A Shiny Brand-Spanking New Bicycle

It was an exciting day in our household as today Beth got her first bike. It would make perfect planning sense to buy a bike that Toby could inherit but of course the bike manufacturers realise this and produce only very pink or very blue bikes . . . it goes without saying what colour we came away with.

From there we headed straight for the park to try it out. Both kids fell asleep on the way and by the time we arrived, it was raining rather hard. In hope that it would clear up, we drove on to Clumber Park. Thankfully it was sunny and lovely when we got there and Beth jumped straight on and off she went.

The weather didn't hold out for long but we sheltered under a tree and ate our sarnies and sausage rolls until it passed. Toby joined in with lunch and looked longingly at Beth's bike (imagining himself with it, but obviously not in that colour!), for the time being he will just have to make do with the carrier or pushchair.

After a break for ice cream we went to look around the walled garden. It was beautiful, lots of fruit trees, vegetables and masses and masses of rhubarb. Beth was most interested in the scarecrows (actually, she was only interested in those). It was a very enjoyable day. :)

Clumber Park

We tested out our new bike rack yesterday and headed over to Clumber Park for a ride. We hadn't been to that park before but I'm glad we did as it's beautiful! The road into the park is lined with two rows of Lime trees on either side giving it rather a grand feel. There isn't a house there as it was demolished last century but the walled gardens and huge greenhouses survived. We didn't look at these but plan on going back to explore. I didn't have time to take loads of pics so these are courtesy of others . . .

We actually didn't get to see as much of it as we'd have like since we ran into a few problems. Steve's bike had a puncture that he intended fixing with a spare inner-tyre once we arrived. However, it didn't fit and the puncture was right by the valve so couldn't be patched. So, I took the trailer (quite hilarious since I'm a bit unsteady anyway) and Steve was going to catch up once the bike shop opened and he could get fixed up. It was lovely riding, along the lake and through the woods. Unfortunately there are so many paths, Steve and I missed each other and had totally separate rides eventually meeting back at the car. It was Toby's first time out for a bike ride and first time wearing his helmet, he did pretty well.

From there we headed down to grandma and grandpa's house for the rest of the day. The weather was lovely and Beth and Toby spent the majority of the afternoon in grandpa's homemade sandpit making flower pies and Bob the Builder pies.

Today I took the big pushchair and both kids for a walk from the house. We walked along the river for about four miles following part of the Trans Pennine Trail. It was a lovely walk though a bit windy. Beth walked for just over a mile before moaning herself into the pushchair to join Toby. There was hardly anyone about and we had the path to ourselves, passing an unused viaduct, a castle and lots of lovely views. Steve met us at the other end and drove us home.

Just thought I'd bung these two pics on the end. One of Toby enjoying his spaghetti bolognaise - can you tell he's spoon-feeding himself these days? The other is of Beth wearing two of her birthday presents, a Tinkerbell t-shirt (thanks T) and a ballerina style skirt (thanks H), the perfect princess!

Holiday Time :)

So, we arrived in Keswick on Saturday afternoon ready for a relaxing week. We were really, really lucky and had fantastic weather for most of the time we were there. The first night we had a bbq and ate out in the garden (picture on the left).

On Sunday a friend and her family came to visit us and we had a great day. We wandered down to the lake (Derwentwater) via the fields and saw some tiny lambs, scoffed ice creams and fed the ducks. Here's a couple of pictures showing Toby and Rafferty with their ice creams. Beth had one too (I'm sure you weren't in any doubt), but I figured I've posted enough pics of Beth covered in food previously!

The rest of the week was made up of a mixture of fishing, paddling, eating and playing in the garden. Monday morning we headed to Grange, a tiny village ten minutes down the road from Keswick. The weather was beautiful and both kids loved playing in the water of the river. Toby splashed his feet about and wasn't bothered in the slightest by the cold water. Beth had her Crocs on and did notice the cold though it didn't stop her playing. She of course managed to fall in on her bum but was very good natured about it! I stuck with wellies and had a great time plodding about trying to catch some tiddlers. I didn't succeed, but I did manage to see and take a photo of a little eel.

Gran and grandad came over to the Lakes and joined the fun on Tuesday so on Wednesday we went to Watendlath for some more fishing. It's a lovely little place with a tiny tea shop and a bridge. Steve and I stayed for a while but then headed off up the hill (you can see the path in the picture) and over to Rosthwaite, another little village where we had a very nice pub lunch (and pint) before wandering down the road to be picked up.

A rather large percentage of time was spent in and around the cottage and garden. It has a big play structure, a playhouse and a seperate slide and swing. Toby loved the blue swing and was more than happy to sit and be pushed in it for hours. He even fell asleep on a couple of occasions. Beth on the other hand loved the playhouse and poor grandma spent rather a lot of time stuck inside. At one point she and grandpa got locked in while the evil princess disappeared off to play on the swing, thankfully they were eventually released! The theme of being locked in seemed to carry over to the house. In one of the bedrooms there was a big walk-in cupboard and Beth made up lots of games centred around it. The main one was hide and seek but again grandma ended up being held hostage in the cupboard, part of some elaborate (repetitive) game concocted by Beth!

