Walking in the Valley

Today was not a good day for walking in the valley due to the non stop rain all day, so instead we got a few jobs done indoors, played games and got a bit of crochet done, but that doesn't make good photos so here are a few from when we went for a walk in the valley a couple of months ago.

Along the Lane.

Through the corn fields and up to the woods.

Halloween crafts

Today we had great fun making some simple decorations for Halloween.

We started off by painting some paper plates with black paint, then once that had dried we stuck some foam strips on the back for legs.
Finally we stuck on some googly eyes and painted a mouth.

We are going to add some string too so that we can hang them up

I only gave them 2 eyes at first until they reminded me that spiders have lots of eyes, so I had to go and dig out some more googly eyes!

We also made some pumpkins out of foam too.

These are going to be made in to a mobile to hang up for Halloween too.

Bunting

Today was a teacher training day at my girls school, and I have been really looking forward to this day all week as now they are at full time I really miss them being around.

We dropped my son off at school and went straight to the park to do some scootering (not sure if that is even a word), when finished there we came home and had a lovely hot chocolate with marshmallows.

We have also been doing some halloween crafting and at present are waiting for paint and glue to dry. Photos to follow, when said glue and paint has dried.

In the meantime I thought I would share with you some bunting that I made for my girls. This was my first attempt at bunting,and I was really pleased with it and it didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would and I was even quicker for the second one.

I love this flowery fabric and have made several things out of the metre that I bought of it.

And most importantly my girls were thrilled with it.

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Special guest for breakfast

Every Saturday it has become a tradition in our house to have crumpets and smoothie for breakfast.

It is the only morning where we ALL sit down and have breakfast together.

But one particular Saturday we has a special guest who joined us for crumpets and smoothie.

Let me indroduce Nelson...

He is our senegal parrot and loves nothing more than joining in our family activities, which includes joining us for meals.

If we sit and eat in the front room and he is in his cage you can always hear a loud voice shouting 'Nelson' and 'hello', until you give him some of your dinner.

And you can guarantee that as soon as you pick up your door keys, he is the first one to say 'bye bye' to you too.

summer holidays in pictures (part 2)

summer holidays in pictures (part 1)

Gifts for teachers and friends

I wanted to to give the girls preschool teachers individual presents but because there are so many of them I thought it would end up costing a small fortune, so decided to make a personalised dangly for each of them. I had made some of these previously for my sons ballet girl friends a while back too. I think they are really pretty and the good thing is they are really quick to make.





I also thought it would be nice for the girls to give their friends from pre-school a small gift that was personal to them and hopefully something they would keep. So I made these keyrings for them to give to the boys




And these bracelets to give to the girls. All the children were really pleased with them.





Amy x

Feeling emotional

Monday will be my girls last ever day at pre-school before they go off to big school in September and I am feeling very sad about it. All 32 children that are leaving are going to 16 different schools between them and my two are the only two going to their school from their pre-school.
I know they will make lots of new friends and they arn't too bothered but its me that is more upset than them.

I have been busy making danglys for the teachers and name bracelets for their little girl friends and name keyrings for the boys. I am hoping to bake some cakes for them to take in on Monday too to share with everyone.

They are having a leavers party on wednesday too, which they will love.

Amy

The reason why sunflowers don't grow very well in our garden...

Is because of these little cuties!
I love watching them in the garden, especially the babies. We back on to fields where there are hundreds of rabbits, which of course then brings the buzzards, foxes and stoats into the fields (and sometimes our garden) to eat their dinner!

Sorry about the photo quality, they were taken through glass.

Sunflower club

Hopefully we are going to be part of this.


We have planted our sunflower seeds and a few others too. We don't normally have much luck with sunflower as the wild rabbits like to nibble on them, but hopefully I can keep them away this year and we can have some beautiful sunflowers.

Favourite things

Well due to the weather we didn't venture very far yesterday, isn't that always the way when you have plans for doing outdoorsy things?
We instead had a lovely family day in. I baked a lovely lemon drizzle cake for after dinner, we played games, did puzzles, watched our new dvd- UP, and had a roast dinner, yum yum. I love family days when we are all at home together.
My son is now at an age where he doesn't always want to do things with us and wants to go and do his own thing which I find hard and always try and find things he will be interested in doing with us.

Today with all 3 at school/pre-school (at least until 12, anyway!) I spent the morning wandering around book shops. I love book shops and could quite easily spends hours in there.
In my dream house I would have my own little library with all the families books and some comfy chairs for us to spend time reading and dipping in and out of books. Well I will keep dreaming!

I started off my day in a small local bookshop, which doesn't have a huge selection but I love it all the same. I had a desire to read Jane Eyre again, I was at school the last time I read this. So I treated myself to it today, and will start reading it this evening when the little ones are in bed.
After this shop I drove to the shopping mall and went into WHSmiths where I looked at the books and have added some to my wish list but didn't buy any. I did however buy my little girls the new hello Kitty party thing that you buy fortnightly, which they are excited about. I then went on to Waterstones and as soon as I walked in I felt relaxed. I don't know what exactly it is that makes me feel like that, but as I said before I could just sit flicking through books.

Right off to the housework, in the real world

Amy

Birthday preparations

My twin girls turn 4 next week, I have no idea where the last four years have gone! I have filled out the forms and chosen our prefered school and they start in September. I am so not ready for them to go to school, I can't remember my son being this young when he started all them years ago.

So I have been getting all the bits ready for their party next week, ordered party bag bits and they arrived today and going to sort balloons out later, but the big thing to do is the cake!! They want a princess castle. I have spoken to my friend who makes cakes and she has given me some great advice.
I am hoping to get all the bits and start baking on Monday, which is the easy bit its the decoarting bit i'm nervous about, so we will see.
I will add some pictures when it is complete

I'm Back!!

Hello, its been a very long time since I have posted as you can see from the dates!!

Happy new year to you all and I hope you all had a lovely christmas.

I have been regularly reading blogs (the ones listed on the right hand side) but somehow not finding the time to blog myself, well hopefully that is going to change.

We have spent a lot of time indoors over the last few days as I'm sure most people have due to this white fluffy stuff that has been falling from the sky and is refusing to go! So we have been doing lots of puzzles, snuggling up on the sofa watching DVD's, playing on the Wii and crafting. My 3 year old girls got a lot of craft stuff for christmas and we are having lots of fun playing with that, they are in particular enjoying their Aquabeads, which is great until they drop them all on the floor and mummy has to pick them all up so the hoover doesn't get them.

I'm hoping I can remember how to put pictures on, so there should be a few in the next couple of days.

See you soon
Amy