Catching Up- Randomness!

This delicious Victoria sponge cake was made by me with the help of Luke & Timmy to celebrate our thirteenth wedding anniversary on July 27th. I sliced strawberries to look like heart shapes & put thirteen of them on the top of the cake. It was very yummy! I nearly burnt the house down making nachos for our tea though!!
This summer we have been pottering around doing this & that mostly & taking it easy. The boys decided one day that they were going to wash the play house. It's lovely & clean now! they do love to climb on top of their Little Tike cars & mend the roof, or clean it or whatever really.

Annie-Joy still loves water! She comes running whenever she hears the kitchen taps running & often helps me wash up. It can get very wet!!

We discovered model train videos on YouTube & the children had a lot of fun watching them over & over with Lee.

Timmy made a potato figure at school. I finally remembered to photograph it before it turned green & had to be thrown away. It's an alien. He has an alarm bell on his head to help him go to sleep! He has 4 cocktail stick legs.

Luke made an alien too. He's called Martin. He is named after the book But Martin! that they read in school. It really made an impact on Luke. Luke's alien has lots of eyes.

Lee took Jordan to his first Liverpool FC match. It was a friendly against Athletico Madrid.

Jordan LOVED it even though he was actually very ill with a cold as it turns out. Jordan ploughs on & will not admit when he is ill if there is something he really wants to do. He flaked out as soon as he got back home bless him & went straight to bed without his tea. He did drink some of the homemade lemonade that Luke, Timmy & Annie-Joy had made while he was out. (See here for the recipe). It was delicious! I am sure the vitamin c in the lemon juice really helped him to get better quickly!

I have been cracking on with some more clearing out & organising in our house over the summer. This basket full of toys, books & bits were all found in our bedroom!! *sigh* I really think Annie-Joy looks like her Auntie Helen did as a child in this photo.....

....but not in this one! Cool Annie-Joy playing out on our driveway with her sunglasses, her ladybird raincoat & her beloved Bebe & pram. What a character she is! :o)

Till next time! Hope all who read are very well.

Catch Up- Croxteth Park & Gary

At the end of July our friend Gary came to visit. We hadn't seen him since May 2008 (see here) as he has been teaching in Albania for the past year. It was good to see him & catch up a little.

On one of the days he was with us we visited Croxteth Park & had fun walking in the grounds...
...and playing in the puddles -it was a very showery, sunny, hot & cold kind of a day!
The little kids had fun playing in the adventure playground...

...

...and so did this big kid!! ;o)

Timmy & Luke had a good time running wild! Jordan was still away at Grandma & Grandad's at this point. He came back later in the day with G & G & we all had a lovely meal together. Thanks Mum for the delicious food!

The steps at the side of Croxteth Hall were particularly enticing. Annie-Joy loved going up them although it was quite a big steep climb for such little legs!

The children all loved the fountain in the fish pond too. Annie-Joy was quite mesmerised by it. She really does make me nervous when she climbs up fences like this!

Luke was similarly mesmerised by the little brook running up by the Jungle Parc (a bit like Go Ape but for kids). He said he thought it was a magic stream.

The boys loved having Gary to visit. Timmy said he didn't realise that Gary was going to be so much fun! :o) Jordan was glad to have someone to play cricket with in the garden & when we walked Gary to the train station to wave goodbye we all had fun watching train after train passing slowly through the station without picking up passengers due to a broken down train! Eventually Gary managed to board a train & made his way to friends on the Wirral & then back home again.

Catching Up- Norton Priory

At the beginning of August Timmy, Luke, Annie-Joy & I went to Norton Priory with the Mansell family. I was very pleased with myself for managing to plan a route to the priory & drive myself & three kids there whilst navigating! I didn't really enjoy driving over Runcorn Bridge but it was ok! The priory is lovely place to visit- plenty for everyone to do in the museum, beautiful gardens to explore & ruins of the old priory itself to wander through. (Find out more here). The children are in the wine cellar of the undercroft in this photo. I have a similar photo of Jordan aged 3 & me in this same spot! (Jordan wasn't with us on this trip as he was having a little holiday with Grandma & Grandad!)
The day we visited we got in the priory for free as there were art activities going on jointly run by Norton Priory & the BBC. The boys helped to make a papier mache tree. It was VERY messy & the flour paste got everywhere!! It was good fun though.

Luke kept getting distracted by the pictures in the TV Times of his favourite tv characters!

Timmy enjoyed painting a butterfly transparency to hang in a window.

After all that creativity we went for a walk in the Walled Garden.

The boys posed on this sculpture & enjoyed pulling funny faces....

...while the girls watched quietly from a distance!

The geese sculptures didn't know what had happened when Timmy & Luke jumped on them! And by the looks of things, neither did Timmy!! What a face!!

Annie-Joy had to have a turn too, of course!

We all loved these chicken wire hare sculptures. They remind me of the Minotor & Hare sculptures that were in Cheltenham town centre when I was a student there.

Then to finish off the trip Timmy, Luke & Annie went to market to market to buy a fat pig or two & came home again, home again jiggity jig! :o)

We're Back!!

