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

Day 162 Daddy Daughter

This past weekend has seen us all have some good family fun. I have spent time with all 3 of my girls and its been nice. Thankfully the weather has also been nice, so we have spent the large part of it outdoors enjoying different events and doing a lot of walking. Todays pic, is actually 2 pictures, the first of me a youngest enjoying a ride in daddy's arms....

the second of eldest enjoying a ride on my shoulders....

who needs the gym when I've go to carry these two around!

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 77 Bit Sour...

We had a trip to the seaside today, and eldest child was promised an Ice Cream if she was good enough. She kept her end of the bargain.... Just and so did we. But she wasn't quite sure on mummys ice cream....

But she enjoyed her own.....

Day 74 Dance Dance

ER showed us her dance moves today they involved being a T and the being a K, I'm not entirely sure what music it goes with....

So then I gave the dance a try....

And so did mummy....

Then ER busted out this final move...

What it means to be Dad...

Over the last week I've been thinking....

I was stood in the kitchen washing the dishes (Shock horror a man doing the dishes) I can't confess that well and eldest ER was being abnormally cute. As I watched her prance around singing and pretending to be an adult it hit further home that I'm now a Dad and how much I enjoyed it. TV is only just 2 months old and so far (knock on wood) isn't any trouble, she sleeps through the night and enjoys falling sleep on me, something I at the moment Cherish as much as possible as I know one day this will stop and she will eventually be too embarrassed to be seen with her Daddy let alone fall asleep in my arms.

The truth is no matter what I do in life nothing will ever compare to being Daddy. I want my children to call me Daddy for as long as possible, I don't look forward to the day when it gets shortened to Dad, as my children will always be the frail little creatures that look up to me and rely on me to feed, clothe and bathe them. To nurse them to sleep and to kiss any bumps or bruises better.

I look forward to each activity in the day that allows me to be Daddy, I look forward to every hug and cuddle from my girls and embrace each one as if it was the last. Every chance I get to read the bed time story or take the kids to bed I enjoy as I am aware that one day the girls will be too old for this and won't require me to make sure I leave the big light on as they are scared of the dark (even though as Dad I do the Dad thing and worry about the waste of electricity)

I miss the children when I'm at work, I try keep work to what it needs to be but inevitably I have to work more than 40 hour weeks, I know that, my girlfriend knows that, its the way it is but I always try to rush home to see the kids before they go to bed, unless I'm working a late shift and then theres no chance as I don't finish until midnight.

Each day I have off I cherish to spend time with my daughters and their mummy to ensure we create happy and enjoyable memories for the girls to look back on and share in the future. And naturally I worry about they girls when I am not around and even scare myself at the thought of what would happen if something bad as to happen to me, but I try snap out of this quickly and focus on the here, the now and the positives and the happy memories we have created.

But most importantly I enjoy and cherish every time I see the girls smile and laugh and I feel sad every time their mummy sends me a picture message/tweet of them smiling of laughing and I am not there and have missed it in person.

My three girlies (2 Daughters plus mummy) are my world, my life and each day I can only try but make them as proud of me as I am of them.