Round Up

The last couple of weeks have been a blur of going out every day for some reason or other. I'm not sure if I could recall it all and publish it here on my blog.

Easter was interesting, we spent almost every day that week out soaking up the sun. We spent a day in Kearney Village flying the kids kites and had a very tasty picnic. Two days on the beach and several other days just out and about, we hit the town of Portrush too. The children all have a little colour in their cheeks now and me a healthy glow.

Other things were GCSE exam papers, three of them to be exact and now a stack of revision work for the eldest child's next three papers. Once the 27th May is here that will be the last exam for a few months. I am wondering what subjects he will sit next - its a real toss up between doing three more GCSEs or a couple of AS/A levels. Mag also got the results of the six GCSE papers he did back in March, 3 of them he got 100% on, one was 98% and the other two were in the high 80s. Not bad for a 14 year old kid who doesn't go to school.

We have been busy planning out foreign trips, we have two weeks travel coming up and another couple of weeks in the pipeline including a possible trip to the USA on the cards.

Sol has had problems with her feet, well she always did. As a baby Sol had what was called Positional Talipes, in other words her feet were real bendy and curved inwards. This was caused because of her laying breech in my belly for the whole time she was in there, once she was born she has a real tendency to lay with her feet tucked under her. She had a little bit of physio and wore boots to try keep her ankles straight. The last few months I started to notice her feet turning in again. I called the hospital clinic where she was registered before and they wouldn't see her, they said it was acceptable that her feet turned in again despite her history. They suggested that Ryan Giggs the footballer has feet that turn in and because he does its okay for Sol to have that too. What the F***, Ryan Giggs has millions of pounds and a full medical team at his beck and call, and further research shows that he actually gets treated for his foot problem.
I wasn't going to accept this, after all we neither have a million pounds nor the skills of a footballer. We ended up going private and she has been diagnosed with pronation, in most cases pronation turns the feet outwards but in her case they went inward. This un-natural curve in her feet had her hips misaligned so she had to have them manipulated and is now having to do special excercises. A long time ago talipes was treated with ugly boots and frames - Sol is very lucky now to be able to have orthotics made to wear inside her shoes. They are sort of like insoles but actually have a heal and are moulded in a certain way so her feet are shaped properly. She has had them for a few days now and I can already see how straight her ankles are compared to before. 

SUNDAY SUMMARY, Birthday, desks and sleep

Okay, I HAD planned on doing a "snap Shot" Sunday  but it turned out to be more of a photographic summery of my week .....

Here goes

Monday night the children asked for a sleep over. When we went to check on them this is what we found.


I spent most of Tuesday (between swimming lessons, and running the kids to summer scheme, and childminding) trying to tidy the house.
I have to say my husband has the most annoying habit in the world, his newspapers. He buys the Sunday Times every week but never gets it all read. I don't know if you know the Sunday Times but there are 60 supplements with it, and now he has started buying yet another newspaper. If he doesn't get one read he keeps it, and each week this rolls on till he has stacks. I am not allowed to touch the papers, if I were to throw them out he would come looking for a certain article or something. What annoys me most is the fact he stores them next to the bed, oh and the newspaper print stains our white painted floor. Thing is most of the stuff in the Sunday paper we have already read or heard about during the week on the NEWS funnily enough.

No photos from Wednesday, much to my regret! We had early morning swimming lessons then on to our home education day. It was a tiring day, but very successful so well worth it.

Thursday, after swimming, summer schemes, and child minding, Hollie and I set about making some jewellery. This is the bracelet we made which we have since given to a friend.

Okay, so the desks are not really from Friday but I will share the photo anyway. We got them in Tesco's, reduced from £49 down to £12.25 which is a steal. They are MDF and just slot together in two minutes, the kids love them and they are ideal for their crafts and colouring. I am sure they will enjoy doing their skool at them too.

Saturday was my birthday, 21 again! We had Moet & Chandon champagne mixed with orange juice for breakfast otherwise known as bucks fizz! I didn't do anything else for the day, just sat around and rested after another hectic week.

May Day Wetness!

