It's good to be home

I let the kids loose with the paint......

Whilst I gathered some of the last bits of veg from the garden. My friend, and neighbour, Sienna, had been kind enough to water everything whilst we were away, so luckyily we had some to come back to!

One thing I've learned over the past 4 years or so of growing vegetables and the like in containers, is that there's no point in having grand delusions of self-sufficiency - even for the summer months. Things just don't grow as big and they need twice as much attention. On top of this, you never get very big yeilds. On the plus side, what we do get is still way more delicious than the store bought versions (our carrots and tomatoes were particularly yummy and sweet), and we always have fun planting and watching things grow.

tomatoes and chillies

here we have spinach, potatoes, carrots - and what you can't see is the garlic and shallots

I've also found that green tomatoes are absolutely delicious when sauteed with onions and served as a side dish, they are my new food fad. A good thing really because we are still waiting for the majority to ripen!

We also got a really nice cucmber (one of only two that grew), though it was an odd, banana-like shape, with the bottom being quite bulbous. It tasted and smelled fantastic though.

Goodbyes

Jasmine spent the entire morning with Hannah in the garden - Ben visited her too, though only in between goes on Rosie's DS.

Family shot: from l to r, Rosie, Stewart, Sandra, Matt and then us

Day 6: Moving Day

Granny Pat moved house today, so we stayed at Sandra's house (Nick's aunt) from last night. The kids were so please because it meant that they could see so much more of Hannah and Rosie. Today we hung about the house, then went over to the new house to help with some unpacking. As a treat for all our hard work, we all went out to eat at The Winking Prawn in Salcombe. I was so proud of Jasmine ordering King Prawns (shell on). She insisted she just wanted King Prawns and chips and wasn't to be persuaded! And she did so well shelling them - she wasn't at all put off by the eyes and legs (she did have some help from Rosie though). Surprisingly, the only thing she didn't like was the Knickerbocker Glory - odd eh!? (and it meant I had to share my luxurious Salcombe Honeycombe Ice-Cream) So I had one child who was eating King Prawns and didn't like dessert and another who tried in vain to pick the 'lines' off his char grilled chicken, but polished off dessert LOL.

Day 5: How to separate a tourist from their money......

I love the bumper cars and jumped at the chance of introducing the kids to these fairground staples (which they, too, loved!). We went to Dartmouth today to see the Regatta, but what we quickly realised, is that, unless you are a boat enthusiast, Regatta's get very boring very quickly. It didn't help matters that we got to Dartmouth after midday, so there was no parking and we ended up with a ticket grrr!

In the funhouse

DODGEMS!!!!

he actually won some random stuffed toy that was waaay smaller and waay more rubbish than the one we were led to believe he could win - and he shot all four down!! Carnies! They'd try to sell a Bible to the Devil!

Another thing about events like Regatta's in tourist hotspots like Dartmouth, is that every opportunity is taken to fleece you of your hard earned cash - £4 for 2 slushy ice drinks for the kids - daylight robbery!!! And as much as we like to have a few rides on the fair, that too is a pricey option. Rides are now in excess of £3 per person. Needless to say we only went on 2 rides!

After that we went crabbing - when I say we, I actually mean Nick and the kids. I got bored with it all once the novelty of catching a crab wore off. Like after 20 mins or so. I then went off for a wander around the pretty shops before coming back to join everyone around the time that I thought would be a good time to go home.....

Day 4: what a washout

It rained today. We stayed in.

But the kids watched cartoons and got some cuddles from granny Pat. She also let them eat lots of blueberries and raspberries from the garden. They even snuck some of the stewed raspberries that I made for dessert ......

Day 3: Ice cream, chillies and cream teas

It rained quite a bit this morning and we didn't think we'd get to go anywhere, but by midday the skies cleared and the sun came out. So we went into Kingsbridge highstreet and pottered around the shops and the market. Nick also treated us to some gorgeous ice-cream (made locally in Salcombe - honeycombe is may absolute fave).

