The Good Life

My first chilli seedlings!

Whereas I usually wait until Maria, my mother-in-law, comes round and sorts out the garden, laden with various goodies for me to grow such as strawberries, herbs, tomatoes and chillies, this year i decided to have a go myself...and the results so far have been quite promising. Apart from my strawberries which failed to germinate, I have the beginnings of lettuces (a mixed variety you know!), baby carrots, cayenne and jalepeno chillies. As the weather was so good today I transplanted the chillies into larger pots, planted some spring onions, garlic, some more tomatoes seeds and then helped the children to plant 3 varieties of sunflower! I feel ever so slightly virtuous, but that's about the limit to my gardening abilities....I'll be waiting for Maria to tackle the weeds that have sprung up all over the place :-)

Ben helps me to transplant a chilli seedling

Jas helps me to put soil in the container for more chilli transplanting

sowing the sunflowers

French-fry girl

Leicester to Nottingham, to Leicester, to Birmingham and back home again to Oxfordshire......

....That's how much we travelled this Easter Bank Holiday weekend! It was exhausting, but definately worth it. First we went to Leicester (where I satyed the night whilst Nick and the children went on to Nottingham - I met up with them the next day in Nottingham). Then Saturday in Nottingham we spent the day with nick's Dad and the children, and then with his mum. We then travelled back to leicester on Easter Sunday to have lunch with my family at my grandmother's house. here we got to meet my cousin Nathan for the first time at the grand old age of 3 1/2 months. He's such a cutie and a much longed for new addition to the family.

Nathan with his cousins, Benjamin & Jasmine

Nathan with his very proud daddy!

My family is nothing if not rambunctious, loud and excitable, but I love it and hadn't realised how much I missed it. I had feared that after Gail passed away things would change somehow, but despite us all obviously missing her a great deal, everyone still makes the effort to get together as much as we ever did.

Jasmine with her great-grandmother 'Nanny'

After lunch we then travelled on to Birmingham to have dinner with Nick's family at his grandmother's house. His dad had also gone to Birmingham so we all met up again there. The combination of Benjamin, Jasmine, Emile and Theo is one that leads to a lot of bumped heads, screaming, shouting, laughter and 'tale telling' on eachother. It is not for the faint of heart! Nick's family is very much like mine and there was lots of food, drink, laughter (a few fights and accusations of cheating (you know who you are - Devon!)) and gernerally a lot of fun. The next day was Emile's 8th birthday so we went out to lunch at the local Harvester and had a great time, if not the greatest food! It was then straight on back to Witney were neither Nick nor I could muster up the will to do much more than slob in front of the TV. A tiring, but satisfying time away. I'm looking forward to a few quiet weekends now mind!

Easter Hat competition

I had to help Ben make a hat for his Easter Crazy Hat competition at school. It was nice to have a reason to get out all the craft stuff that I usually keep under lock and key (otherwise Jasmine will have redecorated before I even turn around!) We were all rather proud of our creations - that is until I saw all the hats that the other kids had brought in that had so obviously been lovingly created by 'Supermum' with the children themselves probably barred from going anywhere near the thing. At least Ben and Jas' hats were made by their own fair hands!

Ben models his hat

Happy Birthday Aunty Dawn!

We won't say how old you are! Wishing you the best day ever!
xxxxx

Cotswolds Farm Park

Only the British would brave a cold, windy, muddy day to visit the farm. Well, what other choice do you have when 3/4 of the year is cold, with the other 1/4 being 'not-quite-as-cold-but-probably-wet' ? The drive was longer than we thought and the kids wanted to know at inceasingly regular intervals ' muuum, how long 'til we get there?' Needless to say, they didn't manage to stay awake (it was only 45mins away!)

As soon as we parked up I was all for turning around and going right back home - it was cold! And really muddy! I haven't lived in the country long enough yet to get used to all the mud (and let's not go there about the smell!). You can take the girl out of the city, but you can't take the city out of the girl....
Unfortunately the children wanted to stay and for the sake of peace on Earth, I gave in. We stayed. It actually turned out to be a lot of fun - and did I say cold? Here are some pics of the many fun things we did.....

