They Are Six!!

Timmy & Luke celebrated their 6th birthday at the end of November!

They both chose Moon Monster cakes which were wonderfully quick & simple to make. They loved them!

On Saturday 28th November they had a birthday party with lots of their friends at Underwater Street- an amazing play & discovery, arty, science-y fun place! We had never been there before (yes, I know, quite mad to book a party there but it was a gamble that paid off!) & most of the party guests hadn't been there before either. Luke loved painting the Mini car.... yes I don't know why either but it was fun anyway! :o)

There was a ball shooter....

...water play & experiments (I made a propeller boat!)...

....junk modelling (Elias made a boat too- all his own idea!)...

....a climbing wall to climb...

....super hero capes to make....

....gold to pan for & ....

....when it was collected it could be weighed on the special scales & a sticker certificate awarded! Jordan, Luke & Jason got the most gold Underwater Street has ever known to be collected in one go- 224 grammes!

There were fish to be 'rescued' -Luke put them all in little bowls of water with some food each ie the stones!

There were tunnels to explore, optical illusion house, caves & holes to poke your head through...

...Darleks to admire (Luke is rather keen on Darleks which are not to be confused with the darlek bread we had with lasagne for tea last night!)...

....pizzas could be made & ordered through the pizza parlour & the pipe intercom system that links all the little areas together...

....dogs could be groomed & 'walked'....

...fun could be had in the building yard....

...houses could be designed & built..... AND there was SO much more too!

Several children really didn't want to stop to eat party food because they were enjoying it so much!

We all sang Happy Birthday to Timmy & Luke.....

... and they both got rather excitable!

Luke ate two other children's portions of lettuce as well as his own & enjoyed pretending to be a Were Rabbit (from the Wallace & Gromit film)! All in all it was a wonderful party & not at all exhausting or wearing from an adult perspective! Our four children didn't come home agitated or wild which was a bonus! Although Luke did sustain a rather nasty cut to his gums just moments before we left the party. He was rather shaken up & there was a lot of blood but thankfully it didn't spoil his enjoyment of his party.

Timmy & Luke spent the afternoon opening all their lovely presents & playing with them all. They are indeed very very lucky boys! I can't believe they are six years old already!

Illuminations & Other Fun Things

Every year since Lee & I moved back to Liverpool we discuss going to see Blackpool Illuminations. This year we finally did it! I had never seen them before & the boys loved the idea of going on trams & staying up late so we were all a bit excited as we headed off up the motorway one afternoon in half term. We pretty much got straight onto a tram & enjoyed riding up & down the Prom for an hour or so while the sun was setting. Beautiful!
All four children loved sitting at the top of the tram looking out at the views.
They liked the look of the pier too but we decided not to venture there. I enjoyed watching Jonathan Livingston Seagull swooping over the Big Wheel. Can you see him?

We bought chips & doughnuts for tea (having had a proper meal at lunch time at home) & sat on the sea front enjoying the sea breeze. Timmy spotted the moon peeking out from behind the clouds just after I took this photo. The boys were fascinated by the roller coaster. It frightens the living daylights out of me! Thank goodness they are too small for that just now & that we didn't have money for us all to go in the pleasure beach anyway!

We rode the trams again after tea, intending to see the illuminations from there but it got very very busy & the tram windows steamed up so we decided to go back to the car & drive the Golden Mile instead. Blackpool is certainly magical at night. The boys enjoyed a little splash in these fountain lights en route to the car park!

As a treat we bought the children light sabres. Annie-Joy was probably a bit young for one really but it was fun while it lasted!

the Golden Mile is actually 5 miles in total & due to the traffic & some broken traffic lights, the whole thing took us over an hour to drive along. It was fantastic though! We all loved the alien spaceships.

Blackpool Tower was spectacular lit up & had green lasers coming from the top of it too!

This 'Tum' illumination was one of the boys favourites along with the Daleks & the disco glitter balls.

But this illuminated tram took everyone's breath away as we saw it coming up the road! Luke could hardly contain his excitement when he saw then tram & then the driver sitting in the round engine window! We drove back to Liverpool late that night having had a fabulous time. I think we will be doing it again next year now. Perhaps it's the start of a family tradition?

