She's Two!!

Can you believe it? Annie-Joy is now two years old! And what a cutie she is!
The postman delivered many parcels & letters for Annie on her birthday & she had a fabulous time opening them all up! She loves the teddy bear book that Grandma & Grandad gave her...

...and the Ninky Nonk train from the Walsh family. she loved the tights from G & G as well & put them on herself straight away & said 'Nice!' (It's her favourite word to use when she has got dressed!)

Annie-Joy received many lovely cards too. Jordan made her this one. It says 'Joyday! Wihoo!' & has a picture of a 'frobry' on it. 'Frobry' is how AJ says strawberry. She has strawberries on her new shoes so now instead of asking for her shoes she asks for her 'frobry'. AJ's word for strawberry can easily be confused with her saying 'Straw please' when she would like a drinking straw to drink her juice with! :o)

Annie & I had a lovely day. The sun was shining & after the gas safety inspection man had been for the annual test of our appliances we pegged out the washing & had fun playing in the garden. Then we made birthday fairy cakes!

Annie-Joy loves teddy bears so I made the cakes into little teddy bears with chocolate buttons & chocolate drops. I did put teddy mouths on some of the cakes but it was a bit fiddly & quite honestly the cakes still looked teddy like without them so I left them off most of the cakes to save time!

Lee's mum came for birthday tea which was Annie's favourite Chickpea Cous Cous. We had a lovely, relaxing time together.

Annie is good at blowing out candles now! You can just see Luke helping her too!

We all enjoyed eating the teddies! Hee hee!

On Saturday we had a few friends round for cake & the singing of the jolly song 'Happy Birthday'. It was a really lovely time, so relaxing even with 8 small children & 5 adults present. It was great to chat & spend time with everyone.

As well as the birthday cake I made some teddy biscuits with my new biscuit cutter which Lee had to collect from the sorting office at 8am on Saturday! So these really were hot off the press (what is the baking expression I'm looking for here?? My mind has gone blank). I had also planned to make chocolate teddy lollipops but the moulds didn't arrive in time so I shall do them another time.

Annie-Joy loved her teddy birthday cake! My mum bought a teddy shaped cake mould years back from a charity shop I think but I hadn't quite plucked up the courage to use it until now. Much to my relief the cake turned out of the tin perfectly & I happily iced it with a piping bag full of chocolate fudge icing! It got quite messy but it was very easy.

We all sang a very rousing rendition of Happy Birthday much to Annie's delight....

...and then the cake was cut & eaten- much to the boys delight!! They also enjoyed some fizzy pop which is something they usually only get at birthday parties!

Luke was quite excited about eating the teddy cake & kept looking for teddy bones!! He had just recently been for his spine x ray & check up at Alder Hey so I think that had a lot to do with it! The party guests left with bottles of bubbles each (another of Annie's favourite things). The sun was shining brilliantly that day, as it had done two years ago when AJ was born, so after lunch we headed to the park with some other friends & had fun playing in the play area & eating ice cream in the scorching heat! What a fun way to celebrate I say! :o)

Beechenhurst & The Birthday Barbeque

Day three of our holiday began with a trip to Beechenhurst Lodge. We got there early so it was very quiet which was lovely. Family tradition (going way back to last year!!) dictated that we must have a group photo sitting on the huge log!

The kids had a fabulous time in the play area. The boys did obstacle races a la Total Wipe Out! Some how Jordan climbed on top of the wooden miner sculpture! I still don't know how he managed it! One minute he was riding the wooden horse, the next he was on the miner's head saying 'I did it! I won!!' Annie-Joy had a great time following her brothers down the fireman's pole with the help of Lee & Jordan. All of a sudden she is big enough to go on a 'grown up' swing all by herself without falling off! She can even swing herself too!
At lunch time Helen, Ian & Dave (Ian's dad) came round to the cottage for a barbeque to celebrate Helen's birthday. We had a lovely time together.

Lee always loves getting the barby going!! This was his second attempt as the first disposable barbeque didn't light properly & fizzled out to nothing within seconds! Although a bit smokey to begin with the second tray did a great job! We all loved the toasted marshmallows for pudding. Can you believe that Lee had never tried one before?

The boys played brilliantly together. Jordan organised some races & ball games. They were so fast at running I couldn't get a good photo!

I loved watching this bumble bee gathering nectar in the garden. I feel a little sad that the bee population is in decline. Hope they don't become a thing of the past! Take a look here for some fascinating bee info! I never knew there were 250 different types of bees in the UK! Did you?

This is Helen modelling the earrings I made her for her birthday. I don't think the photo does them justice! (Helen looks nice though!). I also made her a matching necklace. They were a lot of fun to make.

We gave Helen a caterpillar birthday cake. I had hoped to make her a cake but that never happened! Anyway, Mr Caterpillar did the job just fine. There was much hilarity during the singing of Happy Birthday as Lee got the words wrong by accident!!! It was very funny! I have a cracking picture of Helen doing one of her really enormous loud laughs but she wouldn't be impressed if it found it's way on here! Hiding behind Helen is Uncle Ben who joined us later on in the afternoon.

Helen did a great job of blowing out the candles & we all enjoyed a slice of very rich chocolate caterpillar! Mmmmm!

When everyone had gone home we settled down to watch Ice Age 1 which the boys were very excited about! We hadn't watched it before. They laughed & laughed at it & thoroughly enjoyed it. Lee fell asleep! (I should point out that Jordan & Annie aren't as close to the tv as the picture makes it look!).

