Bees & Ladybirds!

Luke, Timothy & I made some really cute & delicious buzzy bee cakes this morning while Lee took Jordan out for a special father/son time (they went bowling & won a free game each for getting strikes! & then they did a bit of train spotting at the station. They had fun!)
Timmy & Luke really love baking, especially today's cakes as they are quite keen on bees & other creepy crawlies. Luke loves putting the mixture into the cake cases & Timmy likes mixing particularly when we've just added the eggs. Both Timmy & Jordan prod the eggs with their spoon saying 'Mash! Mash! Mash!' until the yolks have broken up! While I made the cakes look like bees they buzzed excitedly around the kitchen flapping their arms pretending to be bees. Everyone enjoyed eating the bees after lunch!
Here is a piccie of the bees altogether & one of the ladybird cakes we made in September. Here's a helpful tip- ladybirds are easier for the kids to make. Bees are a bit more tricky what with the stripes & wings. However both are great fun to eat! ;0)

PS It's NOT raining today!

PPS Jordan was exhausted after his busy week & asked to go to bed at 6pm! He just couldn't keep his eyes open, bless his heart!

Even MORE Rain!!

Today began pretty much as all the others this week only we are getting into the routine & so weren't as rushed getting out of the house! Timmy, Luke & I did a bit of train spotting on the way back from taking Jordan to the holiday club as we cross over the Liverpool-Manchester railway line & walk parallel to it almost the whole way home. We had a nice chat with an old man who told us all about how he used to watch the steam trains from the same bridge when he was a lad & how the steam used to go in his face as the train passed. After watching the coal train with it's 20 or so wagons of coal & 2 passenger trains go past I was exhausted! I had to lift both boys up & stand on tip toes in order for us to see the trains at all over the stone wall. (Timmy pointed out that we really needed a ladder!) It was worth it though!

Next stop was church so I could get some photocopying done for Sparklers on Sunday. (Sparklers is the 3-5 year olds activities during the church meeting on Sunday mornings that I lead). Then we walked to Asda to buy a thankyou present for the team of people who ran the holiday club plus food for tea & then I walked all the way back to pick Jordan up. By this time it was raining very heavily & I had been walking around Liverpool for nearly 3 hours so I was rather tired & by the time we reached the holiday club church I was drenched!

Jordan had a great time at the holiday club & the helpers were really pleased at the way he joined in. the top 3 photos are some of the things he made while he was there. He really loves colouring & takes such care doing it. He must have coloured for an hour on the Pharoh necklace! The mosaic picture is a place mat which I think is fabulous! I hope they do more holiday clubs in the future now they know how successful they are!

Needless to say after such an active morning our afternoon was quite restful. We played with the train jigsaw game, watched a bit of telly & did some colouring. Then Timmy, Luke & Jordan helped me to cook tea. The boys loved mashing the potatoes & we all agreed that it was the best mashed potato EVER!

I put the boys to bed after reading stories altogether in our bed while Lee got ready to go out to sing in the worship band at the church's prayer meeting. It has been a really lovely day! Now I am pooped! Hope your day was good too. ;-)

PS After all the rain the photocopying I had done for Sparklers got a bit soggy in the bottom of the pram so the kids will have wrinkley bible memory verse colouring sheets to take home this week!!

Slightly Less Rainy Day!

Phew! Another rainy, windy indoorsy day! We walked down to the church where Jordan's holiday club is first thing this morning. He is having so much fun! He has made a friend from his school who I think is in Year 3 or 4 & from what I have seen Nathan is pretty keen on Jordan! I have since found out that Jordan plays with Nathan on the school yard (they don't call it a playground in Liverpool. I must get my Southern brain around that!) It is so great that the kids in Jordan's school mix so well right across the age range & seek to include everyone. The parents are like that too so I guess it's no surprise really that the children are the same. It is a breath of fresh air!

Today Jordan made Joseph biscuits in holiday club which the boys enjoyed munching after their lunch. They looked great, I'm sure they tasted great but I must admit I was a bit aprehensive about the consumption of so many E numbers on a rainy day! Anyway there haven't been any adverse effects so that's good! Well, better dash! Lots of housework to do before Lee & I go out to church for the next instalment of the marriage course we are doing. Tonight's topic is resolving conflict! Do leave me your comments (not about our marriage or resolving conflict just general ones about the blog, what you are up to etc!). I'd love to hear them! :-)

Oh almost forgot the other piccie is of the scrapbook page that I finished last night. Hope you like it!

Rainy Days

Well, it has rained & rained here pretty much all day so we haven't really been out in the fresh air but we have done a LOT of stuff! Firstly the 2 piccies above are from yesterday. Jordan & I had fun taking silly snaps of ourselves & got some decent ones too. We laughed a lot taking the pictures. Jordan just got the giggles for some reason & then we couldn't stop laughing! In the afternoon (after Jordan had been to the holiday glove (as Timmy calls the holiday club) we made silly gigs (Scouse word for glasses!) which the boys loved. I must invest in some elastic thread to keep Timmy & Luke's on their heads though!

