Merry Christmas!

We had a fantastic Christmas, slightly extended, rather indulgent and very relaxed! My parents and sister Jane came to stay on Christmas Eve and we spent the day eating and drinking. We had our turkey lunch, with home-grown sprouts, and perhaps a glass or two of wine before heading to the church for the evening service. It was good to see friends and get in the (other) Christmas spirit by singing a few carols and watching local children act out the story of Christmas.

Amazingly the kids didn't get up until after half six (though they were both up multiple time in the night). They were both excited but thankfully not hysterical and just loved opening their presents. Toby had got the idea of it this year and it was lovely that they both stopped and played with some of their gifts as they went, rather than tearing through them all at one go.

After a walk and scoot to the park (the kids got a scooter each, complete with flashing lights) we had a lovely, picky brunch with a mixture of samosa, onion bhajis, savoury tarts, cheese and crackers and left over puddings from the day before. Don't worry, we did have home-grown bacon and sausage but for a quick snack breakfast (along with the chocolate!). :)

After brunch, we headed up to Steve's parents for the afternoon. It worked pretty well as the drive gave the kids time to relax and calm down a little. Of course there were lots more presents to open and play with at gran and grandad's. We also got to catch up with lots of family, a great way to finish Christmas day.

Pre-Christmas Update

Thought I'd best do a quick update before Christmas festivities take over and previous news is lost in the excitement!

December seems to be flying by - this year I thought I was organised but suddenly it's four sleeps and still lots to do. The school Christmas Faire was on December 2 where the kids met the first of many Santas for the year along with some real reindeer. There was the opportunity for them to go into the pen with the reindeer, feed them and have a photo taken but neither were that bothered. Quite good to see that their sense of self-preservation is in tack (two wild animals in a pen with small children just doesn't seem to mix!).

They did both go in to see Santa quite happily - as you'll notice from all the photos, none of the Santas were particularly cheerful this year. Toby had no hesitation jumping into his grotto and telling Santa that he lives "down the road, turn left," I guess he wanted to make sure there were no hiccups with delivery! Beth was rather more subdued and I think her conversation consisted mainly of nods. We managed to spend rather a lot and gain rather little (I guess that's the point of school faires) but Toby did buy himself a secondhand Spiderman outfit for the bargain price of 20p.

The vase of sweetpeas are stuck in there as I was impressed to still be getting them in December - the last lot of the year I think!

I got an early Christmas present on the weekend of the 10-12 with a (quick) trip over to California accompanying my flight-attendant friend on one of her shifts. Unfortunately I didn't get to see everyone I would have liked but I did get to see many good friends and it was wonderful to catch-up. I only took a few snaps while there - it was so nice to see people (and most hadn't changed) that it seemed silly to spend time taking photos!

I did of course take some of Carter and Archer, the beautiful (and very well behaved [while I was there]) children of my friend Christy. It was just lovely to meet them - I feel like I know them already so it was great to see them in the flesh! I also fitted in a bit of shopping (though not as much as you'd think) and popped into old work to see everyone and pick up a few bits and pieces to keep me busy.

Amazingly the flights were great (result of not having the kids with me!) and went really quickly. It might have been because I got upgraded and actually got to sleep. I felt like a minor celebrity as I got to mingle with the likes of Darius Campbell, Renee Zellweger and Greg Proops! Suppose I shouldn't get used to it as next time I'll be back in cattle-class with the commoners!

The day after I got back it was the toddler Christmas party where Toby got to meet another Santa. Considering there were 60 odd children, it wasn't too hectic and I managed to stay awake throughout. To wrap up our Santa visits we went to Sundown Adventureland to their special Christmas ride. The ride was nice - scenes from all the fairytales, a little Disneyish but not quite. For some reason I find this Santa particularly disturbing but I think it was probably his first year and he was a little on the young side for this job.

The kids broke up from school yesterday so we're spending the rest of the week finishing bits off (like icing the cake and wrapping) as well as making salt dough decorations and a wreath for the door.

The kittens are doing great and still love exploring the garden - Lucy has suddenly become more adventurous and takes herself off to goodness knows where. Here she is balancing on the fence.

Happy Christmas everyone - Christmas post I'm sure will follow. :)

Quick Post

Didn't realise it was so long since I last posted! This is just a quick one to show what we've been up to over the last few weeks.

Halloween came and went without us managing to do our pumpkins but the kids did dress up (this picture of Toby is a bit freaky!) and go to a Halloween party. This year, for the first time, I took them out trick-or-treating. We only went to three houses; all people we know but Beth was desperate to do more. I don't think she could believe her luck - knock on a door and someone thrusts sweets and chocolate at you before you begin to speak! Perhaps next year we'll expand our route and visit a few more friends.

