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. :)