Hello Pumpkin!

We all love this pumpkin hat! I bought it for Jordan when he was one. It was the hat that made him enjoy wearing hats as a baby! Everyone enjoys wearing it at the moment! Luke went to sleep wearing it the other night! Last week was half term for us. We had a lovely time doing this & that. Jordan went to a holiday club at the local church every morning & had a fantastic piratey themed time learning all about St Paul. We also got a bit autumnal (hee hee!) over the holiday & made some delicious pumpkin muffins.
First we roasted the pumpkin in the oven & made it into a coarse puree when it was cooked. We mixed the pumpkin in a bowl with eggs & oil. In another bowl we sifted plain flour, sugar, baking powder & spices together....

...then we mixed the pumpkin mixture & the dry ingredients together in a large bowl that once belonged to my Grandma. (That is Luke behind the wooden spoon in the first piccie by the way!!) Oh! In case you were wondering where Timmy's mixing photo is- he didn't want to make muffins because he wanted to play with the train track! He was very keen to share the muffins WE made with everyone at school though!
The muffins turned out beautifully & tasted delicious! I topped some of them with pumpkin seeds too which I think looked really pretty!

We made lots so we wrapped up six to give to the infant teachers at school. The nursery teacher asked for the recipe so I think that means they went down well at school too! :D

Timmy & Luke each had a little holiday at Grandma & Grandad's house & did lots of wonderful things like walks along the canal viaduct at Chirk....

...and pretending to be an apple tree!...

... whilst picking apples from the tree in the garden! The boys loved coming back to Liverpool on the train & LOVED getting Virgin train activity bags from the man at Crewe station! Thankyou Mum & Dad for spoiling the boys & giving them such a lovely holiday treat.

The high light of the week for me & Lee was the Delirious? concert we went to on Wednesday night. We are huge fans of the band & have been for 12 years or more. We have even sung on one of their albums- Glo! It was about 8 years ago & we both took the afternoon off work & drove down to London for the evening (Ah! The mad things you do when you're young!! LOL!!). We spent the evening in a London recording studio with Delirious?, David Grant & a lot of other people who became the Delirious? choir for the night! We drove back to Liverpool the same night ariving home at 3am or some such ridiculous time! But, it was SO much fun!

Anyway, this is Delirious? last tour as they are disbanding at the end of the year which is sad & yet good too because the lead singer, Martin is moving on to use his music to raise awareness & money for people in poor countries through a charity called CompassionArt. The things he talked about during the concert & the verses he shared from the Bible about the work they have begun in India & Africa were deeply moving & thought provoking. I hadn't quite expected that from a rock concert!

It was a fantastic evening (even though we weren't right at the front moshing like we were back in the day! We arrived later with all the 'old' people who had kids to put to bed etc so we had to stand on the stairs by the balcony at the back!!). It was so good to see Delirious? again for the last time.

So! That was our half term! How was/is your half term going everyone? Do hope you are all keeping well! Goodbye till next blog! ;o)

Our Day Out With Thomas!

The high light of our holiday (oh so long ago!!) was the day we spent on the Dean Forest Steam Railway in the company of Thomas the Tank Engine...
... the Fat Controller (who I think preferred to be addressed as Sir Topham Hatt!)...
... Douglas...

.... Toad (Thomas's brake van)...

...Daisy the diesel rail car...

and Luke's favourite engine, Diesel.

We loved watching the story that the trains acted out for us all. Naughty Diesel crept up & stole Thomas's coaches while he was sleeping (he had been a very useful engine you see & was rather weary)! We had to shout 'Wake up Thomas!' at the top of our voices but Thomas only woke up when the Fat Controller threw a bucket of water over him!! Thomas raced off down the track in hot pursuit with the Fat Controller right behind him in a little engine called Pluto calling out through his mega phone 'Stop Diesel! Hurry Thomas!' and other such comments! I must say, it was all rather exciting! (By the way, the old man just at the side of the photo is the Station Master. I couldn't help thinking that the Days Out With Thomas must make his year seeing all the young families sharing his passion for steam engines!)

Annie Joy LOVED it & clapped & smiled all through it!

We had many rides on Daisy, Thomas & Douglas. We all loved being part of the race between Douglas & Daisy! It was fun listening to the Daisy story on the journey to Parkend station which had been written especially for that part of the railway line. The boys also had a ride on this little steam train.

I love the tiny fire box. The driver stokes up the fire with a teaspoon shovel! How sweet eh?

This sign made me smile! And I'm not sure how useful those fire buckets would actually be in an emergency tucked away in a corner!

Ah! This sign reminded me how much life has changed. Can you imagine going into a shop & saying 'Could I have an ounce of Westward Ho please?'! (Wot? Wot??!)

