Catching Up! (Get a cuppa- it's a long blog!!)

At long last, here is our latest update! I'm going back a bit here to half term. We had a very low budget half term as we had a rather large car repair bill to pay just before the holidays started but we were creative & had lots of fun! On the very first day we went to Lister Drive Fishery & Pet Shop. It is in an old Victorian swimming baths that Lee used to go to every week when he was in primary school. The fish are in one of the pools, all the green Victorian wall tiles are still there & all the alcoves where the changing rooms were. Lee tells us little stories about when he used to go there as a child everytime we visit. I love going there for several reasons- one, it's part of Lee's past that I can connect with; two, you can feed the fish for 20p; three, it's like going to the zoo but free & the kids love it! We spent ages looking at all the tropical fish, rabbits, guinea pigs & birds. When Timmy saw the parrot sitting on it's cage he said 'Oooh! A chicken!' & Luke called the rabbits 'guinea rabbits' which I thought was sweet! We were all fascinated by the bubble eye fish & the golden frogs. I'm amazed at all the weird & wonderful things God has created!

The boys love this space rocket! We fly to Button Moon & Mars in it & past all kinds of aliens! The twins & I went to this park today & they both had a pretend space sleep on it!

Jordan learnt to swing himself on a big swing during half term too. He really is growing up!!

This is Timmy on the helicopter roundabout. He just loves to stand on it & watch the world go by!

This photo is of Jordan & Timmy in the flying saucer with Luke pushing them round! They did this for ages!

On a different day we went to another park with some friends. Timmy (top 2 photos) is so confident climbing up & down the hoop ladder & over the ladder bridge! He does it all by himself no trouble. Luke prefers to stay on the ground for the most part, although he loves climbing up to go down the fireman's pole!

We had some lovely weather over half term so spent a lot of time in the garden. We even had our first picnic & ice lollies of the year too! Timmy & Luke really love wearing the crowns that they made at their birthday party too. They wear them everywhere! Luke wore his on the weekly shop in Asda a few weeks back & made several old ladies days! I got stopped every few aisles with comments about how gorgeous he looked & was it his birthday? Jordan stayed at my parent's for a few days over the holidays too which he really enjoyed. We also visited our friend Jean for the afternoon which Timmy & Luke thought was fantastic! They are always asking to go to Jeanie's house. I was amazed to see how many goldfinches they had in their garden. They are such beautiful birds.

Jordan surprised us all by getting his face painted by the United Colours of Kensington group who have been coming into the kids sessions at church over the past few weeks. He has always refused to have his face painted except by me before! UCK are part of a regeneration initiative in a part of Liverpool called Kensington (where Lee grew up). It is very run down & deprived but a lot of fund money has been made available to re-build housing there & generally make it a nicer community to live in. UCK are training up people to become professional face painters & were in need of willing models to practise on so our church volunteered! In case you are wondering, Jordan is painted as a dog! He also had a lovely butterfly painted on his hand.

It's also that time of year again when Lee delivers the Yellow Pages. We had over 1000 books delivered to our house. The twins loved watching the man unload them all for us. Jordan was a great help to Lee delivering the books. He worked so hard doing it that we said we'd pay him! He is really looking forward to spending his wages in the toy shop! His current ambition is to be a postman (although he was toying with the idea of being an artist yesterday!). He was certainly in his element delivering the books!

We looked after our friend's Alistair & Rachel's cat for the weekend while they were away. The boys absolutely loved Alice the cat! Timmy was convinced that Alistair had turned into Alice & kept saying 'Alistair's not here! Alistair's turned into a white cat!'

Last week Timmy & Luke got their big boy car seats which they love! It was a little sad saying goodbye to their baby car seats but it is great to see them growing up into such lovely boys. It is also so much easier & quicker to put them in the car & they can get themselves out of the seats at the end of the journey too!

