Skywatch Friday - the view from here is lovely

As it has pretty much rained here constantly for two weeks the opportunity to take sky like photos has been minimal so I'm cheating and using photos that have been given to me by a neighbour this week from his hot air balloon trip over our houses. (Thanks Steve) I guess I'm stretching the rules by looking down rather than up too.

To see photos of real sky taken by lots of people themselves - click on the button below. (Will try to do better next time!)

Water water every where

I am sat here struggling to think of anything to write - all I can remember about the last two weeks is how much it's rained!

We've had Aunty Bags visiting us one weekend and managed to run through the rain to the pub, followed by an almost complete large family meal the next day (Uncle Simon was watching the football). It was ages since we saw "Beeba" - and even though Euan was a bit poorly they definitely bonded.

The lovely Beeba

The next weekend we had Daddy's-friend-dave (or daddy as Euan called him for short) visit. I left Tim and Dave talking their normal rubbish and escaped to go wine tasting. Worked my way to number 10 and got stuck on that (if anyone would like to get me a Christmas present I number 10, it was 'Campo le Calle' Soave Doc, Latium Moroni, not sure what it all means but it was very lovely!). We ended the night dancing and generally being one of those 'older women' who I would have pitied 20 years ago!

Oh look it's raining!

Just to prove that clubbing is for the younger generation we had a birthday party to go to at Chicago Rock on the Sunday - Patrick got to the dance-off for musical statues, an earlier round can be seen in the photo, hence the serious expressions and funny stances. The party ended to coincided with the turning on of the Christmas lights and fireworks. The fireworks were very close and extremely loud - Patrick decided that they were "sprinkling on" him (pretty sure it was the rain!) and demanded to go home.

Euan and I managed to go for a very quick walk between showers on Monday - the river levels are really high - but we saw this fab rainbow on the way to school, so may be someone is trying to say something?

Highlight of the fortnight - Euan managed to get a hit on the potty! When inspecting the poo he pointed out "look mummy, slug".

Quote of the fortnight - I was singing along to Wham! Wake me up before you go go (pop trivia - it happened to be the first song at our wedding) when Euan shouted "NO, MY GOGO!".

Thought of the week - “The work will wait while you show the child the rainbow but the rainbow won't wait while you do the work.” ~ Patricia Clafford

Skywatch Friday - a slice of my heaven

There are so many photos of the amazing skies that I brought home from Pembrokeshire. I hope these will be enough to keep me going until I get my next fix (also a fun game of Where's Wally can be played with the kids!).

To get a look at hundreds of other peoples slices of heaven from all around the world, you MUST visit Skywatch Friday .

A whizz bang weekend

My children are party monsters. They spent Friday night at a bonfire party in a friend's barn (or play barn as Bucks called it) - this was a 'high-end' party - nicely arranged straw bales for seating (and later playing/nesting/shredding/sticking down clothes), a well stocked barby, mulled wine, a potato baker, posh soup, a table piled high with three kinds of homemade cake (my personal favourite was toffee apple cake) and most importantly lots and lots of impressively loud fireworks.

Euan wasn't impressed with the bangs and spent the whole display whispering to me "let's go, mummy's car". The other two spent it screaming with their friends "MORE, LOUDER, MORE!". I had to drag three very tired but very happy children home.

The following night we hosted the annual Killens firework party (we go into the garden and watch the fireworks held at the local stately home - last year we got a bit over excited on the mulled wine and missed the show!). The house looked lovely after 2 days worth of cleaning and decluttering - it lasted for about 2 minutes once the many children and bottles of RED wine arrived!

This was the first year we felt brave enough to get sparklers in (glowsticks are far less dangerous with boys around!) - they were very successful with no visits to A&E.

The night ended with the compulsory drunken Wii hula-hooping competition. We (including Anya) got to bed at 2am, needless to say Sunday was pretty much a non-event.

Quote of the week - Patrick (when looking at picture of a snake with its eggs) - "what else has eggs?". Me - "birds, snakes and fish". Patrick - "and elephants". Me - "No, not elephants". Patrick - "but I've seen small elephants".

