Tree Today Gone Tomorrow

I love our front garden.  Its not very big, certainly very small in comparison to the back garden.  However the little garden is pretty and has a cosy feel to it, if you could describe a garden in that way. When we moved in to our house there were two little trees in one of the borders, they were fine and didn't cause any trouble at all.  Over the years the trees have gotten larger and have at times been in the way.  They block the light and  I cant see the children playing from the dining room window.  They had to go.
Our neighbour who is a keen chainsaw-er very kindly offered to do the deed for us.  So on Saturday we decided that while the rain stayed away we would go ahead with the job. Sol got very upset at the prospect of losing her trees.  She hid from the sound of the chainsaw and wanted to make a tree grave for our two trees.  She came round however at the promise that I plant something new and pretty, something that will attract butterflies in the summer. 

The rest of the week was uneventful.  We had another day up in the city of Belfast shopping.  Seb needed new shoes for his Boy's Brigade club so we made that an excuse to go shopping again.  He did well him and his sisters got chatting to the shop assistants in the Geox shop and ended up with three Geox watches to go along with Seb's new shoes.
Later on in the Castle Court Centre Seb was watching the Pretzel makers at Auntie Annes pretzel stall, he watched intently how they stretched and rolled the dough.  After a few minutes the pretzel guys came over and gave him this huge pretzel for free.  Seb was delighted of course and they were more than happy to give him further demonstrations in pretzel making.  I thought that was really nice.

Washed Away

The weather today is dreadful.  That statement is an understatement!  With much of the UK on flood warnings all I can say its pretty darn cold and wet.

We braved the rain yesterday, I needed to go to the bank to pay my wages in and Toni wanted to spend some of the money she received for her birthday.  When we arrived at the shopping precinct I sat in the car texting my friend, telling her I didn't want to get out the car.  It was funny, she told me to send the kids instead.  I am glad we did the errands yesterday as today is no better.

When it is not raining, or windy, or cold and I am not working I would walk in the evenings. I know this doesn't really make an interesting blog post but I wanted to share some of the sunset coastal photos that I have taken on my walks.  Just a little note though, the photos are mostly phone photos and are not top quality.

 This one is my favourite, just because I sat and watched the heron fishing for a while this particular evening.  That night whilst I was taking the photos there were bats swooping around me each time giving me a near miss as they followed the line of the harbour wall.

Another Birthday and A Sticky Patch

Here we are two days past Toni's birthday, she is now ten years old.  True to form the birthdays in our family always have a little run of bad luck.  Toni shares her birthday with the anniversary of the death of my mother. It is sometimes hard to not forget about how my mum died on my daughters 5th birthday, I try my best to put it aside for Toni's sake.

The day was boringly uneventful.  Other half had an idea inspired by the latest series of The Apprentice, so in a bid to get some inspiration we visited a neighbouring town and its market.  In the years gone by my memories of the market are a buzzing lively event, but sadly on Saturday it was dull, small and lacking in pizazz.  Anyway we had a good morning looking around, Mag bought himself a winter hoody and the kids were more than happy looking at the toys on offer.

Toni had raised the point that she didn't like the icing on shop bought birthday cakes and requested that I would make her cake for her.  Better still she later asked for big swirly cupcakes which to me are easier to make than baking and icing a birthday cake.  I have done the kids cakes before but they are usually a two day event and I am never 100% happy with their outcome.

Earlier in the week I had taken the girls shopping to Belfast and got all of the kids pretty much kitted out for the winter.  We had a great day and are planning another trip later on this week to get some shoes for the boys as that was about the only thing I couldn't get.

The girls enjoying their shopping spree.

Oh, and something funny to add.   Sol has a huge sense of humour, she just makes everyone smile everywhere she goes.  As you will know from the blog posts I write she has to wear a patch on her eye for a number of hours every day.  These patches are sticky and pretty, Sol likes to stick them in memorable places as she hates to throw them away.  It is now a standing joke that everywhere we go she leaves a patch behind on a pillar or a fence.  At the shopping precinct in a nearby town she has a few patches dotted around.  She sticks them on the rear sides of the parking pillars usually and checks them each time we visit.  One particular patch was stuck on the pillar near a bank, it was stuck there for a couple of weeks and it looks as though someone found it. It was unpeeled and stuck onto the window of the bank much to our amusement.  Three weeks later the patch was still stuck onto the bank window!  This shows that the bank people do not clean their windows.  You can just about see in the photo, it is worn but still there. 

Cupboard Love

I need to throw a few updates at this page, however this one couldn't wait.

In our house we have a spare room, we call it our 'wee room'.  Wee being a word that the people from Northern Ireland use in front of just about every object or person they are talking about.  Wee, is a term of affection or simply just just a word when no other words will do. ("Do you see that wee man walking down the road?" this does not mean do you see that little man walking down the road, it simply is a less formal way of calling the man a man.)