Our last bit of news for now is that it was my birthday on Sunday! My sister, Helen, took me shopping for shoes at Cheshire Oaks on the Saturday. I got 2 pairs of Sketchers that I am very pleased with! Lee took the boys over to my parents for the afternoon & Helen & I joined them there for tea. While I was shopping the boys, Lee & my mum planted up some flowers for a surprise for me & made me some beautiful cards & a delicious cake with chocolate hearts on it- yum! (No piccies though- bet you're relieved after all this lot here- as my camera refused to work!) On the Sunday I had breakfast in bed & a lie in. Luxury eh?! I spent the afternoon cleaning up the house (yes I know it was my birthday, but I really enjoyed doing it! Timmy & Jordan helped me too while Lee was out with Luke) in preparation for the evening when we had a few friends round for a cuppa & cake. All in all it was a lovely day, very relaxing & I felt totally spoilt! ;O)

Well, you can breathe a sigh of relief now because I have finished my update! Phew! I really mustn't leave it so long next time! Hope you are all well. Look forward to hearing all your news too!

Lee's Mum is 60!

Lee's mum Lorraine (on the left of the piccie above) was 60 years old this week! She had a big party for all her family & friends. It was a fun time with a disco & buffet. Lee's dad Ray also sang Loll a couple of songs- Lady in Red & Amazing - which was really lovely. They are romantics at heart I think! It is great to see them still so in love after 40 years of marriage too. Loll had fun dancing with some of her 8 brothers & also doing the old 80s dance to Oops Upside (or whatever it's called! You know, the one where you sit on the floor!). Great to see family & friends again too.

And in case you were wondering, I made the birthday cake! I have never done a 'formal' cake with tiers before, or made royal icing or piped it onto a cake (which you can tell looking closely)but I was very pleased with the result! Loll loved it too which is the main thing & although she didn't tell me what colours she would like for the icing (she said she likes all colours) it turned out I chose the same colours as she did the table decorations. Perfect!

Anyway, Happy Birthday Mum! Enjoy your semi retirement! :O)

SNOW!

We've had snow! Our first snowfall was on Tuesday last week I think when we had a light dusting of snow. It caused much excitement in our family! There wasn't enough to make a snowball or anything with it but it was white & cold & fun to crunch around the garden in! It snowed a lot more over the next few days & there was enough for Timmy & Luke to build their first snowman! Actually, it was a bit little so we called it Snow Baby. They loved making it almost as much as I did! (Rotten camera turned the snow pink in some piccies so I had to edit them. It's nearly not noticeable now!)

After school on Wednesday the boys played in the back garden for ages. Jordan said they were playing being Snow Men throwing snowballs at the fence & generally having a fun wild time!

Jordan made me a snow pizza & his first proper round snowball, that he later enjoyed throwing at our fence!

Luke & Timothy were fascinated by the white stuff! Neither of them enjoyed it going in their faces or getting it stuck to their gloves though!

On Thursday I got a call from the school saying that Jordan had cut his finger with a pair of scissors & could I come & get him as he was very shaken & upset. It really was a nasty cut & he was very pale when we picked him up. Apparently he had screamed very loudly when it happened! It must have been a real shock for him. His teacher & class mates looked after him very well. Jordan & I enjoyed 2 afternoons just the two of us while the twins were at nursery school (he got a horrible chesty cough Thursday night so couldn't go to school on Friday either!). It was sweet hearing his friends ask if he was ok when we picked Timmy & Luke up from nursery. They really are a very caring group of children!

So that was our snow adventures! It rained on Friday night & most of the snow got washed away. My giant snowball stayed for a little while though! ;O)

Grandma Came To Stay

The week before last my mum came to stay with us as Lee was away studying in London. We all love her coming to stay because I get breakfast in bed, we get porridge for breakfast, she often cuts the grass & the boys get to help her, they get lots more baths (partly because they are usually very grubby from the gardening & partly because my mum sees it as an opportunity for a rest!) & she does lots of jobs around the house for us. We also love my mum coming to stay because we love her very much! The piccies are of bathtime with Timmy & Luke sporting the latest hair do- pixie hair!- and the boys doing a spot of late night grass collecting in their cars. their hands got very, very green! ;O)

And this random photo is of the chocolate Moses baskets complete with jelly baby 'Moses' that I made with twenty 3 & 4 year old kids from church (with helpers of course!) a few weeks back as we were looking at the story of Moses in the bulrushes. I thought these were quite funny! All the kids loved making them. It was a little odd hearing Timmy & Luke asking if they could eat a chocolate Moses every now & then though! LOL!

