Keeping up!

Well I have surprised myself, three posts this week I think.. it's all down to my new laptop. It's so good to be able to link to my work too, tidy up those lose ends in the quiet of the evening. 

I finally got the Christmas stuff away on Tuesday!



I am working up to having ten days away with Zac and Jordan, our baker girl. It's hard to spend quality time together with a busy manufacturing business happening in our back yard so away we go.. sun, sea, snorkeling and plenty of chat and relax time..not before time for poor Col who is suffering with a lost voice!



I have been trying to get sorted in my office and we also had a birthday this week.. our baby Annabelle is two years old. 




She is gorgeous little thing, the proper baby of the family and loved by all!  Jordan made her a bourbon and custard cream biscuit tower which was lovely, a good chance to try out some new ideas.




Lyla has caught Lilly's chicken pox but luckily they haven't been too poorly.. not like when I had them aged 9 and mum lost count trying to count the number on my feet!

.. or when Colin caught them just a month before I had Zac and ended up in Treliske Hospital as the docs thought he had got Malaria from his trip to Singapore where he had to go diving!






I had a change this weekend so I chose Nicoise Salad this time at Pizza Express. It was really very nice.. but I am guessing the dough balls to start will not have helped with calories. I really need to get more exercise, I eat better but do so little exercise (walk to the office and back again.. good job we have stairs in the house!) that it's quite hard to budge anything below the 10-10 I seem to have settled at in my hormone riddled 50s!

my boys

 

Breezy!

The sky was busy this afternoon with clouds rushing past the sun and giving us cardigans on and off all the time!  Hoping it will settle a bit over next weekend so we can enjoy some outdoor time with everyone who is coming for Pop's 80th birthday party next Saturday.

It's been a busy weekend (again) .. Zac has gone back to Almere near Amsterdam for another course ..but he will be home in time for the party! He was toying with bringing Mr Bobby out again but has another good idea.. (our theme is going to be Travel so we hope it will inspire everyone!)..He did try Bobby out again last evening..somehow he just makes the person inside very Blobby- behavioured!

We had a little gathering for the actual day of Pop's birthday ..The family and his friend Peter.

I realised I had all my children in the same room..my phone is slow taking pictures..hence the moving arms and Kate's mock pained expression.

 Pops had to pose for his official pictures.. the cake was a spontaneous job when Lilly hung out with Jordan, the 'real' cake is for the party! 









The girls slept over with us on Saturday.. they were late to bed but slept through which makes life a lot easier!  The two young ones love my kitchen windows and the view across to Pops place!

Couldn't leave out this great pic of Lisa and Tom... (he still looks so proud of having her as his wife!)

....or this one of Lilly and Lyla's super duper sparkly Sketcher shoes!

The toe gems flash when you are walking!

Making the most of Summer!

The summer weather has made us all try to take advantage of the still light evenings and the warmth. This evening April and I had the 3 girls so Lisa and Tom could go for a kayak and then a swim and have some supper .. just the two of them. I still appreciate that Cols Mum and mine did so much for us that I am always happy to do it for them..

Annabelle is just about walking and Little Pops (Col's Dad) was playing hide and seek with her watching from our kitchen window.. you can just see him peeping from behind the curtain!

Summer Children:  Ross & Lilly.

We joked that History is repeating itself, Ross got the 50cc quad out which we bought when Lisa was about 7, it's been welded up and rebuilt a fair few times in the last 19 years, and still creates joy in a child.. and a grown up!

Linking up with my challenge over at Lucky 7s here is a summer sunset.. we have had the most glorious shows of sun and light this year.. and if I wake early tomorrow I will give you the sunrise too!

Summer views!

Well it's been one of those weeks .. again! All week I have been counting down to one thing or another, and it isn't any better next week!

Thursday Zac took his final oral exam and passed! He is now an Officer of the Watch and can navigate a ship of unlimited tonnage.. it was actually not so bad as the time approached as he realised he had prepped quite well, lots of group learning and sessions with a port pilot, not quite the repeat learning we used to do for maths and geography in our day!

On Friday Pops travelled down from Col's brothers where he was staying a few days and Zac gave him a look round Southampton port.  They travelled home.. a long hot journey amidst all the holiday makers on the south coast road.

Summer Foods: salady stuff .. outside!

We are having the loveliest of weather, although in the office we see it more than feel it, but it is lovely to have evenings to sit out and eat.. so that's what we did with all the family on Friday evening.. quite satisfying too as Kate passed her driving theory test the same day.

Add to that April passing her Teaching skills exams and we have 4 out of 4 so far!

I have failed on some summer views (feet..and sky today) but have covered these other weeks!

Big Sisters.. Lilly not happy as her burger was cold! Age 3y 4m and 6 years

Baby Annabelle..being like the big girls..age 18 months and just about walking.

Marazion

From my window

Frequently visited.. the building works down the field.. 

Footings!

Zac's home.. cue the family barbecue 

10...A tenuous link!

 So! .. yesterday our Lilly was 6 years old!

Take Liily at 6 plus Lyla at 3 and Annabelle at 1= TOTAL 10 Years old!

It was a dull evening but warm so we all got together after work and had a little barbecue party.. not that there is much little about a gathering at our house..

.. presents to be raved about were:

.. a marshmallow dipper set (yes, honestly, the best thing!), 

..Mushi Monsters (the Silver Collection.. apparently!.. yes, that was a fluke, being a nice boxed set and on sale in Debenhams and accredited to Zac who manages to be a hero even without trying!)

.. some Glow in the dark Balloons.. yes, they have little light inside.. even popular when the balloon has burst!

..and best of all a Loom set, the like of which has not been seen popularity wise since Scoobies and Pokemon!

Kate was the hero here, making a pretty presentable bracelet despite the Chinese English instruction manual!

Jordan made 'Lovely' a Mushi Monster cake , her third birthday cake in 10 days! Just as well my brother doesn't live close as it's his birthday on 20th and his brood would definitely make short work of another cake!

I didn't quite get a good picture of everyone.. mostly people were eating which is not the prettiest picture!

K8

6 years as Mum & Dad..

My catering team: JB & Apr

Jordan & Dom..

'Two' go on an adventure

So we took the 'Two' down to the field for a campfire lunch yesterday..

Colin had it all planned out, so much so it looked like it was spontaneous (an hour welding the grill and prepping the cart to carry the wood and stones!

So you arrange the wood like a wigwam..

.. and cook the food! (No pictures of my favourite.. banana and melted chocolate (we used Munchies.. so fab!)

Yes, he even brought carpet for us to sit on!

Later on Col's Dad (Little Pops) joined us and found the 'dead frog', which after being scared of the smallest ant, Lyla found fascinating.. maybe because it was dead!

Pops thought maybe it had not been able to find water, but we admitted that it may have been a victim of the 'flattening-the-tall-grass-with-an-old-car' behaviour that Colin had employed to get us a nice flat picnic space!

Perfect image for my TWO prompt over at Lucky 7s
Lucky 7s

(PS the photo opportunity and the tale made the whole event look much more idyllic than it really was.. one 3 year old frantic that an ant was a BEE! so requiring to 'sit on you nannie' and a competitive older sister who also thought we should go fetch a box and give the frog a proper burial made for a frantic hour or was that 90 minutes.. but we had fun and I have the photos to prove it!!)