Lyme Park

We spent the day at Lyme Park yesterday. It's about 50 minutes from where we live, but we have never been before.

The sun was shining so we took a picnic with us. The first one this year!

It was lovely there. There was a children's play area with slightly unusual things for the children to climb on. Megan and Ben enjoyed that and had a great time on the slide which was a bit fast!

We had an ice cream and sat and enjoyed the sun. Ben was kicking his football around and Megan and Mr W went to join in too.

We fed the ducks, although they weren't too interested as I think they had been quite overfed!

Before we left we climbed up a big hill and took in the gorgeous view of the peak district.

A lovely family day, with the added bonus of the sunshine!

Trampolines - Are we going to take the plunge?

A couple of our friends have trampolines and whenever we go to their houses, no matter what the weather is doing, Megan wants to play outside on them. Now Ben is 3 and a half he wants to join in too.
That has always been enough to satisfy the bouncer in Megan. Well, that and the fact she has trampoline lessons on a Friday for an hour!

But for so long now Megan has wanted a trampoline and the requests are getting more frequent now but I have been putting her off as we really don't have enough space in our garden, what with the swing, climbing frame and all the other toys around too.

But having had a think about it and how we could rearrange bits or get rid of things and update others, I am wondering if it may just be possible to squeeze one in, and I think it might even be beneficial for a bit more harmonious play in the garden!
Mr W was talking about grassing the far right hand side of the garden, which would create a couple more feet of space that could be used.....

When looking around on the internet, I came across http://www.alltrampolines.com and I was suitably impressed at the sheer number of trampolines they have, as well as the vast range of sizes available. There are trampolines there to suit any garden size so I really haven't got an excuse now to not get one!
Small 5ft trampolines would be ideal for smaller children and they have the added bonus of having safety nets so you can rest assured your children are safe.

I think we would possibly go for something very slightly bigger, maybe 7.5ft or 8ft, again with an enclosure, for my own peace of mind. This way both Megan and Ben could play together on the trampoline and when Jack and Grace are here there would also be space for them too.

If you are lucky enough to have a lovely big garden then you could treat yourself to a whopping 15ft trampoline! That would be lovely, but you would need the space.

Another thing I noticed here was that if you had a trampoline and needed a new safety net, ladder or mats you could buy these too. I think this is a great idea as the edging mats are often the bits that begin to get tatty and unsafe, or the zip breaks, usually through too much use, long before the trampoline is worn out.

I think I have convinced myself now so I am off to convince Mr W to grass the end of the garden in preparation for our new addition!

Smokin' Seventeen by Janet Evanovich Book 8 #50BooksIn2013

Book 8

Smokin' Seventeen by Janet Evanovich

One of my best authors. I love Janet Evanovich books and especially the Stephanie Plum series. If you have never read one, please please read one. They never fail to make me howl with laughter and this was no exception.
Stephanie Plum is a bounty hunter, who works for her cousin Vinnie. She gets her man (or woman) more by sheer luck than skill. She has two men in her life, Joe Morelli, the sexy cop and Ranger, a fellow bounty hunter and sexy Latino.
In Smokin' Seventeen Stephanie is trying to find a murderer before he strikes again, her mum is trying to convince her to dump both men and get together with someone more suitable and Morelli's crazy Grandma Bella has put a vordo curse on Stephanie and made her sex mad!
I loved it!
The first one in this series is called One For The Money. Go on, give it a go and let me know what you think...

365 Project Week 21

I am taking part in the 365 photo challenge for 2013, linking in with The Boy And Me.

You can join in here.

I will add pictures each week.

365 Project

Week 21

Day 139

Ben having a readathon of Dora the Explorer!

Day 140

We were all having a game of Diego Animal Safari. It is lovely that we can now all play games together. 

Day 141

I saw this rainbow just before bedtime. Megan saw it too and wanted to go and find the gold at the end of it!