Luke's Foot

This cheeky little boy had an accident on Wednesday! He slipped on the kitchen floor & hurt his foot so badly that he couldn't walk! I took him to the children's minor injury clinic where we spent a good few hours seeing doctors & having x rays. He was in a lot of pain but was very brave. Timmy was very good waiting in the clinic for so long! This is a copy of the x ray Luke had taken at the clinic. The doctor at the clinic thought that Luke had broken his foot. They bandaged it up for him. Luke was very proud of that plaster! (Timmy wanted a 'white sock' like Luke's too so I gave him a very long rainbow sock to wear instead! He was pleased with that!) They also said that we should go to Alder Hey Hospital Fracture Clinic the next day. So on Thursday we spent another few hours waiting for the doctor. I was very grateful that my friend offered to come with me as Lee had to go to York that day for a meeting. It made things a lot easier! Thanks Nicola!

Luke has missed 3 days of Nursery school so far, much to his annoyance! He cried nearly all the way home the first day after we had dropped Timmy off at school. But we had lots of fun, just the 2 of us, reading books & cuddling at home before playing on the train ride at the Post Office when I went to post off one of my scrapbook layouts to be published in a magazine! (Kicking myself now as I didn't send it recorded delivery- how silly!)
Jordan & Timmy made Luke these gorgeous Get Well cards while they were at school. Timmy's is of some fireworks. Check out the gorgeous curly hair that Jordan drew on his picture of Luke!
Jordan is a prolific artist & also drew several portraits of Luke in chalk. Above is one of them along with his friend Karim's drawing that he did for Luke. All Jordan's friends have been so kind to Luke while he has been ill. It's lovely to see how caring they all are.

Luke has progressed very well & is trying to walk on his foot although he is still in pain. Alder Hey Hospital aren't sure that he has broken his foot but said they wouldn't put it in a cast anyway as it would have to be a full leg cast as his leg is so small & that would cause more problems! We go back in 2 weeks for a check up. It has been interesting seeing how the children in the twins nursery react to them when they are separate. Even though Timmy has been at school alone all afternoon when I arrive at school with Luke in the pram all the kids still say to Luke 'It's Timmy'! It's funny that the children can't tell them apart!

So that has been our week! How has your week been? Hope it has been less eventful for you! Lee is off to London tomorrow for the week so we shall miss him lots. He is out at church at the moment at a worship team morning. We shall do something fun altogether this afternoon. Hope you have a great weekend. :O)

Snow Drips, Gales & the Biggest Party Bag Ever!

I have neglected our blog lately for several reasons- I 'lost' our camera so had no photos to share (I know I don't have to blog with piccies but I like to), we've been busy getting organised for the new term at school & church (I have planned the 3-5 year old Sunday School lessons till mid March which is rather organised for me but also took a while to do!) etc etc! Anyway, we are back on the blog now! ;O)

Timmy, Luke & I were out in our garden last week & spotted the snowdrops had started to flower. Our conversation went something like this:

Me: Oh look! The snowdrops have come out!
Timmy: Snowdrips? I can't see any snow drips!
Luke: It's not snowing Mummy!

When I had clarified what I was talking about we all had a good look at the lovely little flowers that we had planted last year before moving on to the sandpit & slide. It was extremely windy that day to say the least. Luke loved standing in the garden watching the effects of the wind in the trees. When we walked to nursery school I didn't dare let go of their hands as the wind was so strong it nearly knocked me over! It was hard going on the way back from school uphill, 3 kids, 1 lunchbox, 1 carrier bag, 3 balloons & enormous Winnie the Pooh teddy (from Jordan's class Teddy Bear's Picnic) & a head on wind. Luke screamed the whole way home bless him! Still, we made it in one piece eventually!

Jordan went to his school friend's party on Sunday afternoon. It was held at a soft play area where the kids played for an hour before having a birthday tea in the party room where the party host puts very loud music on on a clapped out sound system that distorts all the songs & means that no-one can hear a thing! I was a bit apprehensive about Jordan eating there again as last time when we were driving home I asked him if he'd enjoyed his tea & he said yes but the chicken nuggets were different. I asked why & he told me they were green!!!!! So when he got his food this time he shouted very loudly to me at the far end of the room (over the warped pop music) 'It's OK Mummy! They aren't green this time!' We had a great time though. Jordan is very popular & it's great to see him playing with his friends & to chat to the parents. And yes, that large bag Jordan is holding in the photo was his party bag! Each of the 10 children at the party got one! It is bigger than the present we gave the birthday boy!!!!!