I think I told you we went bowling for 1p each? Annie-Joy played her first game & looked so cute in the bowling shoes! Lee won, followed by Luke & AJ (who got 3 strikes!!). All good fun & it only cost us 6p!

Several ships have docked in Liverpool recently including the Queen Mary II & HMS Illustrious. We saw both but Lee took the boys for a special trip out to see HMS Illustrious one Sunday afternoon. Lee laughed at me as I kept calling it HMS Invincible; he thought it was a name that might tempt fate so to speak... I had the last laugh though when he googled it & there really is an HMS Invincible! :D The sea is in our blood on both sides of the family with both my Grandad & Lee's Grandad being in the Royal Navy so I often wonder if any of our children will follow in their footsteps. They certainly enjoyed meeting the sailors & seeing the ship.

Well, that's all folks! See you back here soon I hope! :o)

Mumpkin Puffins!

October half term saw the Davies Tribe doing lots of exciting things! It was a jam packed week with the boys all going to a holiday Bible club at a local church every morning & the afternoons filled with games, making things & watching films. We made pumpkin muffins again this year after their success last year. I improved the recipe & they taste even better! Annie-Joy discovered that she LOVES scrapping out pumpkin seeds & string! This is one she did so that we could roast it in the oven ready to go in the muffins.
The boys took it in turns to measure out ingredients for the muffins. Luke enjoyed spooning the pumpkin puree into the cup to measure it out.
Timmy weighed out the flour, looking carefully at the numbers on the dial till they reached the correct weight. Everyone broke one egg into the mixture & had a good stir of it before spooning it into muffin cases.

I couldn't resist putting a swirl of butter icing with a sprinkle of cinnamon on the top of the cooled muffins & then making some little pumpkins out of orange icing. Everyone agreed they were VERY cute! :o)

By Friday we had run out of umph & Timmy had come down with a fever & really wasn't up to much so all plans for making lots of pumpkin lanterns went out the window. Timmy was really keen to make his but sadly wasn't strong enough to do any more than cut the top off his pumpkin & peer inside it! Poor darling! By Saturday Luke was coming down with it too & didn't even get to cut his pumpkin!

Jordan & Annie-Joy managed to scoop all the insides out of their pumpkins & with a team effort we made two lanterns! Jordan drew a wonky face on his...

...and I made AJ's into a teddy face which she loved (as you can see above!). She loved drawing over her face design all over the pumpkin too!

They looked pretty good lit up! We put them both on our porch above our front door. AJ waved bye bye to teddy sitting up there every time she saw it.

On Saturday evening we went to a family disco at our church. Timmy was fully well again & he & AJ thoroughly enjoyed the party but Jordan & Luke were under the weather coming down with the fever. It did mean Luke & I had lots of lovely cuddles though. The girl next door had a very loud & late Halloween party so none of us had a good night's sleep that night sadly (she did warn us before hand & apologise afterwards & cleaned up our garden the next day too). Anyway, it was a good fun half term week despite illness & lack of sleep! I have a few more piccies to post later of our trip to Blackpool to see the lights so do come back soon! :o)

Little Bits

This is my favourite family photo!! No need to worry who is smiling or who has their eyes closed!! It was taken on a walk around my parent's new patch one Sunday afternoon. From left to right the shadows belong to; Lee, Annie-Joy (in pram), me, Timmy, my Mum, Luke, Jordan (with huge stick!) & my Dad (waving!)
During the walk we visited Oswald's Well, saw little alder cones, chatted to some local children who were building camps under some huge oak trees & saw the water treatment fountains!! Annie-Joy is wearing a lovely little top that my mum made for me when I was her age. considering it is 30 years old it looks good, doesn't it?
The boys all had the chance to be junior chefs at school & made delicious Summer Fruit Stacks (known as Summer Puddings to you & me). Timmy's effort was practically perfect! Annie-Joy & the boys have discovered that wearing my high heels is lots of fun! Annie thought I wanted to take a photo of the cracker she was about to eat not her looking fabulous in a lilac rar rar skirt & my shoes!! In the Davies household Friday is treat day- an incentive to behave at home & at school! The boys get to chose a treat from the corner shop by their school. Luke chose Space Invader crisps (yuck!!) one week & really did not want to put the empty packet in the bin after he had eaten them. We took a photo & then he was ok to throw it away! We picked up three cute boys on a recent trip to Ikea! And the boys love to climb on the green box on the way home from school. AJ likes to join them too sometimes!
Here are some cakes I made for the latest school cakes sale which helped to raise over £100! Not bad eh?