Bonfire Night came quickly after that and again we went to a bonfire, bbq and fireworks in our friends garden. It thankfully wasn't too cold and the kids loved the sparklers and following the guy to the bonfire (though didn't join him on it!). The glowsticks really were great for finding the kids - Toby did seem to latch onto this and tried to offload his and go under the radar.

I thought the kittens would be jumpy due to the fireworks but thanks to double-glazing, they didn't seem to notice. They have both settled in well and are on my lap getting in my way as I type this. They're getting pretty big and got their first collars this week. We have also started letting them go out in the garden while we're home and they love it. We're just deciding on which cat flap to get so they can come and go as they please. Ned caught and ate his first victim yesterday, a fly. I suppose we'll have to put their bells back on to try and stop them eating all the birds. We put food out for the birds at the moment so we don't want it to be considered bait!

Everything else is going fine, trying to get sorted for Christmas but it's slow going, especially with a new kitchen gradually being put together. Hopefully Santa will bring most things as I don't quite know where I'll find the time (or motivation) to get it all! Happy Thanksgiving for next week if I don't manage to post again before then. :)

3652 Days!

On Wednesday 19th it was Steve and my 10th wedding anniversary! Grandma and grandpa were kind (stupid?) enough to offer to look after the kids - we took them at their word and booked two nights in Keswick before they could change their minds! We stayed at The Grange, a very nice B+B about 10 minutes walk from the centre. When we were students we quite often camped just up the road and both remember walking past thinking it looked like a nice place to stay!

We spent a fab three days without using the car but pottering about, having a pint when we fancied with nowhere we needed to be or needed to do! We did find a few people rather inconsiderate as they had not had the forethought to leave their kids at home but I suppose it can't be helped. ;)

On Thursday we set off (after a substantial and rather yummy) breakfast to walk round Derwent Water and up Catbells. We didn't do this route as we walked from the B+B around the other side of the lake, stopped for a quick coffee before cutting across the bottom end of the lake to Manesty and up Catbells from that end. We walked along the ridge and back down into Portinscale and back to Keswick. It was around 11 miles and took us just over five hours.

It was perfect walking weather except for the few minutes we were around the peak when it got wet and windy! We were both expecting to be crippled for a day as it's a few years or so since we last did any walking of note but amazingly we felt fine. It was a much welcome break though I think we could do with another to get over this one!

Welcome Lucy and Ned!

We have two new additions to our family, Lucy (white bib) and Ned, eight-week old kittens. :)

When Mog died we didn't want to get another cat - she was too perfect and we knew it would be difficult to find anyone to fill her paws! But over the summer a friend's cat had kittens and we ummed and ahhed about whether to get one. We thought so long about it that they all got taken.

Anyway, we decided that we missed having a pet, so when a friend told us her neighbour had a litter of kittens needing homes, we jumped at the chance to take one in. I went round and chose Lucy - she was very inquisitive and happy to be handled and seemed perfect. The next time I called round to check how she was doing, one of the other kittens who they thought they'd homed, Ned, was 'back on the market'. After a little more umming and ahhing we decided that two was better than one - less likely to be bored and lonely and they help each other groom, etc. so here we are.

So far they are a little nervous and spent most of the day behind the kitchen cupboards - Steve eventually prised the front off to get them out! I think Beth's a little disappointed that she hasn't managed to have a proper hold as they're just too jumpy. Hopefully by the end of the weekend she might be a little happier!

Apple Day 2011

Today was Apple Day in our village. The weather was polar opposite from last year and loads of people came out to play!

I spent the morning setting up and manning the apple bobbing and scarecrow making 'stalls' for the pre-school. They were pretty popular and we even had one daddy join in to show us how it was done, needless to say I managed to resist!

Gran and grandad came for the day and I think enjoyed themselves. The village hall had lots of stalls and there was an Apple Day recipe book for sale with samples of all the dishes to test, yum! My favourite bit, as with last year, was walking round the orchard scrumping apples off the floor to try - they have over 300 varieties so we were spoilt for choice.

I think we could have happily spent the afternoon sat on the grass, watching the world go by and sampling the 50+ different ciders on offer (though I suspect we might not have been able to get back up had we done this :)). A very enjoyable community day!

September Update

Wow, September gone already!! Managed to cram lots in this month so just an overview or I'll be writing forever.

