Bonfire night is one of the nights I remember quite vividly from my childhood. The happy faces, the chill in the air and the smell of jacket potatoes in the oven. Some years we had our own fireworks at the bottom of my Grandparents garden. I remember some years watching the fireworks opposite our house from the warmth of my bedroom, and walking down to the local pub to see their bonfire.
We always bought parkin from our local family run bakery, it was a lovely place where the staff all knew your name and asked how you were, they even remembered what things you regularly bought. They made the most amazing giant chocolate cookies all year round, but their parkin near bonfire night was delicious.
This is our first bonfire night in several years that I haven’t had a small baby at home, or being ill in pregnancy (I suffered from Hyperemesis in all four pregnancies), and this year I really wanted to make it special for our four little ones. We planned to make parkin in the morning, have traditional jacket potato’s bonfire night tea, followed by parkin for dessert. We wanted to create some wonderful patterns with our sparklers, walk into our local town to see their firework display before returning home to a slow cooker hot chocolate with marshmallows.
That was the plan…
Not quite the Yorkshire Parkin I remember
Being from the heart of Yorkshire we decided to make the children some traditional parkin for dessert. We followed the recipe to make parkin in the morning. Unfortunately I am not very good at reading the full recipe first, and usually follow it as we go along. We got right to the very end before I read ‘For best results, wrap the Parkin in greaseproof paper and foil and leave it for three days. This will allow the cake to become softer and stickier’
We had a taste, our parkin was nice, but drier and not the softer stickier texture I remember from my childhood. So, we wrapped it up to try again in a few days instead of having it as our bonfire night dessert. Hopefully if it turns out well, we might remember to make Parkin in advance next year…
An accident
We have two sofas in our living room and when we pull the smaller one forward to make space for our clothes airer, the arms are close enough together for the children to support themselves by their arms and swing. Amy loves doing this, and despite asking her hundreds of times not to swing, she still swings, she just can’t help the urge to swing.
Today she lost her balance and fell, landing on her arm. For a few terrifying moments, we thought it might have been broken because she wouldn’t move it and couldn’t grip very well. We are so lucky that her Nanna is a trained nurse and was able to check her over and after a lot of tears, and little nap she was feeling a lot better and had gained a lot of movement.
A change of plan
We knew it wouldn’t be sensible to take Amy out with her sore arm, so we decided to stay at home instead and watch some of the fireworks from the warmth of our living room and bedroom windows. It all worked out quite well in the end as Ava decided she wanted to go to bed soon after tea, which meant we could spend some time with the older three and their sparklers without worrying that 17-month-old Ava might get hurt.
The bigger two were understandably disappointed at missing the fireworks, so after tea, myself and Amy snuggled up on the sofa with hot chocolate and Paw Patrol while James, Lily and Daddy headed out to see if they could see some fireworks. When they returned home we snuggled on the sofa with a film and their hot chocolates.
Being together
We have had an unexpected but nice bonfire night together (injury excepted) and the most important part was spending it with each other. I absolutely love fireworks and the atmosphere on bonfire night, and we had planned to go out but we really enjoyed our night at home instead. In all honesty, the plan to go out was for the bigger children and Mr T, as a parent I find it hard to relax in crowds of people, and the little ones are often scared of the noise, crowds and dark, it’s a recipe for disaster! At the same time, I am really looking forward to future bonfire nights when the children are older so we can all enjoy it together.
EDITED TO ADD: The next morning Amy’s arm was twice as swollen and bruised. We headed to minor injuries, who sent us to our local a&e to have an x-ray. Poor Amy had broken her elbow and has now a cast covering her arm which has to stay in place for six weeks. I feel awful for not taking her sooner but she is doing okay thankfully. Poor little lady.
I am linking up with Katie at MummyDaddyMe for #TheOrdinaryMoments
Oh no! Poor Amy! This is the second post i’ve read tonight that included parkin – I really must get some of that! Hopefully you’ll have much better bonfire nights in the coming years x
She has been so brave, I am so proud of her. Parkin is gorgeous, the ginger makes it really warming, but its much better when its stickier!
Oh my gosh poor Amy! I hope it’s not too painful and she heals soon. My two are always climbing / jumping / hanging off furniture and I worry this will happen. On a lighter note, I had a moment this morning when I remembered about Parkin cake and that I haven’t made it for a few years. You don’t seem to see it around down here. It’s definitely better with age.
She has been so brave, I really am in awe of her. She swings all the time on the sofa’s, we always warn her to be careful but kids do love climbing don’t they? Its hard to stop them! She has said she won’t be swinging any more, bless her. Parkin is gorgeous, Ive not seen it in the shops near us either, I can’t wait to try ours when its ready xx
Oh no poor Amy! I hope her elbow is better soon, how scary 🙁 I hope next bonfire night is better for you all. Ps. I love parkin! x
Thank you, she has been so incredibly brave, much braver than I would have been! Ours didnt turn out so good even after waiting, there is always next year (or the shops!) xx
I hope Amy the Adventurer is feeling brighter! My eldest daughter also broke her elbow, aged 7, in the park with my parents. She stumbled off a zip wire and before taking her to hospital, my Dad tried to rub it better (ouch!) After 6 weeks her fracture healed amazingly. Now aged 13, she cartwheels and plays basket ball like it never happened. Thank goodness for our NHS. Get well soon Amy and keep exploring 🙂 x
Oh ouch!! I am really glad to hear that she is okay now and is able to use her elbow normally, its such a scary thing. I was so truly grateful for the NHS, thankfully we haven’t needed them often but we are so lucky to have them, its sad that they are so often taken for granted.
I hope Amy is feeling much better now bless her. Sometimes the idea of these things are better than the actual reality and it sounds like you still had a lovely time snuggled up at home. We also didn’t attempt one this year either, preferring to watch at home too. We quite enjoyed being snuggled up at home. x
She is doing really well, thank you 🙂 Staying in for bonfire night was perfect, like you say I think sometimes the idea is better than the reality, especially with young children because things rarely go to plan!