Day 206 peek a boo

The postman tried to deliver this today but it couldn't fit through the letter box....

A Grand Weekend

This past weekend had seen a nice family orientated activity filled one. To start with we had to pick both girls up from great grandpa's as me and OH went out to celebrate one of her friends birthdays on Friday night. After picking up the girls and realising that I had had no breakfast which subsequently meant I needed to pull the car over so I could be sick we found a coffee shop in a small nearby village. There we sat and ate some breakfast/lunch before heading off to our days activities.

Every year Knaresborough have a bed race. This is an event where the streets get closed off to traffic and instead people push 'beds' through the streets in a time trial race.We only moved to the area last year and heard of the race but missed it. So this year I was quite excited to go and thought it would be quite fun. Each year there is a theme. This years theme was of course the Olympics, each team would represent a country and with close to 100 teams there would be a fair representation of the world. Unfortunately due to us typically running late we didn't manage to see any of the 'beds' decorated. We arrived as the race had started. All the beds were stripped off of their decorations and everyone was in the competitive spirit. The beds were racing down the hill which was our vantage point. The atmosphere was nice, everyone clapping each team of contestants spurring them on to the finish line...

Once the race had finished we popped for a bite to eat and a drink, We were told by an old woman about the story of why there was a statue of a cat on top of the local pub the Market Tavern, saying that the cat had a crooked tail and the cat spirit could often be seen at night. The weather started turning cold so eldest child borrowed my coat and anyone could have mistaken her for a mini grim reaper how it sat on her.....

The next day we popped into town, we had seen that in Valley Gardens there was a family fun day themed in the 1940's. We went along taking the children with us. Many people were dressed up as soldiers or wearing styles of the 40's. We saw some steam engines and children's rides from the 40's. Eldest has never been one for rides but today saw her change her mind and actually she wanted to go on the see saw swings, so we paid the £1 entry fee for her to decide 30 seconds later that shes in fact didn't want to be on it....

We sat in the park and took in the view of the surrounding area, as we sat and ate out very typically British lunch of ham and cheese toasties with a spot of tea a marching band went past playing music to entertain us, it was very loud but fun to see...

 After a spot of lunch we walked around.Valley gardens is a very pretty park in the middle of the town. It has a stream with ducks in it, which made eldest child happy as we had finally found some ducks after our failed attempt early this year on our duck hunt, unfortunately this time we forgot the bread...

 After the 40's themed day in the park we decided to walk home, we walked past the stray in Harrogate which over the last week has had a fun fair on it. We stopped by to walk around it, Eldest decided she was going to be daring again and wanted to go on the rides. So she was told that if she went on a ride she wouldn't be able to get off and would have to stay on until the ride ends. She agreed and was allowed on the rides, as she went on her first, she grew more and more daring enjoying more and more daring rides....

 And it wasn't just eldest who had fun, I saw a football game where you had the option to kick a football at either Rooney or Messi and try to knock them over. I thought this was a great opportunity for myself to smack Rooney square in the head....

 Which I successfully managed....

Meaning a prize for daughters....

After all this fun it was time to go home and rest. It's been a long weekend, but also a fun weekend. We have seen lots and it's been nice weather. Hopefully this is just the start of many more great events this summer

The wonderful outdoors

So Britain has been blessed with sunshine. No doubt that this will be our summer compact into a few days of sunny rays. Up and down the country will see many dust of there summer cosies, and see many pasty bodies see there fleeting moments of the golden sun.

For us we took the opportunity of good weather to take the girls out and do some fun activities. I have been working late shifts this week, which mean finishing work rather late but the upside to this being I don't start work until late afternoon allowing us precious time to actually go do things.

On Wednesday we decided a trip to the park was necessary, we put youngest child in her pram seat and got both children sun creamed up, but forgetting myself as I am rather susceptible to the sun, I turn red faster than the carpet does when you've spilt black currant juice on it! The local park was great fun, it had a section for toddlers and a section for older children. Naturally myself and mummy had to try out the rides for our eldest child, starting with.....

Alas all this heat was too much for youngest who we ensured was in the cool shade in her pram and covered up, she decided to have a siesta....

Once we'd tested the rides for you fest it was only rude that we not test the older rides, naturally to ensure they were safe for other girls and boys but also for our eldest child when she gets older....

However at the park there was danger, there was a very hungry crocodile who needed feeding, unfortunately the crocodile ate me, and then decided to snack on our eldest child, who didn't look too worried about it all....

Once the danger from the crocodile was over youngest child decided it was time for her to wake up and join in on the fun. She woke up gave one of her trademark cute smiles to us and mummy got her out of her pram. Enjoying the sun, the park has an even smaller slide for toddlers, Granted our youngest isn't a toddler, but mummy decided that TV could experience her first slide, mummy grasp tightly to her, but she didn't seem too keen on the experience...

 Once the park was done, we were all feeling the heat, so we decided to stop by a shop and get some ices creams in. We then sat in the cool shade of a nearby tree and enjoyed our ice creams...

 Mummy made eldest a daisy chain necklace and showed her the art of blowing the needles off a dandelion clock which she has now seized upon every chance now....

The next day saw the sun shining again. This time I was off work so it meant we could spend the whole day together as a family and enjoy of what we hope won't be our British summer, but instead just the start of it. Usually on a Thursday we take the children to a ballet class at a nearby play facility. However this mornings class was cancelled as there was only eldest and another child who actually turned up, we guess that most people decided against it as they wanted to take advantage of the sun. No trouble we thought as we were planning on going out in there afternoon after the class we can just go do that now.

