Happy 3rd Birthday Toby & Piggies

Wow, I can't believe that our younger child is three!!! Toby has been very excited at the prospect of his birthday and a birthday party all week - very sweet since this is the first one he's noticed.

The day started with Beth giving him the present she had chosen for him; the final Shrek dvd. Of course they wanted to watch it straight away so we stuck that on for them while we got ready. After a bit of breakfast Toby opened his other presents. There was quite a selection as he likes so many things. At the moment he is rather fascinated with space rockets but he also still likes his cars, planes and trains, dinosaurs, building stuff, books, you get the picture. Anyway, he got a bit of everything and seemed to love them all (and even if he didn't, he was very polite and said thank you).

Before festivities continued we had a job to do . . . Some of our friends have a couple of acres of garden and keep hens, geese and pigs. Our garden isn't so large and they have very kindly said we can use the patch where they kept the pigs last year as an allotment. We have started to dig it over and it's almost ready for our potatoes and onions to go in. Well, all this got us thinking how nice it would be to grow and produce our own food so when we were given the chance to have our own pig, kept with theirs, we decided to go for it.

Today we went to pick it up along with another five; three for them, one for their neighbour and one for their friend. It was nice to go to the farm where they were born - Toby was very taken by the Shetland ponies, it seems he gets along with any animal as none seem scared of him and he certainly isn't scared of them.

We went to drop the pigs off at their new home, a simple job until one of them escaped and everyone had to chase it round the garden. After a few acrobatic manoeuvers, Steve managed to catch it and into the pen it went. They all seemed happy enough to be in there with lots of new straw, loads of grass and greenery and a lovely sty to snuggle down in. Now we just have to wait it out until the end of the year for our tasty bacon butties. ;)

The rest of the day was spent at home with grandma and grandpa, gran and grandad celebrating. We managed to play outside for a bit and even had our first bbq of the season. At the end of the day Toby was knackered and could not keep his eyes open. Hopefully he'll have a great night sleep as eight of his friends are coming in the morning for his party!

Sherwood Pines Birthday Picnic

March 8 was Steve's birthday. He declined the offer of a home cooked meal for two and instead opted for a picnic in the cold for four!

As he had taken the day off work, we picked Beth up from school and headed straight over to Sherwood Pines. It was a gorgeous sunny day but by four o'clock was getting a little chilly. Never-the-less we had our picnic though a little quicker than planned. Really we should have taken a flask of soup but weren't that well planned.

After polishing the pancakes off, the kids ran off for a play. Sherwood Pines has a load of really cool play stuff from wooden walkways to dragonfly climbing frame things, faces carved into the trees and secret tree houses. They had great fun charging round and round, up and down. We eventually headed home before the kids (and us) froze.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Hodsock Priory

I've been meaning to get this post up a while but just haven't had two minutes to get it done. On Saturday 26th we went with grandma and grandad to Hodsock Priory to see the snowdrops. It's only 15 minutes or so away from the house so not too far to travel. I think it's pretty well known for it's variety of snowdrops though we hadn't heard of it before we stumbled across it in 2009.

It was rather chilly and the wind was blowing straight through but the gardens were beautiful. Despite the mud we had a good stomp around. There weren't as many snowdrops as I had remembered and the daffodils weren't out yet but it was good to be outside. I dread to think how many snowdrops the kids killed while we were there - the concept of sticking to the paths is unknown to them.

In the woodlands there were some stumps and Beth made the most of these natural stages, singing for all to hear. Toby was a little slower and had to be lured round with the use of grandad's midget gems. Turns out that he wasn't feeling great - his breathing got worse through the evening and ended with an ambulance ride at 3am and Sunday spent in Lincoln hospital. He's fine now, just need to keep an eye on him and give him his inhaler if he seems to be having issues.

Beth's also fine, she achieved her level 6 gymnastics badge and certificate on Thursday. Only five more to go!