The Weekend

We did a few things over the weekend, it was all rather pleasant. On Saturday we went to our old stomping ground in Sheffield. We had a lovely walk through Endcliffe Park and spent a while in the playground. After lunch at an American style burger joint (nothing close to the real thing), we went to the Botanical Gardens for a wander and an ice cream. The kids had a great time chasing each other round a tree - easy to please! Someone was getting married, a perfect setting but it was really warm so they were all spilling out of the 'greenhouse' before they were cooked!

On Sunday Steve made Toby a ramp for his cars, it was a great hit with all of us. Again, easy to please. We spent the rest of the day at Sherwood Forest. Steve has always wanted to see Major Oak - I saw it when I was younger but couldn't remember the occasion particularly well. It was pretty impressive, over 1,150 years old (they think) and rather big. Can't say the kids were too bothered by it, even with a mention of Robin Hood, but they did have a fab time clambering on all the tree trunks. Just thought I'd include this last picture as Steve seems to think it's hilarious. I like to think I'm a fairly observant and conscientious mum but it seems this isn't the case!!

The Last Few Weeks

Sorry for the lack of postings for the last few weeks; the summer holidays seem to have eaten into any blog-posting time! Anyway, we've been doing bits and pieces of things - lots of trips to see the grandparents, visits to various parks and afternoons playing on the green.

Last weekend we went to another show with gran, grandad and Adam, this one was an agricultural one in Wensleydale (of cheese fame). It wasn't nearly as good as the traction engine one, I think because it was a bit windy and we couldn't properly enjoy our ice creams and we had little interest in 40 different types of sheep. After, we were treated to pizza lovingly made by Beth and Adam. It actually tasted pretty good.

On Sunday we decided to walk to Cusworth Hall to feed the ducks and have a picnic. It's a while since we walked there as it's a couple of miles and last time poor Steve ended up carrying both Beth and Toby half the way back. This time we were far more successful and had a lovely walk over - the weather was lovely; even though the field in the picture looks rather dull, you can see how blue the sky is and can also just make out Cusworth in the distance. Once there we had our picnic and spent rather a long time chasing each other around a tree! The walk home seemed rather longer than on the way over, but we made it! Once there, Beth and Toby spent a relaxing few seconds reading under Beth's new quilt and cover.

Our 'big' event occurred this week when Beth had her first ever night away from home on her own. I went over to Northern Ireland to visit the family and took Toby along too. It would have been unmanageable with both of them but this worked great. Beth had a wonderful time being absolutely spoiled with attention from grandma and grandpa. She went swimming everyday, painted, took the double-decker bus into town, ate at a cafe, explored the market and dragged poor g+g into every toy shop in the county. Thankfully Beth didn't suffer any anxiety or homesickness and I suspect we may well be shipping her out again soon. ;)

Toby and I also had a good few days; he was a hit with his great grandparents and amazingly he was more than happy for me to leave the room (gasp) without him having a melt down. I think he was won over by the big bucket full of bubbles and being allowed to rule the roost while there. The pic on the right is of Toby playing with my cousin Miriam, he took instantly to her and had great fun. The weather was nice enough for us to get to the beach one morning, g-grandma came too and Toby spent a ages knocking down sandcastles and collecting stones. His interest soon wavered from that once her realised that the sea was wet. Given the chance he would have been in up to his neck, as it was we spent rather longer than my feet were happy with ankle deep in frigid water, splashing and watching the waves wash over. He is definitely a water babe - at his age Beth wouldn't go near the edge of the sea, she hated the sound and movement of the waves. That afternoon we had a walk along the shore and Toby enjoyed looking at all the boats in the harbour.

Although I have no photos, I can report that Toby loved the plane journey - we were sat next to the wheel on the way out and the propeller on the way home and he spent a good portion of the flight with his face glued to the window.

Pickering Traction Engine Rally

Yesterday we had a good Northern day out and went to the Pickering Traction Engine Rally. Initially we thought we'd go mainly for Toby but it turned out to be a really fun day for us all. We met gran and grandad up there and thankfully the weather was great - it's less than 70 miles away from home but it had rained all night here.

We started by looking at the big agricultural engines; we arrived just at the right time as they were all chugging around and getting in line in one of the arenas. It was pretty smoky but I rather liked the smell - reminded me of the coal fires we had when I was young, before we were forced to use smokeless fuel! They were asking for 'ladies' to drive the engines around the arena and although I'm not sure I quite qualify as a lady, Steve bullied me into have a go. Beth was allowed to come up for a photo but not for the circuit. It was harder than it looked but I reckon given a bit longer I might have become a dab hand at it!

After a bit of nosh we headed over to the tractor pulling. Toby was mesmerised and just stood there with his nose pushed through the railings staring. I think that intense concentration must have worn him out as he literally just passed out after that and had a good nap in the pushchair. We wandered back towards the car, stopping briefly at the Punch and Judy show and the other stage shows on the way. We went to gran and grandads for tea and the gps system took us a rather round about way and we came back across the moors.