Anyway our 'wee room' as we call it is actually a laundry room as such.  I use it to store bed linen, ironing, spare towels, winter/summer clothing, holiday stuff, surplus food, cleaning supplies and small electrical appliances, DVDs and I loads more. Everything goes into our wee room and its many cupboards and spaces.

The children often make dens in the wee room, especially when the weather is bad.  the other day Sol and Seb decided to set up a boys play area in the room.  Sol has been going through a stage where she pretends to be a boy and plays with boy toys.  This elaborate game lasted for many hours and spilled into the evening.  Sol and Seb made makeshift beds on upturned storage crates with cushions on top to soften them.  This rolled on to a sleep over and the children had no trouble in going to sleep in their new comfortable (not) beds.

We left them to sleep but around midnight I started to have second thoughts about their comfort and safety  and we lifted the sleeping children into their own beds.  It was really funny in the morning when Sol woke up and she had no idea she was actually in her own bed, she was not impressed.

What Is It About Birthdays?

What is it about birthdays lately? We don't seem to have the luck that we need to have a complete birthday without some sort of incident. Last night other half was taking Mag to his club and the car went 'pop'.  Out of the exhaust billowed thick black smoke and after a few minutes it settled down.  This morning was a different matter, other half left early to go to his secret handshake meeting and I could hear him kangaroo jumping the car down the road.  After a few minutes the car was fine, or so it seemed.  I  had planned on taking the children out for the day, after all it was Mag's birthday and I at least wanted to do something a little different for him.  However, I waited for the call from other half ... it never came.  I had a feeling there was something wrong with the turbo on the car so I eventually tracked him down to explain.  He said that the car was fine, but unconvinced I held on at home for him.  Next thing I knew I got a call explaining he was kangaroo jumping down the road again with black smoke pouring out the back.

Fast forward a couple of hours and the car was at the garage up on the ramp getting checked out. I met other at the repair shop there so he could get home if the car had to stay.  Just as I suspected it was to do with the turbo, lucky for us the pipe had just popped off and was easy enough to fix.  The guy didn't even charge us which was a huge relief as we just didn't have spare cash for an unexpected car bill.

We didn't get our day out to the city in the end but we did go to a local shopping area to do some birthday shopping.  Mag, birthday boy, got a tee shirt, some game cards, a book, and he ordered a pair of boots which should be in his possession on Monday.  He is very happy as he also received a gaming wheel and a stand for his favoured game Gran Turismo.  He is as happy as a pig in muck today.

Caramel Cupcakes

I made 36 caramel cupcakes today.  Each caramel cupcake has caramel frosting with caramel sauce drizzled on the top.  I finished the cupcakes off with a Rolo for decoration.  I can't wait to try them.    

Simon Or Is It Simone?

Today was pretty much run of the mill stuff. We got all the lesson materials laid out for the three little ones so when we returned from our errands we could get stuck in.

We had to run to the pet shop first to get new water bottles for the bunnies. The rabbits have chewed the nozzle on one of the bottles and another one I ruined by washing it in boiling water. In the pet store we had a look at the adoption centre, not the animals for sale but those that are donated for homing for whatever reason. The kids fell in love with a pale brown lop rabbit called Simon. While we were waiting I asked the assistant about Simon and if he were neutered. She said "Oh, sometimes you can tell", so off we went to look at the poor rabbit's private parts. It was funny as the assistant jumped up suddenly in a panic, that rabbit is NOT a boy! That was me, I laughed at the pet store, and they got it wrong.  It's only funny because we made that mistake ourselves a few years ago.  I asked to have a look and sure enough Simon is Simone. So the lop is still in the store but I have a funny feeling we will end up going back for her, she's cute.

Mag stayed home while we went out for errands, just as well really as I needed to get him birthday cards and a few bits for his 16th this week. 16, did I say 16? There's no way Mag is 16. I can hardly believe that 16 years ago I was all excited and nervous about the prospect of giving birth to my first child. I was told the placenta wasn't working so well but he would be just fine if I was induced that week and that they'd keep him in my tummy as long as they could. I had been in hospital for several days and turned out I didn't actually need my labour induced, Mag decided to make an appearance very early one morning himself taking a few staff by surprise.

I am planning on baking big caramel cup cakes tomorrow for the big day on Thursday. Mag expressed he was a bit grown up for a cake, he wanted something more sophisticated than a fun cake yet he felt the cakes he had seen were a little too 'old' for him. He loves my big swirly cup cakes so that's what he's getting, hopefully 16 of them each with a candle. I hope they turn out okay and he's not disappointed. We are planning on going into Belfast for the day to do some birthday shopping and have a little light lunch. I also have a surprise lined up for him, I usually work at nights but I was able to swap my shifts around this week and take the evening off from work. We are going to get Chinese, he loves Chinese food ... Ssshhhhhhh don't tell him if you see him about.

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