Happy 5th Birthday Timmy & Luke! :o)

These gorgeous little darlings were five years old today! I made them a train cake as requested by both boys which they were delighted with! Luke could hardly contain his excitement as we sang Happy Birthday to them (see his hands waving wildly about, a little too close to the candle flames for my liking!).
They're getting very good at blowing out the candles now! The boys had a lovely day. We bought them 'proper' scooters & the film Wall-E which they watched tonight. The postman brought them lots of cards & parcels (thanks Mum & Dad, Helen & Ian, Marie, Leon & Mya!), Rachel (their Godmother) came round after school with presents & Nanny & Grandad (Lee's parents) came round at tea time with more presents! It's been low key but lots of fun! On Saturday we are going to the zoo with a few friends for a Zoo Picnic Party! We're all a bit excited about that! ;o)

And lastly, these are the starry fairy cakes I made for Timmy & Luke to share with their teachers & class mates today. Everyone loved them even though some of them got a bit squashed in transit! Ooops!

Happy Birthday Grandad!!

Hope you're having a fantastic day Dad! Sorry we couldn't be with you today. The boys have made you lovely birthday cards which will be winging their way to you today along with a parcel of goodies! We love you very much! Mwah!

Not Very Well

We've all come down in varying degrees with the colds & sickness bugs that have been doing the rounds lately! So the boys have all been off school for the majority of last week & Lee has been off work. It's been quite pleasant as far as having ill kids goes really..... The telly has been on a lot & we have played a lot of board games as different people feel more up to doing stuff. I took Timmy (who hasn't really been ill at all!) to the cinema yesterday for the first time. Our local cinema show kids films on a Saturday morning for £1 a ticket. We went to see Wall-E. Timmy loved the whole experience! It was nice to spend time with my boy.

One of the boys favourite games at the moment is Bus Stop! These photos were taken August 2007 at our old house. Back then Timmy & Luke didn't really get the whole playing a game by the rules/taking it in turns thing but they do now which is fun!

We also enjoy playing Manic Martians (which Hallie bought Jordan for his 4th birthday! Photo from earlier this year), Monkey Business, Let's Go Shopping, Coppit & Crazy Chefs amongst other games. It's fun to be doing 'grown up' things with our boys. Talking of grown up, Jordan is very pleased with himself as he has learnt to use the DVD remote so that he can play the bonus games by himself on our Larryboy & the Bad Apple DVD!

Even though we are all ill the house work continues! I've done so much laundry the past few days (for obvious reasons!)! But you know, I just can't get rid of these big piles of washing! LOL!! (Photo of Jordan & Timmy in our old laundry basket from Summer 2007).

Hope all who read are well. Have a great week everyone! :D

It Runs in the Family!

Lately I have been making a lot of cards & gifts for birthdays & Christmas. It's been a lot of fun! Jordan always enjoys making things with my arty crafty materials too. He made this card for my mum's birthday all by himself- design, colours the lot! It's good isn't it?
This is what he wrote inside for his Grandma. He always signs his name 'Jordan D' as there are two Jordans in his class at school! Sweet!
I made my first a mini photo album recently, also for my mum's birthday. I bought the little yellow leather album in Asda ages ago but it took me ages to pluck up the courage to use it! (I don't know why but the idea of making a whole album of scrapbook pages scares me a little!). Anyway, inspiration came & this is what came into being.....

.... 24 tiny pages of photos of my mum's children, grandchildren & sons in law! (Just realised I have left out the first photo but never mind!). If you click on the photos you'll be able to see the pages in more detail. Each page was very simple as the album didn't allow for much bulk- just putting a photo in each pocket made it hard to close! It was really fun to make! I wish I had bought more of the albums at the time because Asda don't sell them any more! Oh well!

Hope all who read are well. Do leave a comment if you're passing by- it's always nice to hear from you. Now I'm off to spend some time with Lee & watch the new series of Smallville which starts tonight! (Have I told you how much we like Superman???!!!!)

Which Service Do You Require?

