The middle bit of the summer hols

The kids are still happy with the relaxed routine we have going on here in the mad house! i have been waiting for a melt down ( from either me or the kids!), but so far so good!
I have finished my maths course and took my exam on Monday and fingers crossed i passed, andi have been and signed up for my collage courses on Friday!! I am so super excited and just want to get started now.

I have spent quite a bit of time crocheting since i finished the big blanket and started a couple of new projects, one i have finished already! pictures will come soon.

Here a sneaky peak!, my turn to have a lie in but rather than sleep i sat in bed with my project and a bit of Jeremy Kyle on the telly

On thing thats been very popular in our house at the moment is our new projector, i bought it as a treat for Paul so he could watch Star Wars on the big screen. It was such a bargain £38 and we turned all the couches round so it was like a cinema, we connected my guitar app to the projector so we get really good loud sound. I bought a screen as well but the picture was bigger taking up a whole wall and a bit more so i put that away, the idea behind it was to make an outdoor cinema so we will have to try that another time as the weather has not been that great and it goes dark to late for the kids really

Ewan stood in front of the screen, its massive

We used the pebbles and bits we got from the beach to make some pebble art, by the time the little two had finished we were basically left with muddy green and brown stones and some very very messy kids

These are my efforts which i was very proud of

We all came down with colds, so i had a couple of days where i really didn't feel like getting dressed or doing anything even crochet felt to tiring, so homemade soup went a long way in making us feel better, but not really what you expect in the middle of summer

I have started another project, which will hopefully be a blanket for my Mum at Christmas, lets hope it dosn't take as long as the last one!

Lots of rainy outings i love this picture i took while we were at the bus stop

On to the final stretch of the hols xx

First Half of the Summer Holidays

The first half of the summer hols have been pretty chilled, last year we were out most days at different events or just our own little trip out and by the end of the holidays i was completely burnt out, so this year i thought we could take things alittle easier.

Its not that we haven't been out, we have had our camping trip and another planned for the next couple of weeks depending on the weather.

We have had a few trips to the beach to gather pebbles and driftwood for some pebble art which i will show you on another post

We went to a funday organised by the childrens centre, only £1 per family! a bargain, they had "hands on animals" where they brought out snakes and giant snails for the kids to hold. Ever since then Fred has been bringing in snails and worms which he calls his pets uurgh i gave him a bowl to keep them in outside, but he gets upset when thenext day they have escaped and has to get new ones!

Molly and me have been knitting and crocheting

The new karaoke machine has been put to good use and we have all had a good sing and Molly and Fred have dressed up! Even Paul had a go and did a jaw dropping rendition of Gangnam style, which i secretly recorded but he has banned me from posting it!!!

This is the only time we have had a game out so far! think i have realised its more hassle than its worth, between the big kids it always ends in an argument which is a shame as i used to enjoy it,perhaps i will have to persevere with it

More animal sat another funday with the childrens centre, they had other things too like bouncy castles, face painting smoothy making and lots of different activity's

This was my favorite, Exploding Paint! Basically i think it was vinegar and food coloring squirted on to sand and baking soda, and it just foamed up

One big big change for me this summer has been making the decision to go back to collage. I made the decision way back at the beginning of July, i was sat in an advisory board meeting at the childrens centre and we were talking about the transformation (which is basically what jobs will be available and which will be lost with the closure of some of the centres) and it struck me that i really wanted to go back to collage and study to be a Social Worker. I have thought about it before years ago when Ewan was a baby, but with a mortgage and a baby it just wasn't an option and aver the years it comes into my mind every now and then and for whatever reason on this day i thought i really just needed to go for it, so as soon as i got home i looked at the courses and applied for the one i thought would be the right route to being a social worker. I was a bit hasty really and never thought the whole process would be as complicated as it has been, maybe i should have read the FAQ'S. For starters you needed 5 GCSES, great i have them!  but they must include Maths and English, oh!! English not a problem i got an A in Literature and a B in Language.....Maths however i got an E! I hated Maths and made no effort at school with it what so ever and just copied from my friend Emma, so I speak to the collage and they say its not a problem i just need to take an assessment and do a Functional skills course and that i should take GCSE Maths so that i can get on the Degree course the following year ( the first year is an Access to higher education course) So i went and took the test,  i did way better than i thought and only have to do 4 weeks of the 9 weeks functional skills course, which i started a few weeks ago. So i have been doing that course 1 morning and 1 afternoon a week so i can get the certificate in time to enroll for the GCSE Maths course and the main course i am wanting to do.

During the last few weeks i been been to open days and decided to take a slightly longer route to where i want to get but one that is better for people like me with a family and is more a work based route, so watch this space!!!