On Saturday me & the boys made paper bowl frogs. they loved painting the bowls black on the inside & green on the outside & then sticking the eyes, mouth & tongue on & stapling the arms & legs onto the bowl. We went to the park on Saturday afternoon & had great fun playing on the equipment. There is a wooden play train at this park with a train track in the astro turf & a raised platform with seats for the parents but the train had been taken away to be re-painted over the winter. So instead, all 5 of us had a good time pretending to be trains & carriages & choo-choo-ed our way around the park! It was a great way to keep warm too! Brr! It was chilly!Timmy, Luke & I spent some more time in the garden today as it was very frosty. The boys loved crunching in the frost & seeing it turn all powdery on the slide after they had slid down it. Timmy was particularly fascinated by the water in his red bucket having been turned solid. We took the bucket of ice to nursery this afternoon to show! Just so happens they are doing a topic about winter weather at the moment so it fitted in nicely! The boys were amazed to see into next door's garden where the gales had blown our fence down & were desperate to go & play on their trampoline!
Luke tried really hard to push his car around the garden but what with the long grass & the frost it was near impossible for him! Timmy helped out by pushing him & was very pleased with how strong he was! Nice to see them working together....

Well, nothing else to report for now! The boy's school has it's OFSTED inspection tomorrow so I expect all the teachers are up late & nervously getting everything ready! Will be interesting to see what the report says....

Hope you are well. Have a great week! :O)

The Big Day Is Here!

Yes, the day has finally arrived when my 2 littlest boys start their school education! *sigh* In some ways it seems that they have grown into big boys so quickly & in other ways their school uniforms make them look so small! Which ever way I look at it they are certainly the most gorgeous twins ever!! ;O)

Timmy & Luke started nursery school yesterday & will go there every weekday for the next 18 months until they start school fulltime. I feel a little lost without kids in tow & I am a bundle of nerves thinking of all the mischief they could be up to in class but as yet (yeah I know it's only been two days!) I have no cause for worry. Their teacher (who has seen them every day for the past two years when we went to collect Jordan from the same nursery) said they didn't run around all over the place like she expected & was amazed at how polite they are. So it is good to know that all our hard work is bearing fruit. We are so proud of them. We love them sooooo much. We certainly have been blessed with the best 3 boys in the whole universe (I may be a little biased!) as well as the liveliest 3 boys in the universe too!

Just one last thought before I skiddadle. Lee took his neice to the football match tonight so he had his Liverpool kit on which has the word 'Carlsberg' on it. Timmy gave Lee a big hug & then pointed to the letter 'c' on Lee's shirt & says 'That's a cuh' (you know the letter c said phonetically). That boy never ceases to amaze us! How did he know that? He's only been in nursery 2 days!!! :O)

CONGRATULATIONS!

This is a photo of Daphne & Fred with a personal card from the Queen congratulating them on 60 years of marriage. WOW! 60 years by any standard is amazing but even more so in this day & age when divorce is so common. Huge congratulations to you both!

Daphne & Fred were our neighbours when we lived in Ardeley, a tiny, tiny village a few miles outside Stevenage, when I was about 5 or 6 years old. Every day after school my sister Helen & I would go to their house until my parents got home from work. We loved going there! We used to come in & have juice & biscuits while we watched Sons & Daughters on ITV. I'm not sure if we watched it because Daphne wanted to watch it or if there was nothing else on but we liked it anyway!

While we were at Daphne & Fred's we used to look out for the various birds that they used to feed. There were several regulars to their kitchen window but I can only remember Waggy the Wagtail. She used to come most days & we would feed her breadcrumbs. I also used to talk over the garden fence to a boy from my class called Andrew Grey when he was visiting his Grandma who lived next door to Daphne & Fred. I never quite understood why we both stayed either side of the fence but we did! Andrew & I used to be the ones who looked after the school fish in the holidays as we lived close enough to the school to pop in.