Today's craft activity was hand & foot print angels which Timmy & Jordan really enjoyed. Luke was not a fan of foot printing but he did enjoy doing the hand prints. Timmy really liked his feet being covered in gold paint & kept looking at his 'angel feet'. After we had done foot prints I drew around the boys feet so that they could colour them in in a less messy fashion. I had done Luke's & he was merrily colouring away & I had just finished drawing around Timmy's feet. I handed him the sheet of paper & gave him some pens & said 'There you go! Colour in your feet!' I then sat next to him to draw around Jordan's feet. A few minutes later Timmy pipes up 'Finished Mummy!' I stand up to see his sheet of paper in exactly the same state as it had been moments before. I said 'Timmy you haven't done anything yet!' to which he replied again even more insistently 'I've finished!' Realisation dawns on me & I look at his shoes which are now beautifully coloured in with purple & red pen!! Thank goodness it was washable felt tip pens we were using!

Timmy & Luke have been enjoying playing a colour matching game that my parents bought a while back. Each player has a train so that makes them very keen to play it!

After all the craft & running here & there getting shopping, picking up Lee from meetings & Jordan from holiday glove, er club, & going climbing trees in the park we were all pretty tired so we curled up on the sofa with the blankets & all snug & warm with the rain pouring down outside & watched a bit of telly. (Jordan has his gigs on to see the TV better!!!). I like the autumn weather & being all cosy inside watching the rain.....

This evening I had a chat on the phone with one of my best friends from Junior & Secondary school. I hadn't spoken to her for 15 years! It was good to catch up again. It was strange hearing my old accent. It seemed alien to me after living away from it for all these years.....

Well, good night! See you soon!

How Time Flies!

Jordan & Lee are standing like the statue & are saying 'Iron men!' Timmy is holding out his glove shouting 'Iron glove!' Made us giggle! Luke is too busy splashing to pose for the piccie!

The weekend has come & gone & it's Monday again! We had a lovely weekend. On Saturday we went to say goodbye to Anthony Gormley's Another Place sculptures on Crosby beach. We love those barnacled rusty men! The beach just won't be the same without them there. I love seeing 100 of them across the beach just staring out to sea contemplating life, watching the changing tides & the ships going in & out of the Port of Liverpool. I love the sea so much anyway but the fact that there is art there too has made it an even more special place to visit. It has been wonderful to watch my boys interacting with the sculptures & having fun....

Our trip ended with the usual ice cream. It's kind of become a tradition now, even on the coldest of days. In the photos of the boys with their ice creams they are all saying 'Mmmm! Delicious!' I had a cup of tea from the hot dog van, well I say a cup of tea it was actually a chip cone of tea as they had run out of cups!!!! We laughed & laughed & laughed about it! While we sat in the car with our ice creams we watched a man flying 3 kites all at the same time. He was amazing doing all kinds of stunts. The piccies don't do it justice though.

We nipped into Tesco's on the way home to buy some milk & it chucked down with rain. Just as I was coming out of the shop the most beautiful full double rainbow appeared in the sky. I just had to take a photo or two although I did feel slightly silly stood in the middle of Tesco car park snapping away. But several other people joined in too & I think the finished photo was worth the effort!

Sunday was busy but fun. My parents came for the day which was nice. For a change neither of us were doing anything in the service so we sat together for the first time in ages. I really enjoyed the preach- very challenging & encouraging. After lunch we watched a bit of the gymnastics. Timmy especially loved it & tried to do the high bars on the handle of his push-along car! It was very sweet!

And now it is Monday. I took Jordan to speech therapy first thing. He worked so hard & Timmy & Luke were really well behaved in the room so it wasn't stressful. Straight after that we took Jordan to the holiday club at the local church. He had fun learning all about Joseph. His small group is called Silly Scarabs!! I think it has made an impact because Jordan remembered the story very well & told me all about it.

By the way, if you want to see the photos bigger just click on them! I think I have worked out how to put them into the text so next time they should hopefully correspond with what I am writing about!! Well, I must go as the boys are helping me to blog! They are all swinging round on the other office chair having a laugh! ;-)

The first day of half term holidays

Well, today has been one of those days that is hard work! We have had lots of fun though. Jordan was off school as there was an inset day so we all trotted off to a friend's house for the morning & stayed for lunch which was nice. Then this afternoon we went to buy eggs & butter so we could make butterfly cakes. The boys love baking so this went down a treat. We coloured the mixture pink (I found pink food colouring so we had tasteful pink cakes instead of shocking cerese ones!) & then I made them into butterflies with butter icing & jam & sprinkles. The boys would usually help to decorate the cakes but we ran out of time so I just did it quickly before tea! We also had the best time playing with the playdough Timmy, Luke & I made this week. The boys really got into the creative spirit & made birthday cakes, suns, flowers, cars, butterflies & more. It was good fun! Am rather tired now so I am off to finish my cuppa! ;-)

First Time Blogger!

Hello! Welcome to the Daviestribe blog! Just wanted to write something before I go out to do some scrapbooking. Here is a little piccie of us all just to get things started. I shall be back again soon with all the latest news from the Davies house.

Well, I'm back from the scrapbooking crop. I managed to get 2 layouts done which is a great evening's work for me! Nice to be able to get on without the distractions & to have everything I may need to hand as well as someone to make tea for me!

We also had Jordan's school parent's evening tonight. Jordan's teacher is really pleased with his progress so far & how well he has settled into the class. She said he works hard & likes to do it perfectly, talks a lot, is very affectionate & is a popular boy who mixes well. We are so proud of him!