Batman's House

When handing us the first post at our new house the very friendly postman welcomed us enthusiastically to the area. He was obviously immensely proud of his home turf because he spent some time standing on our doorstep extolling its virtues & informing us of various local attractions that we must visit forthwith! One place was Wollaton Hall, the film location for Bruce Wayne's mansion in the recent Batman films. It is an awe inspiring building set on the top of a hill & surrounded by a vast expanse of parkland complete with deer. They wander freely, apparently oblivious to the fact that the local golf course is interwoven through their pastures. In turn, the golfers also seem unconcerned about their proximity to such large numbers of stags as they strive to achieve a birdie at the ninth hole. It certainly makes for a comical sight!

So the Davies tribe passed a very pleasant, hot & sunny afternoon at the park with a large group of people including Lee's parents, a college friend of mine & her family as well as a family who live a few houses down from us who have recently moved here from my home town of Stevenage! It's certainly a small world. We are looking forward to exploring Batman's estate further over the next couple of years. Maybe we will find the Bat Cave one day?! Or perhaps we might stumble across the well.... ;-)

A Little Princess

Today Annie~Joy celebrates her 5th birthday. It seems no time at all since we were in Liverpool Women's Hospital very early on a sunny Monday morning waiting for her to be born. In contrast, today we were dashing all four Davies children to school before Lee & I went for a run together! When we picked AJ up from school at lunch time (she is easing her way into full time school for a couple of weeks) we went off for a birthday meal at Frankie & Bennie's just the three of us. The boys have school dinners so we have been eating a main meal at lunch time so that we can all eat sarnies at teatime & save on washing up & faff! When AJ's ice cream arrived at the table it came complete with a candle in the top! The whole restaurant sang happy birthday to her as well which was lovely!

Afterwards we headed to the Disney shop to buy our little princess her very own princess! She was over the moon with Aurora! And to top it all off at teatime she saw her princess cake which she spied in the cake aisle at the supermarket almost a year ago & has dreamed of having as her own birthday cake since then. I have to say, the cake tasted delicious even though it wasn't homemade! AJ was delighted with her sleeping beauty cake but there was some confusion from one of her brothers about who the cake was of. A certain boy thought that there was a princess sitting on top of a huge pink pumpkin! Time to get re-aquainted with all those fairy stories for that boy I think! Gave us all a good giggle anyway! ;o)

All in all, Annie~Joy has been well & truly spoilt today! But she deserves it. After all, it isn't every day you turn five is it?

Tabernacle Insipration!

The kids came out of Sunday School, sorry I mean JAM & Frij, this morning armed with cool bible magazines. Jordan was inspired by today's reading (all about the Israelites building the tabernacle) & as soon as he came home from church began building a den with AJ. I was summond into the living room to see their handy work when it was almost complete. I exclaimed 'What a lovely tabernacle den!' to which AJ said 'It's not a tabernacle it's a house. Look! There's the fridge!' Sure enough in the corner was a pile of play food & a stack of plates & cups. Well, you can't argue with that can you?!

As with any major building project there have been many alterations, changes of plans, negotitaions about site location & the use of particular building materials (Luke wasn't that keen to give permission for the builders to use his blanket but consented in the end so long as he was allowed in too!). But at last the magnificent den was completed! Now our house is filled with the sounds of excited children deciding where cushions should be placed & how to make the den even better. So far the construction hasn't collapsed but my bag of clothes pegs is getting emptier by the second & there is a load of washing almost ready to go out on the line......

New Beginings

We've exchanged blue uniforms for red & now Miss AJ is old enough to join the boys at school. How time flies! We are all learning new routines, a new route to school, new rules, new everything! I think we all like it so far but it's all very different & a little bit alien. Here's to a good start to the new school year!