We finished off the day by watching the Punch & Judy Show which the boys thought was fantastic! They loved Mr Punch turning the baby into sausages by mistake!!!!!! (That's the back of Luke's head in the photo!). We had a fantastic day out! It was well worth the money especially compared to the prices of some other activities in the area. After we said goodbye to Thomas & his friends we went to have tea with our friend Josie which was really lovely. We stayed in the cottage an extra night & spent the final day of our holiday in Cheltenham with Angie & Christian & some other friends from our old church too. We even managed to show the boys The Wishing Fish Clock in the shopping arcade which is a magical clock that blows bubbles every half an hour amongst other things! We love it! All in all, we had a wonderful holiday..... but it seems rather a long time ago now! LOL!!!

Happy 2nd Birthday Blog!!

Can you believe that I have been blogging for two years now?! How time flies when you're having fun! I still have lots of exciting things to blog about but for now life is full of little things like getting Timmy & Luke settled into full time school and....

.... High School Musical jigsaw puzzles with Jordan after the other kids are in bed and...
.... High School Musical photo shoots & lots of editing of photos ready for our church's High School Musical party invites....

There's also an awful lot of shopping to be done which is now infinitely more exciting with reusable jute shopping bags! (Oh the joy of not using plastic carrier bags!)

...and I'm also doing a LOT of sorting & organising at the moment! You know, there's something very satisfying about putting things into the recycling bin & having a good clear out!! Anyway, that's enough randomness for one post! I'm off to peg out washing before I have to collect Jordan from holiday bible club with Luke & Annie Joy (Timmy is away with Grandma & Grandad for a few days holiday! Miss you Timmy! Mwah!). Hope you are all well! See you here soon! :D

Guess Who?

I'd better tell you who it is right now seeing as the last time I got you all to guess who here I forgot to tell you who it was!! (The couple in this photo were Lee's parents in 1969 by the way!). So, of course, the photo above is of the Okines family- my mum, dad, sister & me (aged 2) outside our house in Stevenage. I used to love that white picket fence. I have no idea why! Once upon a time when I was about 4 I decided to sell flowers I had picked in the garden to people passing by our house! I think I made quite a bit of money until my mum realised what I was doing!!! Hee hee! :D

Autumnal Afternoon

One of my primary school teachers used to use the word 'autumnal' at every available opportunity! Every year when the season changed from summer to autumn she would have us writing 'autumnal poems' or seeing how many new words we could find from the word 'autumnal' etc etc. I think she liked the word autumnal very much & it's thanks to Mrs Dunn that the word is now forever in my vocabulary! :D
Anyway, Sunday afternoon the weather was gorgeous so we headed off to the park with two bikes & a scooter (our car is big but not big enough to get three bikes & six people in it at the same time!). It was good to be out in the sunshine for a brisk walk around the woodland & the lake.

The boys did need a lot of reminding to look where they were going but no one rode into telegraph poles or crashed into each other unlike the last time I took 3 boys & a pram out for a bike ride around the block alone (in a moment of madness I had thought it would be relaxing & fun!).

It was good to see the boys riding off down the paths enjoying a bit of freedom away from busy roads.

I had to share this photo of 'the boys' because it's so lovely! I took it as we all sat at the kitchen table after we had eaten our tea.

Annie Joy continues to grow (obviously!) & has lots of new 'tricks' including climbing the stairs & sitting on chairs all by herself (with varying degrees of steadiness & success!!!). She 'helped' me change the bed clothes & tidy away the toys today! Bless her little cotton socks!

I do hope that I will get to blog again properly very soon (broken computer monitors, house clearing & sorting & the daily grind seem to be getting in the way at the moment!). In the mean time, I hope all who read are very well! TTFN!

Summer Holiday Part 2

PHEW! A week's worth of holiday photos have been edited & prepared for blogdom at last! Our family holiday was much anticipated as we hadn't had a holiday in over 2 years! Actually leaving Liverpool proved something of a long drawn out affair due to car trouble but eventually we were all squished in the car & on our way to the Royal Forest of Dean!

We were very blessed that some family friends offered to pay for our holiday for us. My mum found the wonderful Rosedean Cottage on the internet & booked it up for us. The cottage was fabulous & we can highly recommend it. The owner has thought of everything! It was great to have stair gates, high chair, laundry room, toys & books for the children, DVDs & CDs & so much more available to us throughout the week. Thanks Mum for finding it for us & thankyou Alison & Bob for paying for us to go! It was such a blessing!