Ben really enjoyed his ice-cream!

Next we went to the South Devon Chilli Farm. Nick tried some Bhut Jolokia - the hottest chilli in the world. He tasted a chilli mash that was made with about only 3% of bhut jolokia and it was painful !(we love chilli but this was insane - I only dared taste it with the tip of my tongue!)

Finally we went on a hunt for, according to Nick's gran Pat, the best, most traditonal tasting scones she's found yet. Well, we drove all around, made a few phonecalls, drove around some more and then eventually found this farm shop and PYO. It was worth the effort though. After dinner - which is not at all the proper time to have a cream tea mind - we had delicious fresh scones and even more delicious Devonshire clotted cream and strawberry Jam. Yum and double yum! Jasmine looked into her cup of (weak, warm) tea and asked where the cream was. She just couldn't get her head around the concept of a 'cream tea', bless.

After dinner we went for another wander in the woods and walked through a freshly cut wheat field (not an easy task, the cut wheat is just so stubby). On the way back Ben cut his finger really badly in a thorny bush, so out came the TCP when we got back. We promised him some more scones, cream and Jam if he was really brave and he really was. Jasmine played nurse and put the plaster on his finger (quite crookedly I might add - I had to adjust it when she wasn't looking!)

the Estuary, when the tide is out

Our soundtrack for the holiday so far has been a mix of Dub Step (Nick, and sometimes myself), Aleisha Dixon 'the boy does nothing' (Ben and Jasmine), 'Pass the dutchie' (Ben) and 'Rehab' by Amy Winehouse (Ben, Jas and me). The only problem is, once you start to allow the kids special requests, they want the same song to be played over and over again. I never liked that Aleisha Dixon song to begin with. I hate it now - but yet I can't seem to stop humming it........

Funny of the day: has to go to Ben, although Jasmine did come close.


1. Ben - When we were walking around Kingsbridge we wandered into the gardens of this old church and came across some old headstones. 'What's a graveyard?' Ben asked. 'I know,' he said, answering his own question, 'it's a yard with gravy in it!'. And he looked so pleased with himself for figuring it out :-)


2. Jasmine - When I was making Ben his second cream tea for being brave, Jasmine asked for some more too. 'More?!' I said (it was getting quite late). 'Well, I did put the plaster on!' she declared. And who was I to argue with that?!

Day 2: Blackpool Sands

We love this beach - the scenery is as dramatic as the sea is cold and we always seem to have good weather when we go, even when it's miserable the rest of the time.

Note to self: freshly shaven legs and sea water do NOT mix.

concentrating hard on my pebble art

ta daaa!

We ended the day with a delicious meal of the freshest fish and chips I have ever had in my life. It was superb - not at all greasy, just lovely, light, crisp batter, moist fish and crispy chips. We also had a starter of juciy prawns in garlic butter.....mmmmmm..... We did have to wait a long time though as this restaurant is VERY popular. Jasmine was most impatient and kept calling out to the waitress 'I'm starving, I'm wasting away!' and 'hurry up please I'm hungry!'

Funny of the day: it's a draw.

1. Jasmine - when we were getting ready this morning Jasmine ran upstairs to us in obvious distress. 'The police keep calling!' she cried. Knowing that she and Ben had discovered they could speak to each other through the two phones in the house and that ever since they kept on playing games with each other and calling make-believe friends, we just thought that maybe Ben was playing a trick on her. Jasmine insisted though so I went downstairs to the phone. As I'm going down the stairs the phone starts ringing again, but by the time I reach it, it stops and no-one is there. As I put the phone back down and start to reassure Jas that it must just be Ben playing around, the phone rings again. i pick it up and a voice announces, 'hello, this is the police calling'. It suddenly dawns on me that Jasmine had actually dialled 999 when she was playing with the phone (this has happened before mind!) I explain what's happened and hang up, but the look on Jasmine's face was priceless! She actually thought they were calling to tell her off!

