My Baby's Birthday

Did I say my baby? Well she is my baby, Sol now age five and a few days. I cannot believe she is five, its almost as if I went to sleep one night while she was still a new born and I woke up and shes all grown. It is scary how time flies by before you get to catch your breath. Anyway, enough of that mushy stuff just enjoy the photos pf the day. I took loads but I just randomly chose a couple, actually they were the first ones in the folder!

Sol is mad about Hello Kitty, so we just had to get her this delicious cake. By the way its from Marks & Spencer if anyone wants to get one.

Yes, you will have read the trampoline story ... we got a new one. Its smaller and its now round the front of the house so its less likely to get flipped by the wind.

Babies ....

Well you will never guess what happened in our house. We had two rabbits, and we were told they were boy rabbits. I guess that's where this whole thing was flawed, anyhow ....

We got another rabbit and he too was a male! Or so we thought, in our defence rabbits are difficult to sex. So we put the three rabbits in together and they lived happily ever after, at least they did for a few weeks.

On the 19th of July we discovered 5 baby rabbits in the top level of the hutch! We were shocked to say the least, it seemed that Zebedee had given birth. We very quickly researched how to sex the rabbits and split off the offending male. The next day the other female Dougal (gotta love the name) gave birth to three more rabbits so we ended up with eight babies in total.

This is one of the babies at one day old.

Here are the babies at three weeks old, it is amazing how quickly those little things have grown.

Fun and games!

We Do 4th July Here Too

Our village hosts a huge 4th of July event every year. We met up with another family and enjoyed a good evening's entertainment followed by a brilliant fireworks display.

There's not much else to say, I took a few photos and wont bore you with them all.

Deja Vu

Do you ever get the feeling of deja vu? Well I did today ....

Long story short, I had popped out to Homebase to get some paint and wallpaper while leaving Roy at home. Roy was busy stripping in the bedroom while the children were occupied playing in their bedrooms. We got some great bargains at Homebase, but you know those bargains paled into insignificance when we received a phone call on the way home that something bad had happened at home.

We arrived back to this sight to find the trampoline which was at the bottom of the back garden was wedged against the back of the house.

This is the view from inside, you can see how far the trampoline travelled in the wind. It was up against the wall at the bottom of the garden and it knocked over the slide in the process of coming up the garden.


This is the back of our house, it has been an add on and we use it as a TV room. Note the picnic table has lost a leaf and the climbing frame is now up at the back of the house too.

The main frame of the trampoline is more bent than it was before.

The safety net is totally destroyed.

When we went out to the trampoline is was rocking precariously. We decided to unhook the mat rather than risk lifting or rolling the trampoline in the wind again. It took us at least an hour to unhitch every spring and remove the mesh so we could 'un-wedge' the trampoline.

This is all very dramatic, but don't be thinking that we were foolish and unwarned ... DISASTER

this is not the first time this has happened. Since the last trampoline incident we had the trampoline secured down, obviously not secure enough!

New Friend

We have a new friend! He is a cheeky little robin that has been spending time with our family. He keeps coming into the kitchen for a look around much to our amusement.

Armed Forces Day

As part of the Maritime Festival the Armed Forces held a day's events too. Read about it here http://www.armedforcesday.org.uk/Details.aspx?Id=6557513

We went along to see what all this was about.

The Cadets and Boys Brigade supplied the music!

View from Bangor Marina


HMS Bangor Mine Hunter ship. Roy and the children got to look round it and fire the machine guns.



I had to chuckle at the look on Sol's face when she was being shown the weapons.

We nicknamed this photo 'Mafia Girl'.

Train Ride and Photos

I had to pop this first photo in even though it doesn't really fit with the rest. We took the train to Larne from Bangor one day recently. Not necessarily a trip to Larne but more the experience of the train and changing at the big station in the city and such like.


We all love my friend Lorraine, she lives in a town called Cucumber! Well not really that's what the children call her town, its actually Comber in Co Down. Anyways we took some photos in her garden as it is so pretty there, I realised afterwards I didn't get any with Lorraine in but the photos were fun.

buzz buzz

We found a wasps nest in the kiddies playhouse. We took it down and put it in a jar somewhere sheltered and the few wasps that were left hatched out and flew away. Its amazing that such a structure was made by these tiny little creatures.

Before & After

okay okay ...

I am rubbish at blogging.

I have zillions of photos and its going to take me a few days to post everything I want to. I seem to spend my days apologising to people in real life and in the blog world about my tardiness. I have been so busy; decorating, coping with a 'little' issue regarding one of my children's health just now, exams and my own health. I have to get a couple lumps removed and got surgery in two weeks time. Looking like nothing sinister but will know for sure once they are removed and tested.

With regard to the decorating, it has been a nightmare couple months. We took out the fireplace in our dining room and blocked that up. What we didn't realise is that the chimneys were blocked from above and blocking up the fireplace was a huge mistake. So we got a damp patch that then once ventilation bricks and holes were added into the chimney it took two months to dry out.

The fireplace before



The fireplace after - behind the the sofa. The main wall is decorated with a red colour, I need to get complete photos done. I haven't got my floor finished, and I also want a large canvas photograph of the kids on the wall but its live-able now and definitely more than passable now.

Boats, Robes, Teeth.

Well the last couple of weeks have flown by - once again. Here's a round up.

Well last blog update I had shared that other half had got himself a little boat. He was so keen on getting out on it he managed to get the boat insured and a tow bar fitted on the car in less than a day. It is a pity that he wasn't so quick and effiecient at doing DIY. The only thing that held him back was the fact we had only two life jackets ....so we got some decent ones from eBay. And now its just a matter of towing the boat down to the harbour and launching it.

The view from the harbour.


Here's Mag all ready to sail!


Here's the boat ....

wait ..... wait.... its not

this is the boat!

Okay I have to add in this photo, I forgot to share it in a previous blog. This is Seb on his Boys Brigade award night receiving his badges.

This photo, which I took on my phone camera at Mag's insistence. Mag was tickled by the "wide range of trolleys" on offer at Tesco. Well that is what the sign says but I am not sure that there are many to chose from.

The tooth fairy visited Seb last week...

...and this again this week. Poor boy can hardly talk, he has a big lisp thing going on, its quite funny.

The robes we got for Toni ... they are installed and are looking good. We got them from Starplan, in fact my other half was so happy with them he 'let' me go order some more for our bedroom. So I went and ordered two x 2 metre robes for our room which will really help a lot with storage space. They will be delivered and installed in July so we need to get our skates on and get the room decorated ... we never do things by halves in our house.

Just now we have a little room which is actually like a box room, but it is used for clothes rather than a bedroom or anything else ..the room is kitted out with large 'built in' robes and we have all our clothes and bedding in it. Well getting the robes for our bedroom means it will free up some of the the robes in the little room we have, and in turn I can utilise that room for something else. Long story here, but we have an extension in the pipe line with a utility room, so I am going to use this little room for a utility room and that creates an extra room when the extension is done. PHEW are you still with me, because it sounds so complicate, it isn't really.