This little princess dialled 999 on our land line phone last week! She LOVES 'talking' on telephones & pressing all the buttons. The incident in question happened as we sat together on the sofa with the phone after I had made a call. I suddenly realised Annie Joy had pressed 999 but I must have realised too late because about 5 minutes later Merseyside Police rang to see if everything was ok as they had received an interrupted emergency call! Whoops! The police woman was very understanding....but we'd better be extra careful it doesn't happen again!! :o}

Arty Party

You may or may not know that Liverpool is the European Capital of Culture 2008 so there have been a lot of exciting things going on in the city this year. It is fabulous to see art exhibits & sculptures scattered throughout the city for everyone to enjoy. One of the events is the Liverpool Biennial contemporary art exhibition (which as its name suggests, happens once every 2 years not just in 2008!). Lee & I were lucky enough to be invited to the VIP exhibition launch party at the Tate Modern (that's what the photo is of above!) & many venues around the city. It was fantastic to be at the gallery & see all the videos & paintings (although many of them were rather odd to say the least!!). We loved Omer Fast's film about a film set- I still can't work out what was 'real' & what was the film!! Click here for more info about the exhibits.
Liverpool also had a rather large spider appear in the city one morning! La Machine was HUGE & scarily realistic! There were too many crowds for us to get a proper look at La Princess in action but we popped down early Sunday morning before church to see her sleeping on a derelict building next to Lime Street Station. She was rather spectacular! There are photos here & a video clip here so you get the idea!
When we went Lambanana spotting (which I really will show you soon!), we also saw this sculpture by Richard Wilson using a derelict wine bar building (click on the photo to see it better if you like!). It was amazing to see part of the building move out of place & rotate 360 degrees! Can you guess what the sculpture is called? (answers in the comment box please rather than on a postcard!).

Anyway, we are all really enjoying living in the Capital of Culture! There has been so much fun stuff going on & there's still more to come (apparently!). Fancy a visit anyone?? :o)

3 Boys & 33 Sparklers (Low Key Bonfire Night??!)

Yes, our three boys had thirty three sparklers between them last night! I counted the dead ones before I put them in the bin this morning! We had several packets left over from the two fireworks parties we had last year. It seemed silly not to use them all up this year!!

Jordan loved the really crackly, spitty sparklers & enjoyed writing his name in the air.

Luke really enjoyed the whole experience but was a bit of a liability when it came to being aware of his surroundings! He nearly walked into Jordan & Timmy's sparklers on more than one occasion as he was going to put his dead sparkler in the mud! I made the boys wear gloves to hold the sparklers. Part of me thought that perhaps it was a little OTT.... BUT, I was SO glad Luke was wearing gloves when I realised that the reason he couldn't let go of one of his burnt out sparklers was because he was actually holding the hot part & his glove had melted onto the sparkler stick!!!! Phew! That was a close call! (Did you know that a sparkler gets as hot as a blow torch??)

Timmy loved watching the sparklers despite his serious face in the photo!

Annie Joy loved the whole Bonfire Night experience so much! (Can you see her in the photo??!) She played fireworks while waiting to get into the bath! It was really sweet- she moved a toy car over her head in arch shapes while making high pitched firework noises! We all enjoyed watching the neighbours numerous firework displays as well as the councils display at Sefton Park all from the warmth & comfort of our home! Living in a 3 storey house with adjoining gardens has many benefits! Hope you all had fun remembering the 5th of November & all that gun powder, treason & plot! ;O)

Yippeeeee!!!!

At last! Luke & Timmy got certificates for good behaviour at school yesterday!!!! We've been waiting a looooonnnng time for this I can tell you! (Sorry about poor photo- I took it last night as I wanted to capture the moment but the light was a bit naff!)
Timmy was especially excited to see the little chipmunk on the front. He said 'Now I know what a chipmunk is! It's a little animal like a squirrel & it has little chipmunk ears & a little chipmunk tail!'
Lee & I have had a little giggle at what the teacher wrote on the certificates (click the pictures to see them larger if you want to read it better). It gives you an idea of the challenges Timmy & Luke bring day to day! Bless the little darlings! I am SO proud of them & their certificates! :o)

Hello Pumpkin!

We all love this pumpkin hat! I bought it for Jordan when he was one. It was the hat that made him enjoy wearing hats as a baby! Everyone enjoys wearing it at the moment! Luke went to sleep wearing it the other night! Last week was half term for us. We had a lovely time doing this & that. Jordan went to a holiday club at the local church every morning & had a fantastic piratey themed time learning all about St Paul. We also got a bit autumnal (hee hee!) over the holiday & made some delicious pumpkin muffins.
First we roasted the pumpkin in the oven & made it into a coarse puree when it was cooked. We mixed the pumpkin in a bowl with eggs & oil. In another bowl we sifted plain flour, sugar, baking powder & spices together....