2. Ben - he was eating a pork pie on the beach when he suddenly asked, rather pensively, 'is pork just chicken, but chewier?' 'No Ben,' I said, 'pork is just pork'.

Summer Holiday Day 1: If you go down to the woods today.....

We had a lie-in this morning, and after waiting all day to go out (Nick was in no hurry to get moving!), we finally got to go out for a walk in the meadows and the woods with Rosie (Nick's youngest cousin) and Hannah the dog. Last year Ben grew to be great friends with Hannah, whilst Jasmine was too frightened of her to even go round to aunty Sandra's. This year, Ben started off apprehensive, whereas Jasmine fell absolutely in love! She hardly left Hannah's side, prefering to walk with her hand on Hannah's head or holding her collar.

Beautiful Kingsbridge

Jasmine and her two new bff 's

This is where Ben spent most of the walk - perched atop Nick's shoulders!

Until he could bear it no more and he had to run freeeeee

By the end of the day Hannah had finally won over even Ben's heart

Funny of the day: goes to Jasmine. Whilst I was doing my makeup before we went out, she untied the ribbons on my ugg style slippers. I asked her to retie them please and she said she couldn't, but knowing full well that she can tie laces, I told her to do it anyway. I felt her tying them up and thought nothing more of it until I tried to get up from the table. The little monkey had only gone and tied me to the table leg!!!

I love it when Jas dives into the dressing up box.....

the results are 'eclectic' to say the least!


By the way, if you can see the star chart in the background, you'll notice that whilst there are stars for things such as 'get dressed', 'tidy my toys' and 'eat all my dinner', they have yet to earn any for 'no fighting' - petty squabbling is alive and well in our household!

More random memories

You'll have to excuse the rambling, uncoordinated nature of this post. I am literally writing it as I think of it because I was thinking just the other day that there are so many things, as a parent, that you think you'll never forget about your children. Unfortunately we do forget and it's such a shame to lose these precious memories that makes us smile. So I am writing this down before these memories too are lost in the annals of time.....

It makes me smile the things Ben and Jas come out with sometimes. I remember a couple of years back when they first started saying things like “you’ve ruined the world to me” (sic), with such a look of utter despair on their little faces, because I dared to not buy them some sweets or let them watch a DVD or something else of such a trivial nature! This graduated on to “Mum, Ben/Jas’ ruined my life to me” (sic) when there’s been a disagreement of sorts between them. Usually though, most of what they say comes from either friends or DVD’s. When Incredibles came out their new phrase was, “That’s totally wicked!” (it’s what the little boy on the bike says when he see’s Mr Incredible lift his car up). Jas used to say “what the!” a lot when she was surprised, but that became “what the flickna” after watching Monsters vs Aliens. Just thinking back now, I remember when they both used to say ‘asparagus’ a lot. For no particular reason. It was just a funny word for them....
I remember a while ago my aunt was teasing Ben because he was whingeing about Jasmine and he called her a ‘Doofus’. I did the parent thing and told him it is rude to call people names, but secretly we all had a good laugh – needless to say, ‘Doofus’ was word of the day for Ben and Jasmine for a while still....

Another thing Ben and Jas like to do is say they are a particular character in a cartoon/on a DVD. For example, a favourite cartoon of theirs is Tom & Jerry. Whenever it is on, Jas will say “I’m Jerry!” and Ben will follow with “I’m Tom!” They do this with most things they watch – they now like to also ask me and Nick who we are.....so I was less than flattered when a few months back or so, whilst watching the Incredibles (one of our favourite DVD’s), Ben said that he’s Dash, Jas said she was Violet and they told Nick he was Mr Incredible. I was playing along with it all fully expecting to be told that I’m Elastagirl, but no, they said I was "the little lady with the glasses".......what the! For those of you who haven’t seen The Incredibles I’ll show you....

In all fairness, I did have dark framed glasses and my hair was shorter with a fringe......omg, I'm Edna Mode!