Happy Christmas!

A little late posting this - just can't seem to find enough quiet time to get it done. We had a great Christmas, quite quiet but very nice. Both the kids seem to be full of germs and Beth particularly is fighting off some bug. However, it didn't seem to have any effect on her ability to open presents!

Toby had no particular requests for Santa but Beth was very hopeful for a Barbie doll. Thankfully Santa had read her letter and listened to her requests and she got one along with lots of clothes. Toby was more than happy with his Buzz from Santa, complimented with a Woody from Gran and Grandad.

We had been rather mean this year with presents as they already have so much but everyone else was very generous and they both ended the day with lots of fabulous presents. Toby was very happy with his wizard outfit complete with authentic Harry Potter broom from the film set! Both loved decorating their own wellie boots (thanks J & A) and Toby seemed to be having some interesting thoughts about what he could do with his chainsaw!

Before I forget, I sadly can't steal the compliments for the cake, that was courtesy of Grandma. Thank you to everyone for all our lovely pressies, thank you cards will follow at some point . . .

As a little break from Christmas celebrations, we did go for a visit to the National Space Centre in Leicester with Auntie Jane. Most of the information was way above the kids comprehension but they loved some of the experiments and the film we watched. Toby was obviously very taken with it and has been talking ever since about the rocket blasting off. :)

Christingle

On Wednesday 15th there was the Christingle service at church combined with the school nativity play. Beth was an angel and looked very good in her costume (along with about four others in the same one, courtesy of the local supermarket!). Beth didn't have any lines, just singing and she did very well - she has been singing the songs for the last few weeks and I think I could probably have joined in with most of them.

The nativity was a slight variation from normal as it was called Angels and Aliens and was about a spaceship that landed near a school where the children were practicing for their nativity play. The school children tell the aliens the story of Christmas. I suspect it's just a way of creating more characters as you can only have so many angels and shepherds! It went very well and I don't think anyone forgot their lines though one of the kings got stage fright and one was off ill.

All the children were given christingles, yes, even Toby!! Amazingly he seemed to appreciate the responsibility and was really careful with with it. Beth was mesmerised by hers - you can see her (fifth angel down) just gazing at it. The church looked fab lit by just the candles and it was a lovely evening.

Happy Birthday GG Harry

December 4th was Great Grandpa Harry's 90th birthday over in Northern Ireland. So, on Thursday (2nd) we dug our way out of the street through a foot of snow and headed over to Liverpool to catch the night ferry to Belfast.

Strangely, once we got out of our village the weather wasn't too bad and the snow gradually disappeared. Of course the kids were very excited about the ferry and loved the bunk beds. The crossing wasn't too bad though given the choice I may choose to go first class by plane!

On Friday (and again on Sunday) we spent some time on the beach. It wasn't quite beach weather so we hadn't taken our buckets and spades, but the kids had a great time splashing in the puddles and lobbing stones into the water. Toby of course fell over at least once but thankfully, for once, it wasn't straight into the water.

On Saturday it was the party for GG Harry. The house was filled with family and friends, there to wish him Happy Birthday and ply him with chocolates and sweets (he has something of a sweet tooth!). The kids loved running around, meeting new people and getting a lot of attention too.

Sunday evening we caught the ferry back home all ready for school on Monday morning. We all hope you had a very Happy 90th Birthday Great Grandpa Harry!

Pretty Snow (again)

We woke up yesterday morning to four inches of snow, very pretty! Toby obviously couldn't remember snow from earlier this year as he looked amazed and rather confused by it. Beth definitely could and wanted to get straight out in it. So, before 7:30am we were all wrapped up and ready to slide . . .

The snow's too icy to build a snowman - it just sticks to your gloves or crumbles away so instead we got the sledge and headed off round the village. It was very picturesque though a bit chilly. Toby was very happy to be pulled along, quite a change from January when he would not sit on the sledge for anything and we had to endure painfully slow walks to get anywhere.

