sugar and Nutella.

Susanne's house is very close to the Italian border, so one day we went by train to the closest town, Ventimiglia. Again it was a warm and sunny day, and we enjoyed pizza and fruit in a local park for lunch. We managed a walk on the beach, where Christopher found a plastic stegasaurus which he gave to James. It was a good opportunity to stock up on some Italian wine and unusual pasta, although we did avoid the "space rocket" shaped pasta, or was it some anatomical shape?
Now we don't normally go a bundle on Halloween. As Christians we feel the All Saints / All Souls message gets a bit lost amongst the ghosts and ghouls, but hey, the boys are getting older and now they're getting invited to halloween parties. So it was dressing up time again, with Matthew as some Hulk / Frankenstein amalgam, and James as a bat (with added mice, spiders etc). We also had great fun scaring the trick-or-treaters who dared knock on our door.