The Forest of Dean is a place close to our hearts as it is where Lee & I got married 12 years ago. It seemed an ideal place for us to holiday in as we knew the area well, had lots of friends & family close by & it isn't too far to drive there. We stopped off at my parents on the way for a quick loo & tea break & then heading on a little trip down memory lane towards Ludlow where Lee & I were engaged at the top of the parish church tower. We had a car picnic in Ludlow too which was great fun!
The first weekend we were away we had a barbeque at the cottage with my sister Helen, Ian, my Uncle Ben & my parents. It was lots of fun making vegetable & fruit kebabs although not so easy to get them to cook! I'm still unsure why Luke decided to pretend to be asleep when he saw me about to photograph him eating his hot dog but that is what he did! On the Sunday we took the boys to the church were we got married. The service was inpsiring & fun. I still think of the older lady (whose name escapes me for the moment) who baked a victoria sponge cake with the children during the service as an object lesson illustrating the fact that we are all different but each of us has a purpose & is needed in God's body in order for us all to make something beautiful! The boys loved eating some of the cake after the service too! It was so great to take our family there & to see old friends & familiar faces again.
On Bank holiday Monday Uncle Ben treated us, my sister Helen, Ian & his dad to a pub lunch. It was a lovely afternoon & great to spend time with everyone. Actually the last time we ate in The Butcher's Arms (which is the pub next to our holiday cottage) Ben paid for our meal & Jordan was about 9 months old! So thanks for treating us to a yummy meal once again Ben! The rest of the week was full of lots of exploring & walking in the forests. Knockly Patch was our first port of call where I used to walk Ippy, Helen's dog in the weeks just before Lee & I married. It was strange thinking that way back then we never would have dreamed that one day we would bring our 4 children to walk along the very same paths. We enjoyed a stroll around the arboretum too which has lots of wooden sculptures made by visually impaired people. The boys loved the huge Millennium tree seat.
We visited Puzzle Wood & spent several hours wandering through the pathways & up & down the stone steps & over the sometimes rickety wooden bridges! The woods used to be Roman iron mines & are said to be the place that inspired JRR Tolkien's Middle Earth from The Lord of the Rings trilogy. You can certainly see that when you visit Puzzle Wood! It was rather muddy through the woods & poor Timmy slipped & fell giving his ear a terrible bruise & the rest of him a nasty shock! As he was crying Lee noticed his shoes were all covered in mud & said 'Look Timmy! Your shoes are all mooshy!' (Mooshy is one of Timmy's made up words for when things are squishy & mushy). Timmy was very proud of his mooshy shoes & face! The boys loved the giant wooden maze with stairs & little secret doorways & corridors that you had to crouch down to go through & it was lovely to see the donkeys & Shetland ponies too. By the way, if you do want to visit Puzzle Wood & you have a baby you'll need a kind Auntie Helen to look after her while you go exploring or the use of a baby carrier as prams can't be used in the woods! (Thankyou Helen for looking after Annie Joy for us!)
With all the rainfall we have had over the summer the Forest was blooming with ferns & cow parsley & mushrooms of all kinds! I did enjoy photographing the mushrooms as you might guess from the picture above!
Another high light for us was our day out with the Walsh family at Beechenhurst Sculpture Trail. We walked for miles that day! The 5 children that were walking got a little tired after 2 hours!!! But with a short rest on a bench & a game of I Spy with teacher Christian & some rousing songs to get us up the last hill we made it back to the car park in one piece.... Although Timmy had another fall right at the start of the trail & gave himself a bloody nose! Our 3 boys loved wearing their new rabbit wellies & looking for all the Giant's possessions (the first sculpture is the Giant's chair so after that every other sculpture was then re-named 'the giant's _____'. The play area at the sculpture trail is fantastic too! We could have spent all day just playing there really!
We went to Symonds Yat twice while we were away as there is crazy golf at the Butterfly Farm & Maze place. Jordan LOVES crazy golf so he was over the moon to be able to play twice in one week! We also went for a lovely walk along the River Wye & over the suspension bridge & back along the banks on the other side where we got the hand ferry back across the river again. It was great fun but not really a suitable walk for a pram! Annie Joy got very jolted about on the way back to the car & Lee did a sterling job pushing her on such bumpy terrain! (I think I did very well crossing the river on the bridge! I don't like heights especially not when accompanied by deep water! I got rather hot but wasn't as panicky as I was the last time I crossed the same bridge!).

We didn't get to do a lot of the things we had planned to do on holiday but we are hoping to go back to the cottage again next year & do some more of the same & some new things too! I have one last event from our holiday to tell you about but it deserves a blog post all to itself! So, thanks for reading & look out for Summer Holiday Part 3 the final installment! Hope all who read are very well. TTFN! :D
PS Do click on the postcard photos- they really will get bigger this time so you can see them more clearly! It took me a LOOOOOONNNNG time to upload them so I know it will work this time! LOL!!