We still go walking in Sefton Park. Last time we saw a squirrel by the Fairy Glen & the boys hand fed it with acorns & conkers! AJ thought it was a mouse & kept calling for mousey!

Lee & a few other Dads we know all took their boys to the Southport Air Show for the day. They had a lot of fun! They enjoyed going inside the army trucks although the soldiers were a bit surprised that our boys wanted to try out all the levers & pedals!! The boys had fun playing on the beach & brought back about half the sand from the beach in our car!! Took me ages to hoover it up!

We all went into the city centre when Jordan had his suit fitting for Felicity & Urim's wedding. Jordan enjoyed trying on all the top hats! Afterwards we went into Lee's favourite watering hole called Brew & had fancy tea, hot chocolate & toast! The children thought it was the best!! On the way back to the car we walked past St Luke's Church which is known locally as 'the bombed out church' because it was bombed in the war & now only the walls are still standing. Inside are lovely gardens & there are often concerts & events happening there.

So, that's a little update to keep you going for now! I have lots more to blog about so hopefully I will be back very soon! Hope all who read are well. :o)

THE Wedding!

Last Wednesday our dear friend Felicity married Urim Dobrushi at the Palm House which is a place we love to visit a lot (see here). You may remember that I have been busy making all kinds of things for the wedding including the invitations.
The wedding ceremony was absolutely gorgeous! Jordan was a page boy as Felicity is his Godmother.
He absolutely LOVED getting dressed up & having his photo taken by the wedding photographer (who said he was the politest, well mannered & well behaved boy he had ever worked with! He also said that Jordan would make a fabulous model!) You can see the official wedding photos here (click Dobrushi album if it doesn't come up on the link).

The boys loved the wedding cars! The chauffeur was kind enough to start the car with the old fashioned handle much to the boys delight! Timmy & Luke both said the car was just like Mr Toad's car in Wind In The Willows (which they had seen at the cinema the day before on a school trip). Annie-Joy had too much fun splashing in the puddles & got wet socks & Lee & Jordan nearly off the top of steps during the group photo but apart from that it was uneventful!

The wedding party with Felicity's parents at either end.

The gorgeous bridesmaids & page boys.

I made all the place names & table numbers & seating plans for the wedding. I was rather pleased with my last minute idea for tying a number tag to a wine bottle! The whole place looked really lovely. I love the picture on the bottom far right of the photo above- it's the reflection of all the tables in the Palm house roof! (Do click on any of the piccies to see them bigger by the way!). I might actually like purple after working with it so much for the past three months!

The speeches were great, the food was yummy & our children loved the company of the other guests as well as the goody bags Fliss put together for them all. Timmy & Luke's included an animal magazine with an inflatable tiger & a sticker book of all the places of interest in Liverpool. Jordan got a little book & a disposable camera to document his day as a page boy. He was over the moon with that & snapped away all afternoon taking pictures. Hope they come out ok!

And the cake I made! Gosh! It was a big project! I handmade the flowers out of sugar & put edible glitter on all the flower stamens individually (Fliss loves sparkle!). I had never made sugar flowers like this before! I had fun putting the beads onto ribbons for each corsage & I was pleased with the finished result... very pleased actually! The bottom layer was fruit cake & the top two layers were lemon madeira with lemon curd & butter cream filling (never done that before either!!). I missed the cake cutting though as I was taking Annie-Joy, Timmy & Luke home to bed. The caterer wasn't expecting to be cutting a cake & really wished that I had been there to do it for him! He apologised to me for cutting it so badly! I thought it was fine...

Jordan enjoyed dancing the night away & had fun with the ushers. The boys love Fliss very much. Timmy was desperate to give Fliss a hug after the wedding & wasn't too impressed that she was busy having photos taken in the Fairy Glen (part of Sefton Park). Eventually he got to cuddle her & Luke too! It was a wonderful day & we were all so glad to be a part of Felicity & Urim's special day. :o)