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)