Looking for the chickens

Feeding the kids

The Sheep maternity Ward

Feeding time at the farm (click to watch)

Tweenies Karaoke!

Here is a short video of the kids singing and dancing their little hearts out!

Ben & Jas' Performance [click to watch]

Ben is serious about it all, keeping an eye on the screen and carefully performing the actions, whereas Jasmine - well, she's being Jasmine!

Mess!

What happens when you both try to sneak a lie-in on a Saturday morning…….!

Out and about

Despite the drizzly, miserable weather, we had to take a trip into town today. First and foremost as I had a doctor’s appointment, but also to escape sheer boredom in the house and visit the library. Firstly the both insisted on bringing a toy with them, so with doll and stuffed aeroplane in arms, off we set….

ooops, camera strap - how did I not notice that!

At the library Ben and Jas lined up all the little chairs and then sat down with their ‘babies’ to listen to ‘Fix-It Duck’, complete with funny voices, sound effects and actions, but this wasn’t enough and they set off to collect all the little chairs to line up in a row and count.

Look at them - so cute and expectant!

'One, two three.....'

Ben then read me a story called ‘Where’s Crocodile’ and Jasmine disappeared. After a few minutes of searching we found her doing some ‘work’ at one of the reference computers.

I am so proud of my boy - look at all those words that he is reading! (and read them he does!)

Jasmine hard at 'work' (actually she's probably crashing the computer at that very minute!)

At the surgery Jasmine insisted on showing Dr. Morris her ‘poorly’, she had gotten a rather nasty scratch on her arm from the corner of our bedside table, and both her and Ben are starting to doubt the healing powers of mummy’s kisses – alas the loss of innocence begins already….

Start them young!

I am a firm believer in starting good habits in children whilst they are still very young - and actually want to do it and are interested! Benjamin and Jasmine even fight eachother over who gets to do the washing up, hoovering, dusting, help with cooking etc. Who am I to stand in the way of such enthusiasm!

However folding the washing doesn't hold the same appeal (can't say I blame them - it's my #1 most hated chore!)

Like my hat?!?!

Wakey, wakey sleepyhead!

Today, deciding to watch Planet Earth, we all cuddled up on Jasmine's Bed and despite my best intentions I fell asleep. About an hour or so later I awoke to find the kids tucked under me at various angles - in fact it took me a few moments to even find Ben as he had dragged his duvet over and buried himself under it and a pillow. Both me and jasmine tried to wake him, but he was really having none of it - as you can see below...

Leave me alone and let me sleep!

Later on that evening, at storytime, we read 'Mr Funny', from the Mr Men series and getting into the spirit of things we all decided to try and pull our funniest faces. Needing no further excuse ben and Jas proceeded to pull the funniest face they possibly could, and even took a picture of my funny face.

I think Jasmine win's hands down, she likes nothing better than to pull faces Here are a few of her best ones.....

Funnily enough I often find pictures on the mobile phone that the kids have taken of eachother and random parts of the house such as the TV, the carpet, the bare wall etc...A lot of the ones of Jasmine are of her pulling a face - she's such a cheeky monkey!

Mother's Day - But when is it 'Children's Day?'

This was the question Ben just asked me as he kissed me goodnight before bed. He's sooo cute! 'That's a good question' I replied, to which Nick added 'It's children's Day everyday!' Ben told me that he and Daddy were going to make me breakfast in bed, but he only told me this at bedtime - a bit late I'd say! He and Jasmine did make the the most gorgeous cards and Ben even wrote it all out himself - I was sooo proud and genuinely loved what they had done (not like when they scribble something and you have to pretend it is the most fantastic thing you have ever seen in your life - though I must admit, most of their stuff now is really good) Jasmine also made me a box of flowers made out of coloured tissue paper and Ben made the most beautiful heart out of salt dough, which he painted in lilac and powder blue and dusted with shimmery dust. It then had a pink ribbon through the top so I can hang it up - it now has pride of place on my wardrobe door handle (update: Ben has taken it back and it is now on his and Jas' bedroom door handle!). Times like this make me really sentimental and feel grateful to have such unconditional love and acceptance - the kind that only children can give.