Another memory from those days was watching Fred chop the wood for the stove & helping Daphne to put wood into the stove so she could cook their tea. We were both fascinated by that old cooker! Sometimes Daphne would make us a special treat of Angel Delight- something we both adored but never ever had at home. It was great fun & Helen & I have fond memories of those times. :O)

Hope you are all well. Have a great day! ;O)

Happy New Year! (Or as Timmy Says Happy You)

I've Been Spotted! Hee Hee! I'm rather excited as a lady e-mailed me a few weeks ago to say she'd seen one of my layouts on the American scrapbooking website 2Peas In A Bucket & could she put it on her blog that she runs to inspire people that want to use more than 3 photos on a page. It's really exciting that someone I have never met likes my stuff enough to use it. I am really encouraged..... Maybe I will even submit some pages to scrapbooking magazine readers galleries.....

If you want to look at the blog in question it's here.

Night! :O)

IT'S CHRISTMAS!!!!

So this is Christmas & what have we done? Oh no I'm writing in Christmas song lyrics!! Haha! We finally have our tree that's what we've done! We went to buy it this afternoon & got a rather gorgeous 6 foot real Nordman tree for a bargain price. (Lee says we got a better deal this year coz I went instead of him! I must say they went out of their way to make sure the tree wasn't leaning over like last year's was!) Squashed tree into front seat of car as back seats full of children & boot too small & then squished myself into the seat behind the tree & lay almost horizontal as had had to recline seat to get tree in! It was most uncomfortable but very amusing! Arrived home & began decorating the house......
First Lee & Timmy put up the window lights.....

...& once switched on Luke shouted 'Happy Birthday!'

Next in came the tree....

...which the boys decorated with great enthusiasm! (This picture is Luke trying to reach up to put crackers on the branches!)

This is gorgeous Jordan also decorating the tree beautifully.

And Jordan posing for a photo in front of the finished tree. He is wearing an angel halo that he will wear at church tomorrow for the children's nativity procession that I am leading! (Eeek!)

Luke took an instant love of the singing Father Christmas that Lee's mum bought for all three boys last year & didn't let it our of his sight until bedtime (when he reluctantly left it downstairs because I told him he couldn't take it to bed). Luke snuggled up to Lee after the tree was decorated & they enjoyed a cozy father son moment. Gorgeous! Timmy spent most of the afternoon playing with a small fibre optic tree that sits on a car dashboard. he loved switching it on & off 'all by myself' as he said. All in all a great time was had by us all decorating the tree for the first time as a family of 5. And now we are all excited & feeling festive!

Just to let you all know (coz I know you have been lying awake at night wondering!) that the hairy grass heads we planted a few weeks back have sprouted & now have fabulous green hair! the boys loved planting & making the heads & have also enjoyed watering them & playing with them. A great present - thanks Sharon! :O)

Well, I may not get to post again till after christmas Day so have a great Christmas & a very Happy New Year.

God bless you all! :O)

I Won!!!!!

A little while ago I posted that I had entered a small competition to do a scrapbook page on the theme 'the best thing that ever happened to you'. Well, I won with the layout above (click on it to see it better if you like). It really was only very very small competition but it was very encouraging to win! I have won some scrapbook supplies which will hopefully arrive soon (Christmas post is taking ages to get through here- 5 days on of our cards took!)

Well, I shall post again later with more piccies. Have a great day! :O)

I am trying to post!

Just a quick hello to let you know that I haven't forgotten about my blog! I have been trying to upload piccies tonight & Blogger just won't let me! Well, it's either Blogger or our internet connection playing up (we are trialing something for BT so they told us things would be a bit hit & miss for the first few days). Anyway, as soon as possible I will get some photos posted.

