Tatton Park

My mum and I took the kids for a day out at Tatton park today. My brother and his daughter met up with us there for a picnic too. Shame about the change in the weather but we had a lovely day regardless.

They had a Alice in Wonderland themed thing going on over Easter but unfortunately we'd missed that but the chair from it was still in the gardens so we took the photo opportunity.

Then Ellie and Josh found these boards to pose behind.

My little Alice. :0)

And smiley rabbit.

Ellie and her cousin had great fun on the carousel together while Josh played on his DSi in the car - aren't teenagers great!

We tried to go to the Old Hall before we left but it was shut so we're going to go back another time and see if we can do that. Evidently it's been on "Most Haunted". What out for those ghosts!

Mother's Day Outing

I thought I'd take the kids for a trip out since its Mother's Day. We went to Quarry Bank Mill and as it's part of the National Trust, and we are now members, we got in free. Hooray.

This is the kids twisting fibres

and feeding coal into the steam engine to power the loom.

Ellie asked me to take this photo.

Then after all that fun we had a stop of at the cafe for ice cream and cake before coming home.

And these are the lovely presents my kids got me for Mother's Day. A beautiful Orchid and some yummy chocolates.

I'm such a lucky Mummy. :0) Thank you for such a lovely day kids. x

Saturday Challenge

I made this card for the Saturday Challenge at the beginning of this week but I've been having a mum and son week while my daughter is over at my mum's for a few days so I've only just got round to putting it on my blog.

The Saturday Challenge this week is blue and cream. I used my Penny Black Stamp for this card and papers from Papermania.

Josh and I went to a secret nuclear bunker on Wednesday. Unfortunately it wasn't the best day out ever but we had fun looking for the spy mice and rats.

There were a couple of hands on exhibits but not really enough to keep Josh interested. We had a nice picnic outside afterwards though before we drove home and it was certainly something different. I don't think we'll be going again though.

Happy Birthday Josh and Happy Father's Day

Today is my son's 12th Birthday. Doesn't time fly? I can't believe he'll be a teenager next year... Ooooh scary thought.

This is the card I made for him. I used some green metallic card that Josh bought me for my birthday last year, plus papers from a set by Hot Off the Press. The image is from a set of Forever Friends papers. The Happy Birthday and Josh are made using Go Kreate dies in my Cuttlebug. I added a couple of small buttons just to finish off.

Josh opened his DSi before his birthday - long story but he got lots of great games for it for his birthday. I'm sure we won't be able to drag him away from it today.

Of course it's also Father's Day today. This card I made for my dad who's away on his holidays right now. Hope he's having a good time.

and this one I made for my friend Charlotte to give her Dad.

and the inside.
Hope you are all having a lovely Sunday.

Foxy Loxy

I made this card for my friend Melissa whose birthday was on Tuesday. I used the gorgeous My Minds Eye papers and rubs on and my adorable little fox stamp by Imaginisce. He's so cute! The circles are Nestabilities used in the Cuttlebug of course. We had Josh's parents evening on Thursday. We didn't get very much out of his teacher but she feels he has settled in well and is doing ok.

We did go and see a presentation on a residential stay they want all the year 7 kids to go on to a centre in Wales. It looks fabulous but we were a bit worried about how Josh would cope with it all. We managed to speak with the guy who is the Director of Student Services at the school and he was great. He was talking about meeting up with all the 20 parents that have kids with special needs and finding out what things they need to be made aware of for each individual child so that their needs will be met while they are away at the centre. (I'd better start making notes now!)

It was all very reassuring and such a nice change to have someone wanting Josh to go and not miss out and genuinely interested in finding out what Josh's needs are so that he can go on the trip rather than being grateful that he's not going so they don't have to deal with a "problem child."

I think if, after we had spoken to him, we'd still said that we were unsure the guy would have kept us there and kept talking until he had managed to convince us to say yes. lol. It really is a whole different attitude to what we've been used to...

...and I love it!

Back To School

It was Ellie's first day back at school yesterday. She was very excited about seeing all her friends again. This year they have new uniform. Before the infants used to wear polo shirts and ties were optional and the cardigan/jumpers were just plain green with the school logo on.

Now the infants and the juniors all have to wear a shirt and tie and the jumpers/cardigan are a different material and have yellow stripes on them as well as the school logo. The new jumpers do look smarter but the material is very rough even after washing them. Ellie was just so excited about going to school it was really difficult to get her to stay still for the photos.

I can't believe this is her last year in the infants. This time next year she'll be in the juniors. Where's my baby gone?!

Josh started at High School today. I was a little worried as a friend of mine was taking him and dropping him off and she had to take him quite early on her way to work. As it turned out the school is open early and he can go in the canteen first thing or the library to wait so that was a weight off my mind.

I can't believe how grown up he looks in this uniform. I'm so used to seeing him in the green one.

He's getting so tall too. Have you seen the length of those legs?! It's not going to be too much longer before he's taller than me. Argggggg!

Arran Trip

I've been AWOL this week from my blog as the kids and I along with my mum have been on holiday to the Isle of Arran. We set off last Friday (21st August).

This is us all packed up and ready to set off on our adventure to the Isle Of Arran.
We stopped off for a snack on the way up and found a Service station which has a small lorry in it.

The kids thought it was great and wanted their photos taken in front of it.

We stayed over night in a Travel Lodge to break it up a bit for the kids and the next day we met up with my brother Richie, his fiance Gayle and their little girl Chloe at Ardrossan Harbour. In plenty of time to watch the ferry coming in.