We had a few runs down a hill in the village - probably not the best one since it was a road (though hardly any cars) and that satisfied the kids. We'll have to look for a better hill in one of the fields.

The snow's still here today and is likely to be around for a while so we'll be able to get a bit more fun out of it though not so much with Beth being in school and it getting dark by about 4pm. I'm sure it'll be enough as the temperature here this morning was -7c/20f.

Bonfire Night 2010

Bonfire night this year was on a Friday. We weren't celebrating until the Saturday so Friday night we decided to 'gatecrash' and enjoy other people's fireworks by going on a walk around the village to see what we could see. There were quite a few around but still not enough for Beth who needed a revolving head!

On Saturday we went to a friend's do for their bonfire and fireworks. It was a fun, relaxed evening with hot dogs, burgers, sparklers and a smidgen of wine. Not much else to say about a lovely evening, except for Toby who wee'd in his wellies and got very cold feet. :)

Half Term and Halloween

Last week was half term here so both kids were rattling round the house. At the beginning of the week we went to visit grandma and grandpa. Grandma had been carefully cultivating pumpkins all summer so we would have something to carve! She had done a great job and Beth immediately adopted the largest pumpkin and laid into it with a big black marker. Her design was pretty good - it's the one in the middle, right. Toby wasn't in the slightest bit fussed so I had a go with his - middle, left. The other two pumpkins were ones I picked up for Steve and I to have a go on. It turned into a bit of a carve-off with no winner declared - Steve's looked amazing with the light on and mine had a slight edge when lit at night.

Beth also planted her daffodil bulb that she was given at school. It came with very specific instructions for planting, watering and general care. It is intended that all the kids bring their daffodil into school one week next year and they all be in flower at the same time . . . a little hopeful I'm thinking! Grandma mentioned the idea of planting a few back-ups; probably not a bad thought. ;) Although Toby didn't get too interested in the planting activity, he was on hand ready to water.

Back at home we spent one day over at Clumber Park. They had a pumpkin trail set up around the walled garden. Beth was very excited to follow it - she's getting to the point where you can't fob her off and do your own thing - she figures things out far too quick. Toby wasn't bothered and he just wanted to run round and do his own thing. We followed the clues and found all the pumpkins - the photo is from pumpkin number six. The cauldron beside them is filled with witches snot and spiders (lovely), disgusting as it was, it did promote much discussion over what they could have used to make it (Beth's final thoughts were either jelly or glue).

For the last few days of the holiday grandma and grandad came to stay with us. Toby showed off his dance moves - both he and Beth love one of the dance games on the wii and can use up a tremendous amount of energy bopping to the beat. Beth did a great job, with a little help from grandma, decorating cakes for the Halloween party. Toby did not want to wear a costume so he went as 'Toby' but Beth of course wanted to be a princess fairy witch. They had a really good time chasing round the village hall, eating sausages and cake and generally causing havoc! Beth was really excited to see her school friends and thankfully had no encounters with dead arms!

Pickering War Weekend

The title makes our weekend sound a little macabre but it was anything but. Every year Pickering (a little Yorkshire market town) hosts a war weekend where lots of people dress up in 1940s garb, there are bands, dancing and a steam train.

We went en masse, meeting up with grandma, grandad, uncles Dave and Andy, aunties Anne and Janet and cousins Adam and William. The first port of call was the train station for a ride on the steam train to the next station in Levisham (or Le Visham since for the weekend it is in occupied France!). The kids loved the train and Toby spent much of the ride with his head hanging out of the window.

When explaining why people were dressed up, thankfully Beth was satisfied with the explanation that it's what people wore a long time ago - I'm not quite sure how I would have explained WWII reasonably to a four-year-old. Neither of them were bothered by the German soldiers patrolling with their guns but Beth was extremely interested in the ladies outfits, particularly the mink fur stole scarfs complete with heads. Of course Toby was mesmerised by the VW Beetle, though I have noticed a slight decrease in his Herbie obsession recently.