After baths & all that jazz Lee read the boys a story on our bed. they had a lovely chat & pray together before everyone jumped into bed. Another fun day away! Lee & I watched Spiderman 2 in the evening. Again, rather a good film! :o)

Knockley Patch & Josie

Day Two of our holiday was a little bit 'functional'! In the morning we took a trip to Lidl in Cinderford to get the week's food & supplies. A watermelon got dropped between shelf & trolley! Oooops! It made the aisle smell delicious! I cooked our main meal at lunch time & then we headed out to Knockley Patch for a walk. (Last year's piccies are here). I love how the boys climbed over the fence...
... Annie-Joy isn't big enough to climb over just yet but she gave it a good try!
It's always good to explore the forest. We heard crickets in the bushes & then saw them! They are hard to photograph! As soon as they camera beeps off they spring!! I think they are a bit scary!

Luke collected a huge number of pine cones. He tells me he loves trains, snails, bees & pine cones best in the whole world.

Red cuckoo pints. At least I think that's what they are called. They remind me of my childhood in Ardeley.

Annie-Joy loves sticks & stones. She carried this one for a very long time swinging it somewhat wildly & giggling lots!

We had lots of races on the way back to the car (we did a circular route) as there were some steep hills & some rather weary children. The boys enjoyed cheering Annie on as she ran towards them for big hugs. I always came last! At the beginning of our walk a couple with two dogs asked us for directions to the camp site. We gave them directions.... they didn't follow them.... we kept seeing them crossing our path in the distance. They reminded me of the two lost cars in the film Cars ('We have the GPS honey! Never get lost again!'). I wonder if they are still wandering the forest?? I hope not!!

After our walk we went for tea at our friend Josie's house. We had a lovely time with her catching up on all the news etc. The boys love her very much. Jordan called her Grandma throughout the visit & didn't even realise he'd made a mistake! I think that's really sweet!

Jordan played a game of Snakes & Ladders with Josie. He loves board games!

This one was Josie's when she was a child. They certainly don't make them like that any more!

The children had a great time playing with all Josie's children's old toys. I was very happy to see these little people! I had a set of them when I was a little girl & I loved them!! They stack in all kinds of different ways so you can make towers & patterns with them!

Annie-Joy took a shine to them too. Funny how things come full circle.... We had a really good afternoon with Josie. She is such a lovely lady. :o) After we had bathed the kids & put them to bed, Lee & I watched the first Spiderman film. It's been years since we last watched it! I had forgotten how good it is. We all slept like logs that night. I didn't even hear closing time at the pub next door! :o)

Are We There Yet?

Aaaaaah! Holidays in the Davies household don't seem to be complete without traffic jams & delays & this year's holiday was no exception! We began our journey on the motorway thinking it would be best for speed & comfort (ie toilets!!).... After an hour sitting at a complete stand still on the motorway we realised it would be quicker to take the A roads. We managed to get off at the next junction & made our way through to more slow traffic & roads works on the A47! But at least we were moving!
The children did excellently on for the entire 4.5 hour journey (2 hours more than expected) & were kept occupied by the snack packs I prepared....

....pulling funny faces....

....eating more snacks & having a car picnic....

...looking at the views & reading the SatNav. Jordan loved seeing where the railway lines were coming up & guessing whether we would go under the line or over it. Timmy was especially interested in the River Severn -partly because he knows it floods Gloucester regularly & that scares him a little! Every river or stream we drove by he asked if it was the Severn!

Anyway, eventually we arrived at the cottage (it's the same place we went to last year! See here). Jordan made us all toast in THE toaster! It's all fancy & automatic & really cool!!

After our toast we headed out to see Auntie Helen & Uncle Ian & Uncle Ben.

The kids played in the park by Helen & Ian's flat until it rained too much & we had to go in! Annie-Joy & Timmy & Luke had a lot of fun talking to each other through this speaker. There is one at either side of the park & you talk in one side & listen at the other like a string telephone!

Ian's tropical fish were much admired by Timmy, Luke & Annie-Joy. It's very relaxing watching fish swim... By the time we had cooked & eaten tea back at the cottage & put everyone to bed it was 9pm. As soon as all the children were asleep Lee & I went to bed too! It was a long tiring day travelling I can tell you!

More piccies soon of the rest of our holidays (which I promise won't be as mundane as these! I just wanted to make a record of our journey for myself really). Hope all who read are well & enjoying the new school year! My boys went back to school today. Annie-Joy missed her brothers very much & kept calling for them. Lee was off sick very poorly today so I have been nursing him too. I think he is on the mend now. Well, that's all for now! :o)

Boy Scouts?

Lee took the boys away camping for the first time three weeks ago. They were all VERY excited! After a lot of trouble with transport Annie-Joy & I eventually waved them off a day later than planned. It's a long story but they ended up going away in Lee's parents little Peugeot car!
I was worried they would be too cold at night (after my last camping trip in a tipi!) so I made sure they had hats, gloves, scarves & extra blankets. Jordan enjoyed using his scarf as a Father Christmas beard!! And that was the only use it got as the tent was roasting- they didn't even need their sleeping bags!

The boys headed for a camp site near York as they wanted to spend a day at the National Train Museum. We hadn't been since before Annie-Joy was born but our trip back then is talked of on a weekly basis so we thought it was time for another trip. Sorry, no photos- Lee left the camera in the car!!!
The boys loved sleeping in the tent all squeezed in together. The camp site was secure so the boys had fun exploring & playing freely. There was a little play area with a tree house which Timmy & Luke loved.

The boys had fun in the wash up area clearing up after the meals they cooked on Lee's new camping stove (a real bargain from Asda!). Lee did a great job of begging, borrowing & buying discount camping gear (his uncle owns a large outdoor pursuits store) for the trip. He thought of everything! :o)

The boys had a fantastic time away (apart from the caravan people with the HUGE flat screen telly in their awning!!!) & I think they will be going camping again soon! :o)