On Sunday we weren't so lucky with the weather and it rained and it rained and then it rained some more. So we all went to Brodick Castle where the girls had to look in all the rooms to find the "Bogels" which were little people made from painted stones. They had great fun spotting them all.

Arran Trip Continued

On Monday we went to Machrie beach near the golf course. There is a little park there which kept the kids amused while Richie and Gayle tied their bikes to the front of my car to keep them secure while we were on the beach.

We actually went in search of rock pools but didn't find any. Mum and Ellie had a great time fishing in the sea and collecting shells in the bucket instead.
After the beach and a picnic lunch we headed off to the Lighthouse Cafe at Pernmill for a cuppa but when we got there it was closed. So we went on a cafe hunt round the island and ended up in Lochranza.

Here Chloe and Ellie found a rather tame wild deer which they both fed some grass to later on but unfortunately I didn't get a photo of that. I was too busy chasing after Josh who didn't like all the deer poo around the place while he was eating his icecream!

We managed to find a nice place on the rocks to sit and eat where there was no deer droppings and Josh soon cheered up again.

Then we took a gentle stroll round to Lochranza Castle which is just a ruin now, there's not that much left of it but there is just enough to lock up the bad people!!! :-)

This is Josh sitting in the part that used to be the kitchen.

This was taken inside Lochranza Castle. There's Richie, Gayle, Ellie (just in front of them), Mum, Josh, and Chloe just in front of Mum.

On the way back to the car from the castle Richie found a butterfly and Ellie and Chloe took it in turns to hold it on their hands.

More Arran Trip

On Tuesday we went to the Balmichael Centre which was just up the road from where we were staying in Shiskine. Ellie loved feeding the ducks with a special bag of duck food that we bought at the cafe. Josh was more into the go-karting which he thought was great fun especially as you had to steer them by using your body weight to lean in the direction you want it to go. Not as easy as it looks let me tell you!

Ellie and Chloe found these chairs and tables which were caved from tree stumps.

In the afternoon Gayle and Richie took the girls back to Brodick Castle to help a Princess look for her lost treasures. Mum and I headed out with Josh to Clauchlands Point to see if we could see some Submarines. Unfortunately we didn't see any but we got a great view of Holy Island...

... and we spotted a seal or he spotted us I'm not sure which!

Wednesday was a bit of a wash out. It rained all morning and the girls pony trekking session was cancelled and re-scheduled for Friday morning instead. Richie and I went to the little fishing shop in Blackwaterfoot and bought some emergency activity packs for the girls and a make your own wind powered racer for Josh which kept them all occupied while the rain came down in bucket fulls.

Thursday was much better and while Richie and Gayle went off to do Quad biking at the Balmichael Centre first thing, Mum and I kept the kids amused with games of enormous Connect 4 and a Frisbee in the garden of the cottage we were staying in. I wish my back garden had that view!!!

This is our little cottage. It doesn't look much from the outside but it was lovely inside and the view from our bedroom window was stunning.

Richie and Gayle came back just before lunch and we all headed off to King's Caves. These are the caves that Robert the Bruce is said to have stayed in and learned a valuable lesson from Elspeth the spider about trying again and not giving up.

I took this from http://www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/scotland/arran/legends/kings-caves.html "According to legend Bruce was dejected, and on the verge of giving up trying to gain independence for Scotland from the English. While hiding out in a cave he observed a spider on one of the cave walls. The spider span a web only to have it collapse from the slippery stone.

Again and again the spider built its home, never giving up no matter how many times it failed, and eventually the web held. Bruce was said to have been inspired to try and try again against his foes and finally led the Scots to victory at Bannockburn."

King's Caves are actually the ones at the back with the gate on it which they have to lock up to stop vandals going in and graffiting it. I did take a photo in there but it didn't turn out well enough to put on here so this is the girls in the cave next door.

We had a picnic lunch in one of the caves. It was very windy and rather chilly and Ellie got a bit cold so she ended up wearing Josh's fleece jacket which is why it comes down to her knees but at least she was a bit warmer in it!

We had a look in some of the rock pools there and Richie found a crab which Ellie and Chloe both held on their hands. Ellie had had enough by then and was still feeling cold so we headed off back up the cliff back to the car park.

Ellie got very tired walking up the steep cliff side so we found a rock to rest on for a while and mum took the opportunity to take a photo of us all. I had to cut me off it though because it's not a very good photo of me.

As we got to the top of the cliff the view was fabulous. It really is a beautiful place to visit.

Friday was our last full day. In the morning Ellie and Chloe were booked in for pony trekking at Blackwaterfoot. However even the smallest pony was too big for Ellie. She was supposed to be riding on this little brown horse called Peanut but when they went to lift her on she got scared that it was too high up and she didn't like it. So while Chloe, Mum, Gayle and Richie went off on the pony trek to the beach, me and the kids jumped in the car and drove to a little craft shop just up the road from Machrie golf course to buy some souvenirs.

We all met back at the cottage for lunch then Richie, Gayle and Chloe went off to do a walk to some waterfalls at Whiting Bay. Mum, Josh, Ellie and I went to do some shopping at the craft shops scattered around the island but first we thought we'd call in at the Arran Heritage Museum. It doesn't look like much from the outside but we spent ages in there. It was really interesting and there were some hands on exhibits for the children which they loved.

Ellie's favourite thing was the old telephone exchange where she pretended to be a telephone operator for ages.

While Ellie was busy there, Josh and Grandma got to work in the old Post Office.

and just to prove the sun does shine on Arran sometimes...

... here's Josh and Ellie both enjoying playing on the tractor in the sunshine before we left.