At the beginning of the month (Sept 6) , the kids were back to school/pre-school. Beth started in year one (grade one) and Toby went into his final year of pre-school before he starts reception (kindergarten) next September (how did that happen?!?). Neither had any problem settling back in although Beth has made rather a lot of comments that school is now rather hard. I think she's finding that there isn't quite the emphasis on play that there was last year, especially since she is in a mixed year one/two class (the school is pretty small with only 10 year two children and 20 year one kids - a total of 105 children in the whole school).

One of the first topics they are covering is toys. The homework last week was to set up a toy shop and practice making up the correct amounts for the cost of each toy. You can see the shopkeepers ready for their customers. I can't help but feel a little dread every time I see Beth's pink homework book as I know that it'll mean homework for me too!

Shortly following that, on Sunday 11th, was the village gardening show. As a new member of the gardeners association I thought I'd dive right in and enter a few bits from the veg patch. It made me realise that I have rather a long way to go . . . The classes I entered in were runner beans, cabbage, longest runner bean, three-veg selection and onions. I probably should have entered in the disaster vegetable instead! It was very interesting to look at everyone's produce and chat with them. I found that two men tend to win everything every year - one works in the gardens of a large estate and the other is retired and grows stuff specifically for shows.

I guess as someone just throwing things in the ground and hoping something will pop up, I didn't do so bad! I was at the veg patch yesterday watering the newly planted onions and garlic and had a look at what's still 'producing'. We still have runner beans, dwarf French beans, beetroot, cabbage, baby sweet corn, butternut squash, tomatoes and onions (of which we have 70 left in the ground as I have no where to put them to dry out!). We also have brussel sprouts nearly ready, purple sprouting broccoli (though I'm not quite sure what it's doing) and parsnips getting bigger by the day. I'm happy with that!

Keeping on the subject of producing your own food, the pigs made an escape at the beginning of the month. It seems the battery for the electric fence got a little weak and the pigs took advantage of it, pushed through that then using their snouts, pushed out one of the massive fence posts and off they went. Unfortunately for them they ran two miles down the road and ended up at a pig farm - very bad luck! After some repairs to the fences, they were brought rather unwillingly back home. After that little escapade, their meeting with our freezer has been brought forward - think they will be going to their new home a week on Monday.

We meant to use the summer holidays to catch up with all our friends in the far corners of Britain. Unfortunately we didn't quite manage it and a couple of our rendezvous spilled over into September. So, on Sunday 18th we went to Chatsworth House and Gardens to meet up with my friend from University, Holly and her family (hubby, son Rafferty and step-daughter Naomi). We were lucky and got a sunny day rather than the forecast rain. We decided not to go into the house as three young children and lots of breakables don't always mix!

As it turned out, the gardens were plenty big enough to fill a day. There was a maze which Toby managed to get us out of very quickly - he ran off and we had to run to catch him or else he might have been lost for a while but he picked all the right turns! There was also a cascade waterfall, rock garden, kitchen gardens (I could have spent ages in there!) and lots of sculptures. Among the sculptures were two by Damien Hirst; the one in the photo is called 'Legend' and was created this year. Have to say that I wasn't overly fussed by it - looked quite nice in the setting but just wasn't my kind of thing, sorry Damien!

Last weekend, Sunday 25th, we went to Eureka in Halifax (about an hours drive away) to meet up with cousins Adam and William. We have talked about going for a while but never quite made it but it was definitely worth the trip. Although some of the concepts were above Beth and Toby's level, there was plenty for them to do. I didn't take many photos as the light wasn't great and we were just too busy playing. :) I think we'll go back again at some point, perhaps when Beth is doing some school project and we can't quite pull an explanation together - Eureka can answer all her questions. :)

All our trips are just about shared with the exception of one this past Wednesday when Toby and I went to Sherwood Pines and met up with a childhood friend of mine, Sarah, and her two children Abigail (same age as Toby) and Charlotte (six weeks old). I was a little unsettled by how obsessed Toby was with Charlotte - he just wanted to stroke her cheek and cup her face in his hands. He was also desperate to hold her but there just wasn't a soft and bouncy enough place! I did wonder if a request would come in for a new brother or sister but when I asked Toby if he would like that, he just laughed and said "That would be silly!". Very glad to see we're on the same page. The kids had a great time clambering on the tree trunks, climbing up the giant mushrooms and eating ice cream. Beth was more than a little put out that she wasn't allowed to miss school and come with us, don't blame her, I know where I'd rather be!

Thought I'd just finish off with a salute to our very hot weather this week. On Friday and Saturday, in our garden it reached 29 degrees C/84 degrees F - not bad for October, we even broke out the paddling pool. :)