Thought of the week - "People who make no noise are dangerous" ~ Jean de La Fontaine

A tin hot tub

Half term, Hallowe'en and our 10th wedding anniversary have all come and gone by very quickly with lots of excitement from the whole family.

School ended with a disco (Patrick was very excited about going even though he wasn't sure what a disco was - he spent the whole 2 hours next to the sweet stall, eating and playing go-gos with his friends, so I'm not sure he knows what a disco is still) - unfortunately the school decided that it wasn't a good example for there to be a bar, so the plastic cup of wine that normally makes the whole experience bearable wasn't available - enough said!

We treated ourselves to a luxury week away in Pembrokeshire, we had a lovely cottage with a hot tub (over looking rolling countryside), a swimming pool and eggs to collect each morning and animals to feed. I wasn't sure about the hot tub but since getting back we've been googling them and working out where it could go!

We met Granny and Grandad for the day near Swansea, once we dried out a bit we had a lovely day. The pots of 2p coins went down very well, Anya caught my addiction to 2p shove machines, Euan just held onto the coins in his hands, Patrick tried sticking them in every machine (mainly the rides that I'm too stingy to let him on!) and was a bit disappointed when nothing happened.

The amazing beaches were made all the better by good weather - the children wasted no time in stripping off and going into the sea at every opportunity.

Our annual trip to Folly Farm was a good as ever, although the children have graduated from the tame rides to the fast and furious ones. After the animal feeding at the cottages Patch wasn't too impressed with giving a goat a bottle of milk.

We ended our week with a visit to some dinosaur filled caves and meeting up with my friend Cath (and meeting the very beautiful Owain - once again had to remind myself that I have plenty of children and need NO more!).


So other than a pile of washing, hundreds of photos to sort and even more emails waiting for me at work tomorrow that's the end of another holiday. Good job we've got our next holiday to Spain to plan for next year.

Just a few of my favourite things

Having got a taste of the good life by winning a recipe competition I've got the bug. This post is my entry to a giveaway at Life With the Lairds - the winner gets a free years' subscription to ClickinMoms.com. Judging by the amazingness of the Lairds photos it's a subscription worth having (although the stunning scenery and beautiful family do help).

I have to post my favorite photo that I have taken and explain what it is about the photo that makes my heart sing. Well after searching through the gazillion photos I have on my hard drive I've decided on this one. To anyone else it looks technically not very good but it captures the moment exactly how I remember it.

The photo was taken almost exactly two years ago, we were staying in a remote farm house in West Wales. Euan was 6 weeks old, it was Anya's first holiday after starting school and Tim had just got back from a trip abroad. The dog enjoyed running wild for a week, we couldn't find anyone to look after the cat so she came too. It has been known to snow there in October but we got a real Indian summer and the children went swimming in the sea most days.

This photo has all my favourite people in it (look closely to spot the baby) - when I look at it my heart feels warm, I remember how good it was knowing my family was together and complete. We're going back to Wales for our 10th wedding anniversary next week - if it's a tenth as good we will have a brilliant time!

Thanks for reminding me a good times Kimberly -AND don't forget to pop over and see her technically superior smile inducing photos

(note to self - must stop getting so sentimental - think it's because I have a relatively clean and tidy house, children are asleep and I'm on the wind down to holiday (but if any burglars are reading this everything in this house is old and broken!) will have to reread in the morning)

Tempus fugit when you're having fun

I'm writing this with a snotty nose, glass of wine, Warm Vanilla splatted hands and Muriel's Wedding on DVD. Tim's in New Orleans and has left me home alone.

So I now (having done my painting tasks) have a few minutes to catch up with the last few weeks.

Autumn is definitely here - we went conker hunting and came back with three huge bags of them. I haven't had a chance to put them onto strings yet but the children seem to be happy just carrying them around in their pockets. Lots have found their way into the washing machine, I'm wondering if it will improve their chances in conker fights (easier than baking or soaking in vinegar).