Fred learnt to ride his bike with stabilizers, he is so happy and loving playing out with the others on his bike

Alex had his first real haircut, but i am so glad its not really short and he still looks like my baby. He was quite happy to jump up on the seat and have it done

It made him very tired and he fell asleep on my wool!!! so cute!!!

We had a night out with our friends and there kids and what seems to be half the population of Thornton considering how many people we saw and knew!!!

bye for now x

Stripy Blanket Ta-dahh!

I have finally finally finished the stripy banket i started over 2 years ago! i really never saw the end to this project. I have just been looking back over my posts to see when i first started and it looks like i printed out the pattern back in December 2013! You can find the pattern on the link below

 http://notyouraveragecrochet.com/as-we-go-stripey-blanket/

The first few rows were started in January 2014 i think, so its been on the hook for 2 years and 8 months!! thats a long time.

I started it to use up all the bits and bobs of yarn i had hanging around and wanted it finished by that winter....

I literally used the colours i wanted as and when so i didn't order the colors in any way

As you can see its huge,it touches the floor on both sides of my king size bed!

It does feel wonderful to get it finished and i have already ordered wool for my next project!!!

Fred's Graduation

Last week saw Fred graduate from nursery. I can't believe how quickly the time has gone!

September he will be starting school! I definitely think he is ready and i think i am too!!!

But it only seems like yesterday he was a newborn,the baby stages go far to fast for my liking, its hard to think that within a year Alex will be wanting to walk and will reject the pram and will be at nursery too!

But this week was Freds turn to graduate, i love the nursery that all 3 big kids have gone to, its fantastic and whats really nice is that the staff have mainly been the same since Ewan was there, for me that says it all,but Stacy who you see here with Fred has decided to leave after 13 years to move nearer her family,which is so sad, we bought her a card and pressie and she was in tears after the graduation as it was her next to last day and i have to admit i shed a few tears as well. It really feels like the end of an era. Although Alex will go to the same nursery, it will be in a different place as they have opened a new one near to Molly's school, which we have decided to send him to as it will be easier for me

After the graduation Fred officially left, normally and with the others they carried on till the end of August, but with Fred as much as he enjoyed it when he was there, getting him there was a different matter, tears and tantrums every time, and he was adamant he was not going anymore and didn't want to go to the graduation, Stacey told me he kept saying he wasn't going anymore and would not sing the songs for they were learning for the graduation, despite singing them at home. Fred is a very stubborn little boy

However on the day,we took him to nursery and instead of picking him up at his usual time they late him stay a few more hours so he could go to the graduation with the other children rather than me dropping him off and we hoped that he would get involved and it worked, he sang his songs and got his certificate and i had to add this little video of him, smiling at me for his picture, true form for Fred, he is a little showman and got everyone laughing

So next stop September and school!

Our first ever camp out (that's not in the garden!)

We have been home a couple of hours after our first every camping trip, it was only one night, but you gotta start somewhere!

The place we decided to go was only a few miles away, Smithy Farm, i found it through a website Pitchup.com, it has a small petting zoo, park and little tractors for the kids, £24 for the night.

We chose to go this weekend as it was our first weekend free after the galas and the kids were desperate to go. Paul works every other Saturday till one and it fell on one of those weekends, which i though was fine as we couldn't arrive till after 1pm anyway, but the kids were ready, bags packed by 9am, so it was a long long wait for him to get back! and when he did it took forever to pack up the car,i can't believe how much stuff we took for 1 night, but tent,chairs, sleeping bags, all the blankets, the list goes on. Then we dropped into Aldi to get some food so it was about 3.30pm by the time we got there.

We managed to get everything set up

It was quite busy the place was full

The sky started to get quite cloudy and i has a few concerns about rain but the sun kept breaking through and it was quite warn

I gave the kids "camping chores" to do, like getting the water and washing up, Molly quite enjoyed doing these

The campsite also has a small petting zoo which was one of the reasons we chose it, the animals were right next to the camping field so it was absolutely ideal and we could just sit at our tent and let the children visit the animals, they certainly enjoyed that bit of freedom 

Alex loved the little tractors, but they were a bit to big, so all he was saying was "push me"

I got a bit of crochet time too which was nice to sit out and do

We toasted marsh mallows and made smores

The kids absolutely loved it, running around and having burgers for tea,being outside is what they all love and its nice to be away together spending time just being with each other, the fact that we were only a couple of miles from home didn't matter at all

I don't think you can beat a sunset like this, it was pretty amazing

So after the sun went down, that's where the fun stopped for me!!

I just don't like sleeping in a tent its far to scary. to many noises and going fora wee means a walk across a dark field to the toilets, i just didn't sleep much at all and Alex came and got in with us as well, don't think he liked sleeping in the pod inside the tent.

So we will camp again but i really don't want to go far and i think me and Alex will sleep in the car!

What i would love is for us to start saving up for a caravan, would love that.