...then we mixed the pumpkin mixture & the dry ingredients together in a large bowl that once belonged to my Grandma. (That is Luke behind the wooden spoon in the first piccie by the way!!) Oh! In case you were wondering where Timmy's mixing photo is- he didn't want to make muffins because he wanted to play with the train track! He was very keen to share the muffins WE made with everyone at school though!
The muffins turned out beautifully & tasted delicious! I topped some of them with pumpkin seeds too which I think looked really pretty!

We made lots so we wrapped up six to give to the infant teachers at school. The nursery teacher asked for the recipe so I think that means they went down well at school too! :D

Timmy & Luke each had a little holiday at Grandma & Grandad's house & did lots of wonderful things like walks along the canal viaduct at Chirk....

...and pretending to be an apple tree!...

... whilst picking apples from the tree in the garden! The boys loved coming back to Liverpool on the train & LOVED getting Virgin train activity bags from the man at Crewe station! Thankyou Mum & Dad for spoiling the boys & giving them such a lovely holiday treat.

The high light of the week for me & Lee was the Delirious? concert we went to on Wednesday night. We are huge fans of the band & have been for 12 years or more. We have even sung on one of their albums- Glo! It was about 8 years ago & we both took the afternoon off work & drove down to London for the evening (Ah! The mad things you do when you're young!! LOL!!). We spent the evening in a London recording studio with Delirious?, David Grant & a lot of other people who became the Delirious? choir for the night! We drove back to Liverpool the same night ariving home at 3am or some such ridiculous time! But, it was SO much fun!

Anyway, this is Delirious? last tour as they are disbanding at the end of the year which is sad & yet good too because the lead singer, Martin is moving on to use his music to raise awareness & money for people in poor countries through a charity called CompassionArt. The things he talked about during the concert & the verses he shared from the Bible about the work they have begun in India & Africa were deeply moving & thought provoking. I hadn't quite expected that from a rock concert!

It was a fantastic evening (even though we weren't right at the front moshing like we were back in the day! We arrived later with all the 'old' people who had kids to put to bed etc so we had to stand on the stairs by the balcony at the back!!). It was so good to see Delirious? again for the last time.

So! That was our half term! How was/is your half term going everyone? Do hope you are all keeping well! Goodbye till next blog! ;o)

Our Day Out With Thomas!

The high light of our holiday (oh so long ago!!) was the day we spent on the Dean Forest Steam Railway in the company of Thomas the Tank Engine...
... the Fat Controller (who I think preferred to be addressed as Sir Topham Hatt!)...
... Douglas...

.... Toad (Thomas's brake van)...

...Daisy the diesel rail car...

and Luke's favourite engine, Diesel.

We loved watching the story that the trains acted out for us all. Naughty Diesel crept up & stole Thomas's coaches while he was sleeping (he had been a very useful engine you see & was rather weary)! We had to shout 'Wake up Thomas!' at the top of our voices but Thomas only woke up when the Fat Controller threw a bucket of water over him!! Thomas raced off down the track in hot pursuit with the Fat Controller right behind him in a little engine called Pluto calling out through his mega phone 'Stop Diesel! Hurry Thomas!' and other such comments! I must say, it was all rather exciting! (By the way, the old man just at the side of the photo is the Station Master. I couldn't help thinking that the Days Out With Thomas must make his year seeing all the young families sharing his passion for steam engines!)

Annie Joy LOVED it & clapped & smiled all through it!

We had many rides on Daisy, Thomas & Douglas. We all loved being part of the race between Douglas & Daisy! It was fun listening to the Daisy story on the journey to Parkend station which had been written especially for that part of the railway line. The boys also had a ride on this little steam train.

I love the tiny fire box. The driver stokes up the fire with a teaspoon shovel! How sweet eh?

This sign made me smile! And I'm not sure how useful those fire buckets would actually be in an emergency tucked away in a corner!

Ah! This sign reminded me how much life has changed. Can you imagine going into a shop & saying 'Could I have an ounce of Westward Ho please?'! (Wot? Wot??!)

We finished off the day by watching the Punch & Judy Show which the boys thought was fantastic! They loved Mr Punch turning the baby into sausages by mistake!!!!!! (That's the back of Luke's head in the photo!). We had a fantastic day out! It was well worth the money especially compared to the prices of some other activities in the area. After we said goodbye to Thomas & his friends we went to have tea with our friend Josie which was really lovely. We stayed in the cottage an extra night & spent the final day of our holiday in Cheltenham with Angie & Christian & some other friends from our old church too. We even managed to show the boys The Wishing Fish Clock in the shopping arcade which is a magical clock that blows bubbles every half an hour amongst other things! We love it! All in all, we had a wonderful holiday..... but it seems rather a long time ago now! LOL!!!