A birthday treat

Wednesday was my little princess' 9th birthday- time really does fly!

We had a fantastic meal out as a family, my sister and her hubby and three children came too. We went to a local pub which is a ten minute drive away. I drive past it everyday on my way to work but I have never been in. It was Fab!

I didn't book a table before we went (I forgot!). There were 8 of us and staff said no problem, give me a moment and I'll set one up for you he got us some drinks for while he did this. A tab was set up so we could just order all drinks and pay when we were ready. When it came to ordering the food the young lad again was very helpful, the children could have a smaller version of any of the adult meals or they could do chicken nuggets. My niece opted for a creamy mushroom pasta, Stephanie and my nephews chose the nuggets. Dylan had a curry and I had slow roasted minted leg of lamb. When the food came out I was shocked- the children's portions were what i would have served as an adult portion. Mine was a whole 1/2 shoulder of lamb- I'd just expected some! The children's meals came with peas, but they wanted carrots broccoli etc too. This was no problem either, the staff just put bowls of different vegetables on the table for children to help themselves from. I didn't photograph any of the food- we just tucked straight in. It was delicious. I didn't clear my plate as much as I wanted to I just couldn't fit it in. We waited a while then the children asked for desserts. Again staff were accommodating of the children- Stephanie wanted chocolate cake which came with a choice of ice cream, custard or cream. When I queried which cream it was the young man said it would be no problem to change the double cream to squirty  cream that she wanted. Again when the portions came out the children's desserts were adult sized and delicious.

 A playful break between courses. We had a corner of the eating area to ourselves so we allowed the children to play calmly by the table as we weren't impacting on anyone elses meals etc. This was encouraged by the staff, who joked along with the children.

That glass dish above is the children's ice cream dessert, almost all eaten.

When we arrived the staff put the cake I had bought with me into the kitchen. Once we had finished eating they brought it out. With all candles lit. We were sat near to the kitchen, but they must have 2 entrances as they came out in a different place so they walked all through the pub with the candles lit. All of the staff joined in singing happy birthday- as did all of the other customers. Stephanie was made up!

After we had paid the bill we went outside. The pub are in the process of setting up a mini zoo. They have some animals, but discussion with the staff informed us that they are intending to get more including; ponies, and monkeys. We saw some of the animals, however there are lots more enclosures we couldn't access as staff were working on the meerkats enclosure ready for their arrival this weekend. We will definitely be going back soon. I could see us easily sitting in the garden enjoying the animals. 

Of course my water baby spotted water before me and jumped straight in. Again staff were fab and we happy for children to play for a few minutes before we bundled them dripping get into the car. In our case home with blowers on full heat and straight in the shower. Good job it is so close to home!

Where have the holidays gone?

Wow the holidays seem to have marched by in haste! I feel very relaxed and have enjoyed our time off but it is over too quickly.

I have been thinking lots today about how much we have crammed into the last two weeks. Here are some of the pictures I have taken to give you a little glimpse;

Robot building

 playing with new cousins

 Residing in a hotel before a BIG race

gardening

Enjoying the sun

baking

Wildlife watching

Flowers for my mum's birthday

Simple food

Family walks

Tree climbing

Water fun

Easter egg hunting

Clue finding

All together- MEMORY MAKING!!

Back to school tomorrow to recharge our batteries, not long until the bank holiday weekend, 5 weeks until the next half term. In those 5 weeks we have lots of learning to do, birthdays to be had, exams to be taken. How did my babies get so big, so fast?!

Little Cook

This evening Stephanie took charge of dinner. she decided that she was going to make pasta salad with salmon.

 Chopped salad from the fridge 

Pasta on the hob, and salmon.

 That done she heads up the garden to see what can be found, and comes back with her bowl full. That little lot washed and spun and dinner is ready. This is the part where I confess to tucking in and taking no more photographs! Imagine it all put onto a plate. It was delish!
 I love that she was able to go to the garden and collect some of the dinner. Hopefully in  few short weeks even more food will come from the garden. It's looking all green and full of promise out there currently.

Garden birds

I have been amazed since we moved here by the amount of birds that visit our garden. Loads come daily and hop about the floor. It is fantastic to sit in the garden it is so peaceful and all you can hear is the birds cheep cheeping at each other. Yesterday my neighbours very kindly gave us some of their excess bird feeders and a little food to put in some of them. Stephanie helped me to hang up those with food in our trees straight away.

I've been pottering about in the dining room for an hour or so this morning, the feeders haven't yet been used that I am aware of. I have seen lots of birds hopping about the floor feeding on whatever they find in the grass. I have seen lots of dunnocks, collared doves and starlings. I am not goin ot pretend to be knowledgeable about this. The lovely neighbours also gave us a book to help with identification.

I've been putting this to good use!

I still have these feeders to fill up, 

When I go shopping next I will buy some more food and see if I can identify more of the birds which come visiting.