We arrived home late last night after a fabulous, fun filled, but very tiring holiday in the Forest of Dean. today we are 'getting organised'- you know, washing, unpacking, checking the bank balance etc etc. The 'grass' has grown since we've been away!! I shall have to cut it asap I suppose!!
I took these photos in July. Jordan thought this ground level shot was really funny because the grass looks nearly as tall as the play house! Did you know that we never owned our own lawn mower till we moved to this house 18 months ago? I think that owning one makes us real grown ups now, don't you? :o)

Well, that's all for now! Will be back soon- got lots to blog about & hundreds, if not thousands of holiday piccies! Don't fret, I won't share them all with you!! :o) TTFN!

Thurstaton Celebrations

Last month we went to Thurstaton beach with a group of friends to celebrate our friend Carole's completion of her Masters degree. We flew our kites! I love kites! Jordan flew a kite all by himself & was really pleased with himself! Lee flew the Nemo kite & broke it on it's maiden voyage!
Jordan enjoyed playing cricket with a group of people he had never met before & also discovered that he is actually very good at it! He's bowling in the photo above. Luke was running past & couldn't help but watch the master in action!!
Our kids were pretty much given free reign to play along the beach so long as they didn't venture out to the mud flats by the boats! Carole's daughter had very nearly come to a sticky end there that afternoon! Crumbs!! Annie-Joy loves playing in the sand.
They really enjoy the freedom to explore & collect things in their buckets & discover new things. Timmy was very pleased with his football print & insisted that I take a photo of it! I also had to take pictures of his footprints & his 'x marks the spot' treasure map!

Early on in the afternoon Luke realised that socks & shoes & sandy beaches don't mix very well so he decided to take them off....

....his sock got a bit stuck on his foot & as he finally pulled it off after a great effort the sand flew everywhere & all over me! It makes a great photo though!

We all brought barbecues & ate our tea on the beach. Carole provided lovely salads, nibbles, strawberries & chocolate treats! It was really rather lovely even if the wind did make it tricky to light the coals & cook the food! The man standing just behind Lee on the left of this photo is also called Lee which caused amusement & confusion all afternoon! Hee hee!

We sat close to the cliffs to shelter from the wind while we ate our tea. Something caught Timmy & Luke's attention for a long time....

... I think it was this gorgeous moth that Jordan & I had spotted earlier in the day. Jordan couldn't believe how amazing it was!

Thurstaton beach really is a hidden gem. It's so secluded & natural. Apart from our rather large group there were only about 4 other people who walked down the beach all afternoon! I think we will visit this beach again!

The view across Wirral from the top of the cliffs is spectacular! You can see all the way up the River Dee to the sea. Beautiful!

Well, I hope all who read are well & enjoying the week. I will see you back here in about 10 days time or so as we are off on our jolly holidays! See you then! Byeeeee! :o)

The Selfish Ladybird & Other Things

Jordan is no longer in the Infants!! How did those three years pass so quickly? Anyway, every year the infants put on a summer play with Year 2 taking all the lead parts. I think it's their reward after all the hard work of SATS (which Jordan did BRILLIANTLY in by the way- ALL level 3s!!). This year the play was The Selfish Ladybird & Jordan had the part of Woody the Oak Tree (the most important part so Jordan's teacher said apparently!)
It was a great play & the children did a fantastic job. Timmy & Luke & the rest of the reception class & Year 1 were the choir but as you can see from the photo on the top right Timmy & Luke were much more interested in watching the play than singing (as were most of their class actually!).
Timmy & Luke's first year in full time education seems to have gone by in a blur -or was it a whirlwind? Either way, it's gone fast & has left me feeling a little dazed! They have come on in leaps & bounds in every aspect. The piccies above are of their final Reception class homework sheets. It's amazing to look back at what they did this time last year & see the changes like the fact that they can both write their own names. Scroll down to the bottom of this post & this one to see for yourself! I love those little twinnies! I wonder what Year 1 will bring?? Gulp!!

Energy, time & enthusiasm evaded me when it came to end of year presents for the teachers as I had been ill with a rather nasty bug or summat for a couple of weeks but I managed to prettify some bunches of sunflowers for the 5 teachers that have taught & supported the boys this year. We also gave Timmy & Luke's teacher a plastic medal for all her hard work with a rather challenging class. She was delighted! :o)

After school we often take a trip into the park. Timmy is SO good at climbing! He is totally fearless with heights. Even Jordan is in awe of him!

Annie-Joy isn't too far behind him in the climbing stakes & can climb a ladder now. Basically she just wants to do what she sees her brothers doing (good & bad!!) & has the determination to achieve many things that I think are beyond her years...

Luke is much more reserved when it comes to heights (like his mother!) & prefers to swing, slide or get very dizzy on the roundabout (like his mother!!).

Jordan is still a very good, helpful, encouraging big brother.

Timmy loves flowers & picks little bunches of clover, daisies or buttercups regularly for me. I love his sweet, thoughtful bouquets.

A few days before our visit to the park we had watched Horton Hears a Who. This is Timmy looking intently at the clover to see if he can see Whoville. We couldn't. Moments later a passing bee decided that it really didn't like Timmy picking clover & stung him on his lip! I didn't see it as I was with Luke on the tyre swing but his screams were truly awful! Needless to say our trip to the park was cut short & we headed over to the walk in centre as Timmy's lip ballooned up to an alarming size! It was rather scary but thankfully Timmy is not allergic to bee stings! Phew! Briefly, Luke's passion for bees vanished as he worried over his brother's accident. He said 'I really don't think honey is worth all that trouble!' But all is now forgiven & Luke still wants a beehive cake for his 6th birthday! :o)