Cleethorpes

After mooching round the house for a couple of hours wondering what to do with our Sunday, we decided to go to the seaside. The nearest seaside 'resort' to us is Cleethorpes, about an hour away, so we headed there.

Well, we came to the conclusion that it isn't quite Belmont Shore . . . However, it's certainly a fantastic place to people watch and there were definitely some sights to see (though perhaps it would spare a few nightmares not to have seen them!).

After fish and chips at the Mermaid cafe, we had a walk along the pier then got the bucket and spades and headed on to the beach. It was a pretty warm day despite threats of rain and we spent quite a while fashioning sandcastles and collecting shells from around the beach. While Beth was happiest with the shells, decorating her castles, Toby enjoyed sprinting towards the water - a race to see if we could catch him in time.

To finish the afternoon we had the obligatory ice cream and headed home with two tired kids (and two even sleepier parents!).

An Afternoon With Sebastian

Today Sebastian and his mum and dad came to play. It was the first time we have met Sebastian (he is six months older than Toby), and ages since we've seen his mum and dad so we had a lovely time catching up. Thankfully the weather was great and it felt almost Californian being out in the garden barbecuing and enjoying the sunshine. The bouncy castle came out along with every piece of outdoor play equipment and I think all three kids would happily have played into the night.

Yesterday Beth, Toby and I went for a picnic and play at Brodsworth. I love both these photos - I have no idea what Toby could see in the picture with Beth as his eyes are nearly popping out! The other pic cracks me up as for some reason it just reminds me of pictures of Daniel Lambert (I won't go into who he was, you'll just have to look him up!).

Cousin William's Christening and Garden Fun

On Sunday Steve and I had the honour of becoming William's godparents at his christening. Everyone got dressed up - this was the only photo of both Beth and Toby in their glad-rags as Toby was not in the mood to pose. I was dreading the service as the thought of keeping the kids relatively quiet and under control for 75 minutes was rather daunting. However, it was a lovely service involving the children and the church had an area especially for children with books, toys and colouring.

After the service there was a party at the local cricket club with a magician (much to Beth's bewilderment!) who also made balloon shapes. Adam and William's other cousin, Lydia, was wonderful and looked after Beth for much of the afternoon leaving Steve and I free to chase after Toby. I feel rather ashamed to say that I did not manage to get a single photo of William on his special day.

School finished last week for the summer so we now have no classes or anything much going on . . . (ahh, six weeks of endless days). So yesterday we headed off to see grandma and grandpa. The weather wasn't great so we spent the morning in the swimming pool. We haven't been for ages but it didn't take Beth long to get over her fear and she was soon swimming back and forth between grandma and grandpa. Toby wasn't so sure and wasn't too keen at all. I suspect his skin was a little sensitive to the chlorine and he's been rather clingy recently due to lots of teeth popping through.

After lunch we went out in the garden for an explore. I say that as their garden has really shot up since we were last there. Beth helped to dig potatoes and pull carrots and kale for dinner along with scoffing raspberries straight off the bush. She also had a great time cutting a bunch of flowers, something she doesn't get chance to do in our garden since we only have a few flowers.

Toby, when not diving for the pond, enjoyed pottering around playing with puddles, the wooden wind chimes (that he loved) and the wheelbarrow - obviously taking after his gran who I've been told had a love of wheelbarrows as a child! We all spend quite a bit of time looking at the frog in the pond who despite a lot of encouragement, refused to move.

Some Birthday Fun

Sorry for the lack of entries recently, we seem to be visiting all the same places and I took a break from photographing everything. We'll have to find some new attractions to explore so as not to bore you all!

Anyway, today Steve took the day off so we could go out and have some fun for my birthday (32nd since you ask). Toby hasn't been that well, a temperature, but we decided to head out anyway as he normally enjoys seeing new stuff. We went over to Clumber Park despite a poor weather forecast. With Toby dosed up on Calpol and fairly happy we began by breaking out the new toys - a bubble rocket, an enormous tennis ball (bigger than a basketball) and a little plane. Beth loved the rocket and spent a good 20 minutes setting it off. Toby was more interested in the plane but in general wasn't too bothered and prefered to totter around with the bottle of bubbles and his binky firmly in.

After we had exhausted those toys, we headed over to an open area by the lake and had a go at flying the kite. We were rather unsuccessful and it started to rain so we headed for a coffee. Once the rain went off we had a wander around the Walled Garden. It was beautiful, all the flowers were out and there was every sort of fruit and vegetable growing - very inspiring if I had the time to spend in the garden!

This evening, with two grumpy kids, Steve found a keyboard that hasn't seen the light of day for a couple of years. It was quite a hit, Beth and Toby played together well to create a delightful few tunes. :)