Mummy Friends

I came across this clip when i first woke up this morning it's all about parenting, how we can all have strong beliefs on how to best parent our children and that we all do it differently. The idea is that no matter the differences we all want the same- the best for our children. Little did I know that my lazy day at home  would result in having 2 extra little people today. I got a text- whilst watching the video from a  friend whose childcare fell through is there any chance I could step in. No prob was the answer. Being a parent and juggling everything is tough. I'm home and new Stephanie would love the company- it's one of her best friends at school. We had an easy morning playing and pottering. Then while we were eating lunch my sister in law called, without going into too much detail she's having a rough time personally at the moment could I please have her eldest overnight. Once we had eaten we headed over to collect him as  she doesn't drive. When I got there I found her in a completely overwhelmed state. "Where's your black sacks I asked?" Confused she went to get them, I bundled up the washing which was built up everywhere and loaded it into the car. I'll bring it back clean and dry I promised. Floor now cleared we could get into the kitchen. the children went out together to play for a while. Whilst we had a drink, a chat and a few tears were shed. Plan hatched to get things sorted I headed home with a car full of children and boot of washing. 

This little love is working overtime;

Tomorrow I will return her child and the 4 sacks of washing. See how she got on with her jobs for today and determine the next few things we need to address to get her sorted. We will soon have things straight for her. 

Not the day we had planned, but very much the day that is needed.

Garden update

It's all beginning to look rather green and busy in the garden. Remember when it looked like this when I moved in?

It now looks like this:

Peas and radishes sharing a bed

red and white onions

Cabbages

just planted carrot seeds

There is also a picture of another 2 beds- one I have divided up into nine to make smaller beds, with mixed salad, and spinach in. I am going to plant more cut and come again type veggies in there too to fill up the empty sections and the final bed will have French beans in it once I have planted them. I love the planted beds which i made all they cost in the end was a packet of screws and a £5 pot of wood treatment to help them to last longer.

I also love how the flowers have just sprung up across the grass, it looks very pretty. I had to be very careful when cutting the grass as I didn't ant to cut the flowers I did loose a few but the majority survived.

The view as I sit here typing:

It's glorious and all I can hear are the birds singing all day long. I love our new home :-)

Brighton Baby Yeah!!

Yesterday was the 12.04.15, just another normal date right- well unless you are my big sister who celebrated her 36th birthday. Or one of the thousands of runners and spectators who were in Brighton for the marathon.

I am so pleased that I took part. It was tough but I loved it. At the start line I could quite happily of not taken part as I was so nervous. However, the same sentiment was being echoed all around me. I walked the couple of miles from my hotel up to the park where the race began, handed all my belongings over to the baggage truck. A surprisingly quick thing to do, possibly because I had left it quite late- from the baggage truck to the start line in  ten minutes. I was so nervous and was doubting myself before I began. So much so that I went into the back of the slowest pen rather than the one I had signed up to start at. I started with a couple of other runners from my club.

Start line selfie

My race number.

All too quickly we were off. I couldn't stop chuckling at the roughly one mile mark. We went round a corner and then all you could see were fellas in bushes, i don't think i need to explain why their backs were to the rest of the world. I can understand why- the queues to the toilets were horrendous. I didn't bother to go into one, I knew there were toilets on the course if needed. I started nice and slow and soon got in to the rhythm I slowly started passing people along with my two club runners i started with. Although at some point i must have left them behind as one minute they were just behind me and then they weren't any more. I decided to plod on regardless thinking they would catch up with me at some point along the way. The atmosphere of the race was fantastic. runners cheered each other along, the faster runners egging us slower runners on at the parts where they doubled back and passed us. The crowds were amazing, lots of supporters cheering everyone along, there were people playing upbeat music both bands and people in the homes having turned up the music very loud so it could be heard. It really was fantastic and made it hard to stop running, you had to keep going after all these people had made an effort to come and watch! 

I don't use gels when I run I usually have jelly babies and lots of fluids so I filled an arm pouch with my inhaler and some jelly babies to keep me going. I didn't carry water as I new there were water stops every couple of miles so I made the most of those. However, so many people were handing out jelly babies I could have managed without carrying those. 

A few weeks before the marathon I read a lot of posts about running and the thing which stuck in my mind was that there will be lots of children wanting to high five runners. Only 1 % of the population run a marathon, the children spectating could be inspired to become the athletes of tomorrow. So I high fived away! Sometimes changing the side I was running on as i had seen runners passing by children without high fiving. 

The toughest part for me was mile 20-23 where we went out along an industrial area, there weren't many supporters there and i was getting tired. Soon i was back on the main area and people were back shouting encouragement. The finish line never looks so far away- it doesn't help that what I thought was the finish line was actually a pedestrian bridge so that people could cross the road LOL 

Finally someone shouted just 3oom to go- 300m has never felt so far. When I finally made it to the finish line i didn't know whether to laugh, cry or kiss the bloody thing! I was exhausted. 4 hours and 55 minutes of running and I did it!!

I walked in a daze for little while until I found a flower bed i could perch on without needing to bend! I ached. I took this picture I was so amazed that I made it to the end. I sat here for a while, people walked past congratulating me. I checked my phone there were 30 messages of support from friends and family who had been tracking me on the marathon app to see how i had been doing. Slowly, I made my way back to the car and drove myself home. I stopped in a services, it made me smile to see so many people in there who had also ran- medals and survivor t-shirts were everywhere. I got myself a flapjack as I was feeling a little peckish but didn't want the burger/chips combos that were being sold.

I realised once i got home and was relaxing in a bath this time last year 5k's were a challenge for me to run- I have now run 42k not bad progress to make  in just a year is it!!