Chicken pops and spotty dots

No nice pictures for you lot today, but just to inform you all that poor Noah has got the chicken pox.. will spare you a photo, but lets just say I will never eat spotty dick for pudding again.
Amie was also unwell this Friday but INSISTED on going up to Cumbria to see Nana, Pa and Uncle Rod and Aunty Julia.. even if Rich did have to pull into a service station for her to be sick.. she made it. Good woman! I've been left at home to mind the cats, and catch up on all the work I haven't been able to do since Noah was off nursery since last Wednesday. I've written up my experimental report that's due in on Monday, more or less finished an article summary that's due in on Friday... lounged around in my pjs, ate a lot of chocolate, watched movies and rather boringly got lots of housework done. And it's SO peaceful and quiet.. it's like being on holiday .. bliss! Lets just hope they don't get stranded by snow up in Cumbria (I miss the car!)
Bren x

Amie's just started playing football on a Sunday morning (just like her dad) and she LOVES it. She's even managed to score a goal on her second time playing, even if it did involve her fouling a lot of players (most of them from her own team). The coach said he's never seen such aggression in one so young. We're taking that as a compliment.

Happy Hallowe'en

Back to civilisation

We've survived our first camping/festival trip as a family. We went to The End of the Road Festival this year http://www.endoftheroadfestival.com/ ..taking Amie out of school a few hours early, and bringing Barnaby Bear with us into the bargain. (This bear belongs to her class and gets taken on days out and photographed at various places.. luckily he had space in his diary to come with us)

Unfortunately I couldn't find the camera, so we had to go old school with a disposable one. I will scan in some pictures if they are worth looking at. I couldn't get out of the habit of staring at the back of the camera after I took the shot to see what it looked like.

Whats to be said of doing festivals with small kids.. well in general the kids really seemed to enjoy it. And at this one there was a lot of entertainment laid on for them.. puppet shows (they sat through 2 a day), cinema in the morning, circus workshops, craft make and take, face painting.,.not to mention the freedom and pleasure of just running about in a field all day playing with random other children.There were some really nice bands (for us )playing for grown ups. . not that we got near enough to them to really enjoy it. BUT we did pitch our tent right beside the main stage, so we got to enjoy the later bands even as we were tucked up in our tent from 8pm at night.

I've just spent 2 days in wellies, my body refuses to do all but the most basic of functions in portaloos, and we had to queue for 20 minutes in the rain to have a shower in the morning. Add to that the joy of waking up this morning to a wet tent, INSIDE, due to condensation and you can be pretty sure that as nice as the weekend was.. I'm sure happy to be back, so are my bowels. But lets not discuss that in great detail. There's only so much a body on a veggie diet consisting mostly of beans and chilli can take.

Holiday in France

We've just got back from a week spent in France, at Cavalaire sur Mer with Rich's parents and his sister and her family. Cavalaire is located on the most southerly bay of coastal Var, and has a 3km sandy beach. It was a week of sun, sea, sand and snakes! The kids spent a lot of time perfecting their swimming techniques in the pool, and enjoyed trying out the snorkel.... maybe a scuba holiday is on the cards as soon as Noah gets rid of his armbands (?).

We were lucky with the weather as it was hot but not TOO hot... it's taking a while to adjust to being back in the rainy UK.. but still good to be home. Jessie and Seamus were well looked after by the neighbours, but think they still missed us (or like to think they did anyway). Just back from Toy Story 3, really top film!

Holiday in Ireland

Rapunzel's Tower.. at least that's what we told the kids it was, and they had a great time trying to get her to let down her hair. What we should have said was "This fine tower, built of mica-slate interspersed with granite is about 30 metres high, with an entrance 3.5 metres from the base. The conical roof was rebuilt in 1876 using the original stones. The tower originally had six timber floors, connected by ladders. The four storeys above entrance level are each lit by a small window; while the top storey has four windows facing the cardinal compass points. Round towers, landmarks for approaching visitors, were built as bell towers, but also served on occasion as store-houses and as places of refuge in times of attack." It's going to be our fault when they flunk out of school.


Rich holding up the headstones at Glendalough Co. Wicklow. Glendalough (Irish: Gleann Dá Loch, meaning "Glen of Two Lakes") is a glacial valley located in County Wicklow, Ireland, renowned for its Early Medieval monastic settlement founded in the 6th century by St Kevin, a hermit priest, and destroyed in 1398 by English troops.(Can't you just tell I have the Wikipedia page open!)


Amie insisted she wanted to carry these horses, a present from Granny, around with her. Of course I ended up carrying them after about 5 minutes. In this picture she is nice and dry. It's a pity I didn't have the presence of mind to take a picture AFTER she fell into that stream behind her, while trying to cross over on stepping stones. I left Daddy in charge for 5 minutes, and came back to a soaking wet sobbing child. Luckily we had a spare pair of trousers with us, and I managed to dry her knickers in the women's toilets with the hand dryer... stoically ignoring the strange looks I got from all the women in there.








Now this is a great invention. In the shopping centre's of Ireland they don't need creches. You simply shackle your child/ren by the neck and collect them when you're finished shopping.


No Disneyland for us. If you want to keep your kids entertained (with the added bonus of scaring the life out of them so they're too scared to kick up too much of a fuss at bedtime in case the Vikings hear them) then head to Dublina www.dublina.ie. Rich and kids had a great time in here for a few hours while I got in some retail therapy.










This is what happens when you have a wee too much Guinness!




Rich the morning after the night before


Aunty Sandra


Aunty Marion

My first attempt ever at making a cake (for Rich's birthday)


Noah seemed to think it tasted ok :)