A Week In Photos - From Spider Woman To A Chef

Dressing up - Seb got a chef's outfit for Christmas and the children also all got aprons. The vet costume and the bee outfit were from previous events.



The tooth fairy also visited out house. As you can see the tooth that fell out was a top one, that top tooth was hanging by a thread for a couple of weeks (until I got sick of listening to the tears every time we ate). Underneath it was a quite well grown tooth so it is so no wonder it hurt.



 she is lovely. (Do you think I am biased?)

Yesterday the children were playing with various games.

This is 'our' family: Roy on the left, followed by me dressed as spider woman, Toni, Mag, Seb in the builder hat, and lastly Sol on the right.

Sol had her eye test at the hospital last week, as a result she got two new prescriptions. We went to Specsavers to order her glasses this time, and they turned out okay. Usually we go to our own optician but I did not have time to go there after doing a huge list of errands that particular day. Specsavers was in the shopping centre so it was hand to get to. The downside to Specsavers is that the only offer one free repair for each pair of glasses, our usual optician offers unlimited. I am sure it is the same NHS/government fund that pays for them so it does make you wonder why this service is not available there. For a three year old who wears lasses all of the time this is an essential part of the service. Anyways Sol was thrilled with her Mr Tickle, and Little Miss Naughty specs.

Toni has also been sick for the last couple of days, last night and this morning her temperature hit 39.5 C, it is coming down now at last. I think her tonsils are a bit red looking and she was sick, but I think she will be alright after a day or too in bed.

The Launch of SHAE

Yesterday the 30th December 2008!

 Roy had asked for a boat from Santa Clause - and a boat he got!

Yesterday it was dull but dry so we decided to head into a nearby town called Bangor and launch Shae the speed boat at Pickie Park.

The promenade.



Waiting ever so patiently for the time to launch



This is it ...




And she is off like a good un...

Shae's maiden voyage was successful, well almost. She had a bit of propeller stutter and started off going round in circles but once she got the hang of it all there was no stopping her. Shae whizzed around the pond like a good un until she ran out of puff. It was then she was packed into a bag and marched around the park with the children.

Some views from around Bangor Marina.

Trip round Belfast

SUNDAY
We collected Mag from his friend's house in Carrickfergus this morning. He had a blast -movie which was Ghost Town, a pizza hut feast and sleep over.
We had decided to kill two birds with one stone so to speak and head into Belfast to see the Christmas lights and head to the continental market. We didn't make the market in the end but we still saw plenty.

The tree at the Victoria Square Shopping Centre. This tree was impressive, apparently the tallest in Belfast. I had to stitch the photos together as I couldn't get it taken in one go.

This is the Belfast Wheel, we didn't go on it this time as we just ran out of hours in the day, the children were tired and hungry by the time we made our way round. We had gone on it last year and it boasts an impressive view of the city.

Belfast City Hall Christmas tree.

Toni ended up with her hair done! There was stall in the Castle Court shopping centre promoting Babycurls curlers. One of the staff took a shine to Toni, he offered to do her hair, after a few minute of shyness she agreed! The result was beautiful, she sat so good while she was having her hair done and although it took a couple of hours it was well worth the wait. The hair designer (apparantly different to a hair dresser) said her hair was astoundingly good and in the last year and a half had never done such lovely hair. Well of course what made Toni grow to ten feet tall.

Castle Park

Friday morning - it is very cold today so much so the car was covered in a film of ice! We love the crisp mornings, when it is dry and the autumn leaves are on the ground. I got the children wrapped up warm and off we went to Castle Park, in Bangor. We had a good long trek among the trees and then went up to visit Bangor Museum at the Heritage Centre. It was nice to get back in the heat so the museum was welcomed greatly, The children did the quiz in the museum but we ran out of time to see everything so we are going to have to return another day.

I took a few photos along the way!

We found two Geocahces also wich makes our Geocache score 7 now!

It Wasn't Me!

This is Sol, moments after she emptied a bottle of baby powder on the bathroom floor. I walked in to catch her and she said "It wasn't me!"

Under the table!

Yesterday, the 11th November 2008 was a 'funny' day.

I had to do a few errands early on in the day, off to the chemist, newsagent for birthday cards and wrapping paper, and the like. I called in at the Co-Op for the usual food supplies with Seb our 5yo, he was looking at everything as usual. I left him playing at one of the promotional baskets, he was happy and occupied and I continued to stroll along that aisle. I heard him crying and turned to see him talking to a lady. She asked him what the matter was, Seb replied "I have lost my mummy", Well dear what does she look like?", much to my amazement he said "You will recognise her because she has hair extensions".

The woman came up to me and said "ARE you his mummy?" while she scrutinised my hair.

Later in the day we went off to a friend's house for a birthday party. Her son just turned 12, we did the usual birthday greetings, presents, food etc.

Afterwards Seb was rather quiet, this is where I found him...

Oh and he was eating Sol's piece of birthday cake.

FAWLTY TOWERS REVISITED

Do you remember Fawlty Towers? Well we were watching a re run of them on Sky TV the last couple weeks, the children were literally rolling on the floor with laughter. Who would have known that 'old fashioned' comedy would have amused them so much?
Since then they have been role playing Fawlty towers with some very amusing resuts. The characters of their game are Manuel, Basil, Polly, and Swivel (they mean Cybil). Its like watching a comedy show based on a comedy!

Fireworks and Halloween Ramblings

The ramblings of a mad woman here -

Halloween is over now thank goodness. We don't really celebrate Halloween as such in our house, not really and not for any particular reason. On Halloween night I arranged a little 'supper' for the kids, I made them sandwiches and cocktail sausages and they lounged around and watched Hook. They all enjoyed it and not one of us set our noses out of the front door.

Saying that we don't celebrate Halloween, became a contradiction when we got some fireworks. Roy bought them from when he was working down in Newry this week, he seemed to get a good deal on the ones he bought. It is quite sad that no body checked to see if he had a licence for the fireworks, in fact the man in the shop said he didn't need one! The law in Northern Ireland states that for private garden fireworks you must purchase a licence for £30, though I am not sure how many people actually adhere to that law. We had our neighbours in and after the display we shared a take away curry.

Oh and we had a visitor last week - a mouse! We had heard it rattling around the house the last few nights, I am sure it was wearing boots sometimes.

One morning I spotted something moving in the bathroom cupboard, thinking I was imagining things I investigated. I found a mouse alright, and it was eating a slice of toast - yes a slice of toast in the shampoo box. I was wondering how the tiny mouse managed to get the toast there, but then again with four children in the house I am sure it had a helping hand. Then Roy flicked the light on in the middle of the night and announced the mouse was at the bedroom door ..... THIS WAS WAR - no way was a little mouse going to give me another rude awakening.

We set traps and the same night we caught it - the mouse was toast! We have had traps down the rest of the week but nothing else has been caught.

SHOW ME THE LIGHT

This morning we were enduring the chilling winds brought straight in from the Arctic, yet we still had to head out. Wrapping up warm the children and I had to run a few errands to run. We had to stop at the bank, optician and collect some forms for filling in.
After the chores were done we went along the pier at Donaghadee to admire the light house. It isn't a huge lighthouse but impressive all the same. This worked out well as the children were working on a project about lighthouses last week, today was great for them considering this lighthouse is practically on our doorstep.


The crane on the harbour, Seb was fascinated by it.

The lifeboat.

At home this afternoon I could not resist taking these photos of Seb, he was nursing his baby he just looked a real natural.

Not forgetting Toni - she is gorgeous but then again maybe I am biased.