On our last full day, some other children arrived and Beth was thrilled to have some little friends. She then spent every waking minute asking them and loved playing all sorts of things with them. In the picture they are being a train going down the slide. We were all a bit sad to leave but not to worry, I can now start taking suggestions for our next holiday. :)

Happy Third Birthday Beth

After the party we drove up to gran and grandad's for the night and for party number two on Saturday morning. Beth had a great birthday morning, she was very excited to (eventually after three years of us resisting) get a play kitchen from gran and grandad. I think she could have played with it all day but guests arrived including cousin Adam so she had a fab time opening presents, eating chocolate and generally being a birthday princess.

Of course there was another cake, any guesses? It was a Tinkerbell one of which I forgot to take a picture of so I had to nick a photo of it off the internet. It's amazing the difference a year makes, last year Beth wanted to hide when the cake came out and was rather reluctant to blow out the candles but this year she was most enthusiastic and quite happy being centre of attention. Poor Toby was rather sidelined but not for long as his happy nature always grabs the limelight back!

After the a party lunch we drove to the Lake District to start our holiday. We rented a cottage/house in Keswick very close to the centre. When we arrived it was time for party number three (despite speculation, the number of parties/cakes is not connected to age, just coincidence!) with grandma and grandpa. Cake number three was pretty impressive (Marks and Sparks finest) and Beth again enjoyed a great celebration with all the princess paraphernalia. She also opened the rest of her pressies including a Princess Aurora outfit. In all a very happy birthday.

The Birthday Party

Hello everyone, we're just back from our holiday and we did so much (as well as it being Beth's birthday) so I'm going to do a couple of posts (probably over the next few days) so I don't get in a muddle! Hope you enjoy.

Last Saturday (the 18th) was Beth's third birthday - a much talked about and anticipated event! The day before we had a party for her friends. I'm not sure if it could strictly be classed as a party since it consisted of Beth, Carl and Harriet (and of course Toby was there too). We had picked out a birthday dress a couple of weeks ago and got some new shoes so she was all decked out and ready to celebrate.

I outdid myself and made jam sandwich hearts (a big hit) and cheese star sandwiches (not such a hit). Beth chose her own cake (the first of three), it was Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty for those of you who aren't up-to-date with all things princess).

We only did two games; pass the parcel and musical bumps. Unfortunately there are no pics to illustrate the delights of these as I was trying to prevent Toby from tearing the paper off, etc but they were most amusing and enjoyed by all. The party was finished off with the hokey cokey (yes, I purchased a Black Lace CD especially for the occasion) and I think Beth had a fab time.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone, I hope you're not all too stuffed full of chocolate and Peeps (did I hear correctly that they brought out chocolate-covered Peeps?). The kids got a good haul from the Easter Bunny (and all the other bunnies - thank you), I think some may have to be put away for later and some may be disposed of by other means. ;)

Today we headed over to a park in Sheffield, close to the halls of residence where Steve and I lived. It was a bit odd as all the shops were closed and it was pretty much student-free but there were lots of other families out enjoying the park. After a play on the swings we wandered on down the road to the botanical gardens. They were really beautiful with lots of flowers in bloom. Beth was impressing elderly ladies with her knowledge of tulips, daffodils, magnolia, grape hyacinth and daisies.

Toby was more interested in the fountain and would happily have jumped in to it for a quick swim. He is pretty obsessed with walking (holding our hands) at the moment and was desperate to join Beth balancing along the walls. It makes me laugh trying to get him back in the pushchair as he suddenly morphs into an ironing board and won't bend at all.

When we got home I brought out a toy box that has been hidden in Beth's wardrobe for a few months - thought a change of toys might be in order. Toby was straight in there to pull out the fire engine jigsaw, Beth was just very excited to see all these forgotten jewels. She eventually pulled out a whoppee cushion and Steve showed her how to blow it up. After that she spent the rest of the afternoon falling about laughing every time anyone sat on it.

White Post Farm

As it's Easter week, there are no classes or clubs or groups on . . . a blank week with nothing to do (ahhh). So, I booked Beth, Toby and I on a trip with the local children's centre to go to White Post Farm.

The first big excitement was the fact that we had to go on a bus. Beth sat next to Carl and poor Toby got stuck with me. They were both really good on the journey and thankfully it was only a shortish ride.

We got to see loads of animals and reptiles. It was quite a big place and we saw the reptiles first. Toby was very interested and tried to grab anything that came close to the edge of the glass (tortoises, snakes, lizards . . . ). Beth wasn't so fussed and didn't much like the snakes but did of course like the tortoises. In the yard there was a tractor and combine harvester that you could sit in, it took quite a while to extract them both from those!

Beth got to bottle feed a goat and we also fed lots of sheep, lambs, goats and llamas that were in the fields around the farm. We took a picnic lunch and sat in the playground to eat it. As you can imagine, not much was consumed as there was just too much to see and explore. There were a few trampolines built into the ground and both of them loved being on those. Beth bouncing and Toby being bounced.

There were also lots of ride-on pedal tractors sat about so Toby spent much of the time pointing and saying "tractor". His highlight was probably having a tractor drive right by us while we were feeding the animals - in the photo you can only see the back of his head but he had big saucer eyes. :)

Have to say that my proudest moment was glancing up from putting Toby in the pushchair to see a crowd looking (very disapprovingly) at a certain little girl chasing hens and poking them with a stick. I had to make a split-second decision over whether to disown her and walk away or grab her and dash. ;) Would just like to point out that the photo shows her minus the stick.