Knaresborough is a very beautiful olde town, it's just 5 minutes away from us and has a lovely river flowing through it and some very nice scenes.We decided that it would be nice to park the car up and go for a walk through Knaresborough. As we walked we got to see some very beautiful houses, some showing their age with thatched roof's and some with some artwork...



















Our destination in Knaresborough was to visit the castle, it's an old castle remains, and has some breathtaking fews of the river and Knaresborough. As we arrived we had a look around the ruins and accidentally walked into the middle of a tour which we then quickly left, but I was still punished as I was placed in the stocks...

Once free of these I managed to relax and take in the glorious view. The OH went off and bought some local Fish and Chips for us all to enjoy for our tea as we sat on the grass taking in the local scenery and just enjoying the weather...

Eldest child couldn't decide what she wanted to do one minute she was running around, the next relaxing and the next enjoying the view....

I hope you all have enjoyed the lovely weather, and lets all hope this is just the start of a great British summer!

Day 120 Sit Ups

 

 Uh Oh look who is managing to sit up on her own accord now! Just 5 months old and now I'm sure the mayhem starts, we won't be able to leave anything anywhere as her and her big sister will be double teaming us and causing us endless mischief and mayhem, the fun starts here.....

Day 112 A visit

Today mummy went off to Blogcamp in Birmingham. Leaving me with the girls. So I enlisted to help of Nana and my nephew CJ, along with his mam. So we took the kids to Winkies, a local play area for children.

Both ER and CJ enjoyed being able to run around,play and be crazy and loud. Meanwhile TV got lots of attention by her Nana and her auntie.

CJ decided to part take on what has become mine and ERs weekly funny face competition....

And of course ER had to have hers taken....

Meanwhile TV was getting plenty of hugs and attention by Nana...

I'm guessing it won't be too long before she's up and playing with her sister and cousin. Meanwhile ER's trusty sidekick Rabbit guarded her shoes by wearing them whilst also getting ready 8 months ahead of time for Christmas by wearing a Santa coat...

After playing at Winkies for a good 3 hours we headed home so we could wave Nana and CJ off. A lively day spent with great family, we hope mummy had a nice relaxing day at her blogfest.

Day 107 Car Booty

We went to a car boot sale yesterday. Part to see if we could get any bargains, part to scope out the competition as we are going to sell our, er, hidden treasures (not junk). We didn't find anything for ourselves but of course eldest found a lovely cuddly toy to add to her growing collection

Day 88 Stop Thief There's been a Robbery

Due to the lovely weather e were having we decided to have a stroll out into town today and had lunch on one of the benches in ton. It was great, I have a chicken and Chroizo Pasty, Mummy had a Steak Pasty and eldest plumped for the cheese roll. We all enjoyed it until eldest dropped hers on the floor by accident and a opportunist pigeon decided to steal it.....

Life's a beach

Last weekend saw us embrace the sunny weather and hit the seaside with the kids. Although the weekend started with a sombre affair for my OH having to attend a family funeral it gave me time to look after the girls by myself, something I don't get much to do.

We decided this was the perfect opportunity to go shopping for mummy's mothers day and birthday pressies. We got our tools and started work, eventually we ended up making this rather nifty looking card for mummy....

The next day mummy again left me with the girls as she went to the salon to be pampered for her birthday. I fed the children whilst youngest decided to have a 3 hour nap straight after hampering our days activities. After this we headed towards Scarborough to grab a bit to eat before meeting up with mummy who looked very relaxed and refreshed after her mornings worth of pampering. We then headed towards the seaside, this was the first time youngest had ever been to the seaside, and the first time I've took eldest there. In Scarborough there's the old tram that takes you down, we opted for this route, although I can never remember going on this as a child myself....

As we reached the bottom if the hill we decided to nip into one if the arcades.....

But eldest was a little scared of them....

As we reached the seafront a thousand memories came flooding back. I hadn't been to Scarborough since I was about 10, but can remember walking along the seafront scaring my mum half to death thinking I've run off when I was busy playing on the games in the arcades trying to persuade her to give me some more money. We then went to get an ice cream, mummy insisted on going to a certain ice cream shop that she'd always go to as a little girl so we each plumped for our individual tastes, mummy went for a full lemon ice cream....

I went for a strawberry topped Ice cream....

And eldest went for a milk lolly....

Youngest didn't think much about daddy's ice cream....

And eldest didn't think much of mummy's....

But as we strolled along the seafront with our ice creams, in what then turned typical colder weather mummy then said, "oh wait, that's the ice cream shop!" she'd made us go to the wrong place, silly ! On our way back we let eldest walk along the beach which she enjoyed but myself and youngest had to walk on the Path as the wheels to the pram wouldn't move in the sand. So eldest was looking cute walking hand in hand with mummy....

As walking on the sand, the temptation is too great not to play with it and allow the small grains slip through her fingers so eldest must pick up the sand and throw it around, I'm just surprised she didn't get any in her eye....

And of course just was the girls get off the beach and back onto tarmac, they must get rid of all the sand that has collected in their shoes, after all we love the beach but we don;t ant to take it home with us....

On our way home both girls had a nice sleep as of course the day was long , and I couldn't resist but take a picture of eldest as she slept, she'll probably kill me for this photo one day when she's older....

We promised her another trip back to the seaside so she can build a sandcastle next time, that'll be interesting!