Went out today to enjoy the May Day holiday in style. Of course it rained, but never mind we still had fun. We took a drive down the Newtownards Peninsula and stopped in Donaghadee for Ice Cream. Drove as far as Ballywalter then headed across to Greyabbey to head up the Mount Stewart Road.



We parked at the old Gas Works and took a walk along the shoreline of Strangford Loch. Our plan was to walk as far as the old outdoor swimming pool which belonged to Lady Mairi Bury of Mountstewart. I have fond memories of 'stealing' a swim in that pool as a teenager, the surroundings were exquisite. Sadly today the pool is filled in and the area is just a mess of briars and such like.

This is a memorial to some of the family who drowned in the loch over 100 years ago due to a tragic accident. I don't know the full history and I may be wrong here but I believe they were in a boat and it sank.






Heading back to the car!

Trains, crafts & Trecking!

Feeling better this week I decided to get myself into gear.

Yesterday I had a lovely afternoon with a friend who also likes to make cards and do crafty things.

But after being baby sat by the TV yesterday the children needed out. We decided to head off to Crawfordsburn Country Park for a trek this morning. The day was crisp with a little frost on the ground so it made for perfect weather for walking.

On the way we stopped off to look over the bridge at Bangor West Train station.

We fought our way through the roadworks that had the un-synchronised lights and eventually arrived at Crawfordsburn Country Park in one piece - that is after I complained to the guys who were digging up the road.

Can you see Mag?

We found a geocache up that hill, but I am not telling you where as that would spoil the surprise.

Trip to Ward Park, Bangor

We went to Ward Park in Bangor today.
Ward Park is lovely, water, birds, trees, play area, what more do you need for the children to enjoy. This post is all photos, there is not much to say about the day except that we had a lot of fun.
Oh and we tried to find a geocache there too but we we could not get the GPS to work, better luck next time I guess.

 having a little chat.

Seems it was easier to carry the scooter.

The Peacock was showing off to his potential mate, and she was taking no notice. (women are good at that)

Feeding the ducks, well trying to as the ducks already had their lunch by the time we got there.

A debate about where to go next?

I love this weather vane!

The Boy is Home

Mag is home at last. I want to thank all of my friends on line and in real life for the messages of kindness given to us during this week.

Mag, as you have read earlier in the week, had his appendix removed last Sunday. Mag then suffered post op complications with a kinked bowel and some infection in his wound. Anyway after a few hard days he turned the corner and yeserday he was allowed to come home.

Mag now is still pretty sore, he is tired and not on full strength but this is all to be expected.

He has had some surprising restrictions put on him, he is not allowed to do contact sports or anything strenuous for six months. He is allowed to resume 'gentle' sports after three months so at least he wont be curtailed for too long. The weather is too cold for him to be out cycling or trampolining anyway. He is also disappointed that he has had to cancel his climbing wall course and not go swimming with the other children but I guess it is a small price to pay compared to what would have happened had he not got the surgery.

We have been overwhelmed with the kindness shown to him by virtually everyone we know. The cards and calls have flooded in from his various clubs and activities, even people who we had not told directly got to find out about him being laid up. It just shows what a popular boy he is, and I would imagine if the same happened to me I would struggle to have the same following.

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!

DEAR DIARY (2nd May 2008)

Lunch was at 12 today, and that was the end of formal lessons as the children have worked particularly hard this week. The weather was too nice to stick around the house so we packed a picnic and headed into the village. Three hours playing hide and seek, making daisy chains, playing with two other children we met, went by unnoticed.

A brief visit to the park put the children in good stead for the walk home.

We stopped at the post office to cash a postal order, and the children ended up helping the post man! They helped empty the pillar box, the Mag & Seb proceeded to carry the parcels and mail bags out to the van, chatting all the while with the friendly post man. We know the post master well, so there is no issue about this, in fact its nice to be able to do this sort of thing as it would not happen in the city!

On the walk home we came across a friendly man operating a small digger outside a house he was doing work on. The digger driver noticed the Seb watching him intently so he put on a little ‘digger display’ for us. He demonstrated how he could lift his bucket up and down, and managed to scoop up some tools for us too – we thanked him and went on our way. By the time we got home it was tea time and this is where I will end.

Keep Om Walking Kids ...

one day you will get somewhere!