Tim is now the same age as me (the past three months, as every year, he has been taking all opportunities to mention that he is a year younger than me!). My Mum came up for the night so that we could go and see Michael McIntyre in the NIA.

We had a fab night (finished off with a curry) but while I was watching the show I was getting irrationally irritated by various things - 1. The spelling of Michael - it's a really silly name to spell and I feel very sorry for small children called Michael who have to learn to spell it! 2. He had a whistling nose - you know when you breathe in and there's a bit of a noise, this nose noise was boomed around the whole arena, to make it worse it was still there after the interval. 3. I kept laughing at the wrong bits. 4. From the photo you can see just how far back we were, there were three huge screens and a tiny man on the stage - I kept panicking about which bit I should watch - I thought I should watch the tiny man as I'd paid to watch him. 5. Throughout the whole performance I was thinking about what I could write on here and that was completely the most irritating thing!

We've had a very sunny September and so have been on loads of ice-cream eating trips. Patrick says he "loves school", Euan has had two new teeth, Anya has started keyboard lessons at school and we've had some lovely new bathroom flooring (still waiting on the playroom floor - hence the painting).

Quotes of the weeks - "Mummy, are you 63 or 36?" ~ Anya

Patrick - "I put 2 marbles in the jar today"

Me - "Excellent, what did you do?"

Patrick - "I teased Mrs teacher. She told me to put one in but I put two in".

Mmmm, I'm sure I should have made him own up but I didn't think I could have kept a straight face. A future in politics or banking await I think!

Me - "Don't pick your nose"

Patrick - "But I'm hungry"

Thought of the week - "Time flies like the wind. Fruit flies like bananas" ~ Groucho Marx

Skywatch Friday - merrily, merrily, merrily

The village I live in is on the Junction of two canals - I've just looked them up on Wikipedia and didn't realise how important the area would have been. I'm always amazed at how the canal were built by hand, the were finished during the 1770s. Over 200 years later they are still busy - although the narrow boaters today are more relaxed and more dogs walk along the tow paths than horses.

Click the button to see fab skies over the heads of people from all around the world.

Skywatch Friday - fade to gold

We are very lucky to have lots of nice walks right on our doorstep. This week I got to escape part of the bedtime routine and take the dog out. I hadn't realised how close to Winter we were getting until I saw all the Autumn colours along the canal.

Autumn always used to be my favourite season. I once told a friend this and she said "oh no - I look around and all I see is death" - this has just about spoilt the whole thing for me! (I have discussed the Autumn thing with her again since and she said she must have been having an off day!). But even with all that death hanging around - Autumn sunsets sneak up quickly and provide a great show.

Even Ruby enjoyed the view.


To see lots of other skies from around the world and may be escape winter for a bit longer click on the button below.

A big fat SMALL

Today I bought myself a skirt, I spotted it a while back but it took until today for me to decide that I might actually get some wear out of it (skirts are not practical in soft play areas). The lady in the shop pointed the rack out, I went to pick up a Large, she gave me the Small. There was no medium so I took both sizes to the changing room. The small not only fit but looked pretty good.

This happy event is the result of a nearly two year diet (with a break when I went back to work after maternity leave, I needed the cakes to get me through the day). At the beginning I would have been happy losing a stone, now nearly 3 and a half stone lighter I still look in the mirror and see just as many lumps and bumps as there were before. In fact in my hyper critical eyes some bits are worse - the bingo wings were kept tort with a layer of fat and my rounded tummy didn't look quite as saggy (it's amazing how much carrying around 3 baby elephants impacts on the skin!).

So, I'm 2lb away from my Fat Fighter goal, this time last year I would have never thought that possible. I've never been a size 10 before, going straight from age 10 labels to size 14. I think I need a bit more practice at self love and accept that although my bikini days are behind me that I'm actually in pretty good shape.


Thought of the day - "Now crisps are high in fat, but they're also low in protein and low in
fibre! See, it's not all bad!" ~ Marjorie Dawes