Day 142

We went to mums and tots and Ben had a great time on the trike, whizzing up and down and round and round!

Day 143

Ben had both his individual and class photo taken at playgroup. This is just the proof and isn't a brilliant picture but he just looks so lovely!

Day 144

This is a picture of the caterpillar cocoons that I have been entrusted with and  brought home from school today! They  are due to hatch any moment (no signs yet!) and I feel as apprehensive as when I was ready to give birth!

Day 145

The gorgeous girls posing in Megan's sunglasses. Beautiful.

Megan's First Holy Communion

On Saturday 18th May 2013 at 12.00pm, Megan made her First Holy Communion. She looked absolutely gorgeous and was so grown up and sensible throughout the whole service. I was so proud of her.

I introduced the mass with a short reading, which I am so pleased was at the start of the mass as I was a bit nervous. The mass was really geared towards the children and Father Ned made a real effort to include the children and even called them all up to the alter together to talk to them about their special day and how very  special they were to their families and to God.

                          

                          

After the mass, we came back to our house, where we were joined by our family, Megan's Godparents and close friends. We played party games, had pizza, salad and garlic bread and a beautiful Princess cake for my Princess.

Pass the parcel.

The weather brightened up a bit so all the children went outside for a bit of a run around and to burn off the sugar overload!

We had a fantastically special day and I am sure that it is one we will all remember and cherish.

Playfoam Review from Learning Resources

One of our favourite companies, Learning Resources sent us Play Foam to review. The Play Foam comes in this pack of eight bright colours, which all have very appealing names.
When it arrived, the first thing Mr W said was, "That looks messy!" I pointed out that the packaging said NO MESS, but he wasn't convinced, and to be honest neither was I!

This is what Learning Resources say about Play Foam.

Playfoam may have a new look, but rest assured the product inside still offers the same mess-free creative play fun!
Children simply shape it into anything in their imagination before squashing it down and starting all over again. 
PlayFoam is completely mess free, it does not stick to hands, clothes or carpet. It never dries out, use it straight from the box for creative play on the go. The bead-like structure promotes sensory perception and fine motors skill development and the vibrant colours can be mixed to create multicoloured shades. Best of all, its non-toxic formula offers safe creative play for youngsters.
Includes original and sparkle pods in eight vibrant colours.

You can check it out here.

Megan and Ben were very eager to open it, but I persuaded them to wait till the weekend, at the thought of all the impending mess!

Sunday morning arrived, and bright and early (note the PJ's in the pictures) we were ready to open!

The bright, colourful pack.                                                 

I carefully opened the pack as I wasn't sure if it was going to explode out everywhere! It didn't and amazingly all the foam stayed in place!

Megan thought it felt' "really weird", and it did! Squidgy and squashy and pliable and pleasantly unmessy!

Megan began by making herself some ear rings! Very glamourous.

Pizza was next on the menu and it looked delicious.

Ben made his own version of pizza too! And then we decided to make some different animals.

Ben made two worms!

My fab cat!

Megan making a cat too!

Our completed zoo - cats, worms, snails and fish!

After we had finished playing there was no mess anywhere! The brilliance of Play Foam is that you can make and play with NO MESS. Mr W was suitably amazed too. Another bonus was that the play foam doesn't dry out and can be reused again and again. I put it away and a couple of days later it feels exactly the same!

I would definitely recommend that you look into this for your little ones, especially anyone who breaks out in a cold sweat at the thought of 'crafty activities!'

Learning Resources are running a competition on Facebook for you to win your own set of Play Foam!

Head over here and enter. The competition closes on Friday 7th June 2013.

Rubbish Weather for Megan's Holy Communion #Countrykids

I am linking up with Fiona from Country Kids From Coombe Mill, which is all about getting outside with the kids and having fun! That is something we love doing here and try and get out on a regular basis.

Saturday 18th May 2013 Megan's Holy Communion

Playing outside and dodging showers!

Spiderman came to visit!

Funny face alert!