A quick update then before I go to bed.... Jordan had a fantastic time in his school nativity play. He was an angel which actually turned out to be a bigger deal than I had thought although it wasn't a big part in the whole scheme of things. The nativity play was performed by the whole of the Infant School so not everyone got a part. the main roles went to Year 2 then a few smaller parts to Year 1 & in Reception I think there were only 6 of them that got up on stage, Jordan being one of them. Anyway, my pesky camera decided it was going on strike for the play so I have nothing to preserve that memory which is gutting especially as Lee couldn't be there to see the play. (Jordan's class teacher says she has got some photos of him in costume from when they went to perform the play for the outpatients at Aintree Hospital so that is good). Jordan did an excellent job of remembering his part & all the dance moves but doesn't yet know how to show off his natural exuberance on the stage. I am sure it will come though... it runs on both sides of the family! I was so grateful to our friend Jean who agreed to look after Timmy & Luke last minute so I could watch the play unhindered not least because it meant I could focus on Jordan's performance but also because the school hall was so packed out with parents that it would have been awful trying to contain 2 toddlers either in a double pram or standing at the back squashed between other parents & having to push past to take the boys to the loo if needed! So thankyou so much Jean! You are a star!

Timmy & Luke are doing really well with their potty training. I can hardly believe that they will start nursery in January! They seem to have grown up so much lately. I must tell you a funny thing that Timmy said tonight. I made carbonara for tea with peas in it. This was the first time I have given the boys peas in ages as Luke & Timmy had been refusing to eat food that had peas in it even when they liked the rest of the meal so I decided to stop doing peas for a while. Well, they both tried a pea & then left the rest. I said to Timmy 'Are you going to eat your peas? They are yummy!' to which he replied 'Mummy I can't eat them, I'm too young'!!!! That boy has a real sense of humour! We all had a good laugh at that!

We have had thick fog all day today in Liverpool. Lee was due to go to watch the Liverpool match tonight with his niece, Lauren & a friend but they cancelled it coz it was too foggy. You couldn't see from one end of the pitch to the other! It was a shame that they didn't get to go especially as the fog lifted just after they made the decision not to play! Still, we got to spend a bit of time with our niece which was lovely. Jordan was fascinated by the fact that Lauren had blue eye shadow on & kept saying to her 'You've got blue eyes all round here' pointing to his forehead! You can tell all the females he knows don't wear make up very often!!

Well, I must get to bed. I will try to post piccies & more news tomorrow. Hope you are well! :O)

All Sorts of stuff

It's been a busy week here in the Davies household! We are in the middle of potty training Timothy & Luke so I am being kept on my toes! It is going well though- much better than expected really. We are so proud of our little boys (who suddenly seem not quite so little any more!). Luke fell asleep on the stairs on Friday after we had been to pick Jordan up from school! Bless his little heart! He has been playing so hard!
Luke & Timmy have been really into their toy prams this week & have been looking after their Fimbles (bought for 10p at Jordan's school fair last Saturday) & beanie duck very well, pushing them all over the house including upstairs!
Yesterday we had fun making these funky Hairy Heads that a friend bought Timmy & Luke for their birthday. There was only stuff in the box to make 2 really but I found an extra pop sock & eeked out the grass seed & saw dust into 3. The boys absolutely loved making them. They all had a turn spooning the saw dust into the tights & stuck on the eyes & mouth. I really hope that the grass grows & that we will have some wild grassy haired people to show you soon! We also had great fun on Saturday playing a game called Hungry Frogs which the boys also got for their birthday. It is so simple (you press a lever that makes a plastic frog jump forward to catch little yellow balls underneath it's body that then drop down into a tray. The winner is the one who has the most balls) but we laughed & laughed playing it!


Jordan never ceases to amazes us with his abilities. The above 3 photos are of his school homework (click to see them better if Blogger will let you!). I could not believe how great he is at writing! He is only 5 & has been in school for nearly one term- wow! Jordan has been chosen to play an angel in the infants nativity play this year so that is quite exciting!

So, some other news, Lee is ill at the moment with a coldy thing that we have all had at least once the past few months so he has been resting a lot this weekend as he had to speak at a church in Wales tonight. I hope he gets on alright coz when I came into our office to use the computer I noticed he had left his memory stick here which I think had all his power point slides on it! I have been busy doing lots of scrapbook pages & have entered a competition with one layout. I shall let you know if I win or not! I have also been learning how to upload videos to my blog. I am just waiting for YouTube to put my video on their site then I can share a sweet video of Timmy singing with you!

Well, nothing else to report really.... have a great week! (Please do post a comment on here I love to hear from you! It takes a while to show on the blog though as I check it first before it gets added. Thanks!)