Sunday 24 December 2017

Christmas Eve


Its Christmas eve!  I have lot of pictures from today and i will share them i am sure as we have had a  great day, luckily...will post about that another time!, These are pictures from the December which i uploaded this morning when i got up super early and everyone was still fast asleep. I woke up this morning with a plan and a long to do list as all parents do, but tonight i have decided that i am not doing the usual rushing around,making sure the house is perfect only for the kids to trash it in the morning,opening presents and crushing selection box chocolates in the floor!
NO!tonight i am going to chill out and have a few drink, relax and enjoy Christmas Eve.
The little two have put out a drink and mince pie for santa and headed off to bed. The big two are watching a bit of TV, hopefully only for another hour as we do have to do the Christmas present thing and get set up for that at least, but everything else can wait! My Mum has prepped all the veg this year which has saved me a job and they are not arriving till 1pm so it will be no problem to do the normal last minute tidy, like we usually do anyway as everything we do on Christmas eve is normally destroyed by wrapping paper and packaging.

I am feeling in quite a reflective mood tonight, thinking about how much has changed this year. Its no wonder that i am a bit knackered. This time last year i had just started work full time again a few weeks earlier, and in anticipation of that everything was done, ready and wrapped, not like today when i snuck everything out of the loft only to find two boxes of toys that i had forgotten about! dam it, that wrapping is not going to be good at all, but then i only wrapped the the last 50% of stuff last night!
In my defense, life is more than extremely busy these days, in the last couple of months i have been away on council related work three times, Paul has been away twice with his work, working for the local MP, a job he really enjoys and in some ways its nice that we both have similer jobs again,lots of politics in this house! But for the whole year its been manic, Molly being Gala Princess and all the float building and visiting galas,which we always enjoy anyway, but with all the gala planning and organizing for our own gala. Then i had my two college courses which i was so proud i completed and passed,then top it all off with running for election which was just not something i had imagined i would be doing this year, then when i won all the learning and work that came with it ( more about all that in another post)..

Ultimately our lives are very busy and filled with challenges, and i know that next year will be just the same. Some challenges we already know about and others that will be thrown at us, but we thrive on it and i know i have such wonderful support from my family and especially from Paul who has been there for us all, leafleted for me (lots) and really taken up the slack from me not being at home all the time and some days not at all with work then council. I feel very lucky indeed!

I could go on forever but here is our christmas up to now!





Boys love all the boxes that arrive!


Collecting for the Christmas lights fund


Princess Molly and Fred collecting on the night



Snow!  on the train to London a couple of weeks ago, for a course i was attending, i really wish i could have taken some home for Fred who is desperate for snow!


Also a bit of knitting on the train, anew nordic jumper for Alex


The Euston Taps for a quick drink on arrival.



Going out for some tea, i went to the Christmas Market in Leicester Square!
How amazing was that!, i never expected to go but to just wander into this amazing festive place was magical




Last minute hair do for Mollys School Christmas Lunch

Christmas would not be complete without what is becoming an annual Star Wars Film Midnight showing,Paul sporting the jumper i knitted, he hs now ordered a new one to reflect the new films!  Better get planning!


We were invited to the BBC Lancashire concert with the Kings Division Band, who really started Christmas for me singing along to the traditional carols



The next day we joined in with some community carol singing and my mum and dad came along



Aww then it was Christmas Plays for Fred and Molly


Finally Friday  i enjoyed a carvery with Alex and Ewan as they were already off from school, but Molly and Fred were still in School.


Hope you all have a Merry Christmas x

Saturday 2 December 2017

Molly's 8th Birthday


Gala Princess Mollys 8th Birthday.
This was such a busy time being right in the middle of gala season so when i suggested she have a movie party, i was really glad she agreed.
We invited friends from school and went to pizza hut followed by the cinema, Despicable me 3

These are the party favors i made, so easy and once they were covered on clear film, they looked great.










Fleetwood Beach

A nice relaxing day out for our wedding anniversery starting with a picnic at Stanah, well a soup picnic anyway, I made Cheese and Broccoli Soup. While the kids were exploring in the wood Molly found a painted rock and brought it back to us. There is a new Facebook page where kids decorate rocks and then hide them for others to find and they post pictures so we quickly identified who had hidden it and messaged them to let them know we had found it.

After a while we decided to go to the beach. We went to Fleetwood beach this time and had a lot of fun welly wanging, Paul drew out the target and they lobbed the wellies!
The ice cream shop was open to the kids all had bubble gum ice cream and hot chocolate for me and Paul. We collected lots of shells ready for some crafting just not sure what we will make yet. 
















Illuminated Trams

Dispite living here all our lives neither of us have ever been ton the illuminated trams! I have no idea how this has happened the illuminated trams have been around forever there is the train tram,  the life boat tram,  the fisherman's friend tram and the rocket tram. Paul saw an advert that it was cheap for locals on a Monday night so dispite it being a school night we went along. The boys were so amazed and thrilled and we were lucky to get on the train tram. Inside it was painted like a train with a boiler and cogs etc. Ewan wasn't that thrilled really and seemed to prefer his phone!  We went from the pleasure Beach to little Bispham and all we way back. It was late by the time we got home and only Ewan was still awake so we just transfered them all to bed x









See! this is the stage that Ewan is at! I suppose i will have to accept that he has reached that age where hanging out as a family is not that thrilling for him