We rode the train back to Pickering just in time to watch the parade. It was extremely busy and hard to see very much but we sharpened our elbows and muscled in to watch the military vehicles along with vintage cars and even a milkman and chimney sweep on their bikes.

After a picnic lunch we had a mooch about watching the dancing and listening to the various bands and entertainers. Beth loved watching a couple jive and I'm sure would have joined them with little encouragement. I'd love to go back another year and go all out with a suitable outfit but I suspect that for the next few years at least, that plan might be a bit too ambitious since at the moment I never seem to have time to browse for regular clothes! (Disclaimer: there may be a few mistakes in this since it's 3:30am and I can't sleep after being up with a vomiting Toby! [he seems fine now, hopefully it was just a one-off].)

Harvest Festival

Wow, two posts in one day! Thought I'd do a quick one before I forgot. We're not long in from the school harvest festival at the church (no such thing as separation of church and state around here!). It was a little chaotic as the whole school was performing - suppose not that many as there are only about 105 in the entire school. But then lots of parents, siblings, grandparents, pushchairs and village OAPs where also shoehorned into the church.

Toby was very excited to see Beth sat there right in the middle and kept choosing the quietest times to shout out "there's my Beth!" just in case I was in any doubt she was there. Her class performed a rendition of The Little Red Hen using actions and words. It was very good though a few of them got stage fright. The year 1/2 class sang a farm animal song and wore animal masks (that we just must replicate "right now"). The 3/4 class also sang a harvest song and the year 5/6 class spoke about farming in the village (mainly apples) then did a prayer.

We were also asked to join in some songs but Toby was having none of it and kept his hand over my mouth every time I tried to sing (probably not a bad thing as my singing is more likely to anger the gods rather than please!). It was a very relaxed afternoon and pretty enjoyable - an outcome directly related to Toby's behaviour (very good) rather than anything else. :)

Gymnastic Fantastic!

Beth has been going to a gymnastics class for about five weeks. At first she wasn't too bothered since she wasn't allowed to run madly about doing just as she pleased. However, she has now settled down and is doing really well. She can do a perfect forward roll and last night was on the high bar doing pretty good 'bowl' and 'arch' moves (swinging on the bar, keeping her legs and feet together so they swing back in an arch behind her then curve up in a bowl shape in front of her).

It does crack me up watching her (and the other little ones) try to jump onto the box using the spring as they are just too light and never quite get the coordination right. She still manages to get up - uses her 'natural' springiness!!

Anyway, at the end of last nights session she got presented with her first award - the British Gymnastics Proficiency Award, Level 8. I can't find a list of things she had to be able to do to get it but I think it is connected with body management at this level. I remember doing these when I was younger but there were only four levels then (and I only got level 4). Level 1 is stuff like splits and flips so it'll be a while yet though she is rather flexible and I don't think it would take much for her to do the splits (one slip on a wet floor might do it!). Beth was very proud of her award but will probably appreciate later ones since she wasn't actually aware that she was working towards this one.

Toby is doing great - he goes to gymnastics too but it's rather less structured and he tends to spend his time racing from one thing to another flinging himself off anything/everything. Here he is with a fish he made at pre-school.

Apple Day

Sunday it was Apple Day in our village. The weather was awful but it didn't stop most people heading down to the village hall to try some freshly pressed juice, sample a pint (or two) of cider and eat lots of apple inspired dishes.

I spent an hour running the apple bobbing game. It was most amusing to watch kids battle it out - I'm surprised that I didn't get any complaints from parents at the state their children ended up in. A couple couldn't have been wetter if they had climbed in and had a swim. I think the winning number was 36 apples out of the water and into the bucket in a minute!

In the afternoon we walked down to the apple orchard for a look around and a bit of scrumping. There were over 300 types of apple on show from the orchard - really impressive. The smell in the outbuilding (where the photo of all the apples was taken) was amazing. A lovely day - hopefully next year the sun will be shining so we can spend a bit more time outside, sitting down enjoying the food and drink rather than puddle jumping (though that was pretty fun too!).