He's Off

Mag that is ... Number one son is off to summer camp for a week.

I will miss him, I always do and the day before him going he had a few moments where he thought he would not be able to leave me either.

It was a long day, we headed off at about half past 11 and stopped on the way to feed the children. it was a cold wet afternoon but the journey was okay despite this. I hope he hasn't forgotten anything LOL I should stop worrying about him. We did the scenic route on the way home and was tempted to call in on some friends on the way home - but when it came to near the time the kids were all over tired.

As agreed with our neighbours we were having their two little girls in for a sleepover when we got home. The neighbours were having a few friends around and I thought it would be nice to offer to take their children. The neighbour's two girls are age 5 & 3, they are sweet girls but the eldest can get a bit 'active' at times so she keeps you on your toes. Between the hours of 7pm and 11pm the house was bedlam - talk about musical beds. I ended up with one child who wasn't even my own sleeping in my arms on the sofa, Sol was in her own room, the others well ....... Toni, Seb and the eldest girl bedded down in Mag's room! When we eventually got everyone in bed and sleeping after 11 and we were exhausted.

The children did not wake till seven this morning which I was quite happy about. Breakfast went smoothly and that gave them bags of energy so they could drag all the toys from the TV room into my dining room! The place was T-R-A-S-H-E-D! I don't mind though it makes for an interesting life.

Toni

VISIT TO THE ARK - 18th june 2008

We went to the Ark farm, I had taken along one of my neighbours children also. The trip was organised by playgroup but we stayed on at the farm for a while after everyone had left - making the most of our tickets when the place was quiet.

At first Sol was nervous of some of the animals, but as the day progressed she came to like them all. she was particularly fond of the little chicks and got to hold one a couple of times to her delight.

The funny point of the day was lunch time when we got our picnic lunches out. the little girl who came with us had her own packed lunch, so I opened it and popped her sandwiches down in front of her. Then I had to do a double take - she was eating dry bread! further investigations lead me to a tin of vegetable soup in her picnic bag - DOH! thankfully we had enough for her to eat too. Story goes - mum was making the lunches and dad said "already done" so mum abandoned making the sandwiches trusting that the dad has it all in hand. I don't think he will ever live the day down when he sent his 3 year old on a picnic with a tin of soup.

here are the photos - well a couple of them ...

Seb, he is a bit nervous of the bunny.


Me - and Sol!


Sol at the farm park


Toni & Mag


An Alpaca




Hannah the girl from next door and Toni.

Dizzy Sol at The Ark Farm

Tally Ho (fathers day)

Fathers day started off with the whispers outside the bedroom door. The children had made a huge plate of toast with jam for Roy and some tea. To be perfectly honest I think it was jam with a little bit of toast stuck under it, and the teabag must have waved across the top of the cup too BUT you cant blame the children for making a real special effort. Soon the gifts were done and we had a debate on where to go for the day...

We plumped for Ward Park which is a bird park with lots of greenery and water flowing through. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ward_Park There are also tennis courts, and other sports areas joined to the park too.

We parked at the sports end of the park, as we had Toni's bike in the car. We took off her stabilisers and gave her a bucket full of encouragement, after a few wobbly attempts Toni mastered the art of balancing on her bike. this was probably the best fathers day gift of all for Roy, he was as pleased as punch that he had taught his daughter how to ride on two wheels.













This is Mag "twittering" about the event -as you can see he was terribly excited!

Quick rundown of the last two weeks - mainly photoss

The weather here has been so changeable, one day we are having delightful sunshine and the next monsoons!


On the days that were reasonable we did try to get out and about with the children. Rather than go over stuff that happened last week and to be quite frank there is far too much going on every day here to keep caught up, I will just post a few photos.



These are just some views around the harbour where I live.


No 1 son!















We also did visit W5 http://www.w5online.co.uk/site/default.asp?secid=home with a local group we belong to. W5 had the dinosaur exhibition on, and i have to say it was very very good.

NEW PETS!

I haven't blogged for ages so all this stuff is old news I guess but I am going to blog it anyway ...

A couple of weeks ago Roy went out to help a friend fix an oven and came back with two furry friends. Long story - but a couple of years ago we were visiting a car boot sale and Roy bought two hamster cages for a fiver. It came to be a standing joke how we have cages yet no hamsters. Over the years we had one cage stolen from our shed but still the joke stood.

So in Roy comes on a Saturday afternoon with two Chinese Dwarf hamsters named Tom and Jerry. they are cute little things but despite the long wait to fill the remaining hamster cage we realised it would not do. As the owner of two cats a cage with bars would just not do! So we had to go get a new hamster cage which is a rotastak creepy castle.

Here's Tom, or maybe its Jerry - they both look the same.