Can't Sleep!

Its late and everyone is in bed, but i can't sleep! Tonight was the last rehearsal and Committee meeting before gala day! I am so so excited, i should be really stressed, but i am not, what will be will be! We have all worked so hard. Tomorrow Paul is off and it will be the final push, but to be honest i had expected to be busy every day and night for the last month, but the committee have really stepped up and taken on jobs so its all coming together nicely. We have even had a few family days without gala work.
Sunday was he car show and we parked at Rossall Beach with the intention of walking round and having a picnic after, but it was quite windy on the prom, so we drove to Stanah and parked up there and had a picnic with our camping stove. It was glorious weather at that point  as the wind had died down and their was water skiers on the river, it was just so nice to sit and play as a family and enjoy the time and then day.

 My new favorite youtube channel gave me the watermelon cake which is truly gorgeous, this is mine

One of Miollys teeth fell out yesterday, but she is being a bit lax in the tooth brushing department so i decided to make this last minute, last night, one of the things i love about my sewing stash, is there is always something for hat i want to make. This sparkly felt was perfect for this tooth. I wrote a letter from the tooth fairy saying i had inspected the tooth and she needed to try better brushing. I put it under her pillow with £1, but this morning she failed to mention the letter and when Ewan did she refused to talk about it, she is so stubborn its funny.

I got to use the monogramming feature!!! bonus

This is Gala rehearsal tonight and the reason why i do it. The kids love it and did a fab job. The fair is set up and its starting to get real. I am so excited, i have worked so hard and its been an amazing year which i have really enjoyed and made many new friends. i hope to be involved for many years to come. It will be strange next week when its ll over. Most of what we have been up to this last few weeks has been gala related. I am so grateful that Paul is so supportive of it as it really takes up quite a bit of our time.

See you after Gala Day! xxxxx

Odds & sods

Having been really busy for weeks will gala stuff, i have been finally going through the pictures and uploading them to the computer and thought i will share some of the highlights of the last few weeks.

My new matching car seats for the boys, i love the cow skin look!!!

My Neice turned 18 and i decided to make her a t-shirt with a photo on, i bought special paper that you print on and iron on the t-shirt, it came out really well

We had a great time at the party even if it did make me feel a little old, Sam was born when i left school for study leave and started my apprenticeship! where did 18 years go.

Alex did not stop dancing

 One of my other nieces, put loads of bobbles in Freds hair, which has started a bit of a thing, where he asks each morning for them to be put in and screams if we don't or try to take them out!! think i will let it run its course.

Just before we went on hols, i bought a new sewing machine!!!yay. The one i had bought from the charity shop was not that great, once i started making a skirt and what should have taken 20 mins tops, took 3 hours....3 frustrating hours, as its didn't really work properly at all, but the charity shop gave me my money back. But again i was without a machine, so i took the plunge and splurged on a really good sewing machine, that also is a quilting machine, with all the bits and bobs, it even does monogramming (everything in the house has now been monogrammed!) After much research, i decide a sewing and embroidery machine was not going to be as good as 2 separate machines, so an embroidery machine will be my next purchase, when Paul has got over this one :)

 Anyway, it came in handy when we got back from hols it was discovered that the next day at school was pirate day and luckily i had some fabric and managed to make a quick costume. Thats one of the things about sewing, its mainly the kids that benefit from it and they love the fact there mum has made the costumes and they are not wearing exactly the same Asda outfit that everyone else is wearing! Molly also can start her lessons again

The mini carrots on the plate are ones which Molly grew at school.

Fred has finally decided he wants potty, so we are getting somewhere, if fred decides something he sticks with it, he is a stubbon little boy.

A lovely day at Jubilee, while i had some site meetings.

The school summer fair, Ewan & Max

.

So despite all the gala stuff we have still had a few outings and some fun. I don't always take pictures to show you, as we go to the same places over and over.

Today we are off to the car show, but we will take the camping stove and cook some food on the beach and make a day of it xx

Fredericks 3rd Birthday

Its a few weeks since Freds birthday now, but i have quite a few unfinished posts. Ever since Ewans birthday Fred has been asking about his and even getting a bit upset when he has come down and found no presents. His birthday was actually on a Saturday, but as Paul had to work and i had gala commitments we decided to pretend it was they day after so we could all celebrate together.

Fred got a motherbike, and i brought him some new trains for the track master Thomas, i set up a bit of it for them and they played lovely together. The Trackmaster trains are around £15 each and i had ordered a couple from Toys'r'us, then a couple of days before his birthday, i saw some in Homebargains for £5.99 each!!! they only had 6 left and 5 different types so i bought the 5, well i couldn't leave them for that price. Sometimes when things like that happen i think they must have been mean't for me, as i have never seen them their before or since, in any case Fred was a happy bunny. My mum also had a lucky find and got a pile of take along Thomas for a charity stall a few weeks before, so we will have to get all the rest out and set it all up together sometime soon, although the last time we only just managed to fit it in the room, so with the extra stuff don't know where we will set it up

This is the easiest cake i have ever made and took all of 5 minutes to decorate. Its just a chocolate cake covered in chocolate buttercream and topped with green colored coconut, with a hole in and one of Freds diggers and some chocolate bars round the side. I did sew the white onto the black ribbon to look like a road!  

We had a little tea party like we did for Alex and Nana & Grandad came round.

Another of Freds Presents was load of makey makey stuff and we just let them all go wild with it, the state of the house, was bad, but fun was had by all

Had to add this its a really lovely picture of Alex and daddy

Fred enjoyed his day and is already asking about the next x

Poulton Gala

Well today was Poulton Gala, which was the first Gala of the season for us. The day didn't start off as planned, Paul went to work and i got ready to leave only to discover that the double pram was in the boot of the car!!! with Paul at work!!!. But Paul managed to persuade work to let him come back to drop off the pram and us at Poulton gala. It was a windy day, but dry with sunny spells. This is the kids last away gala, next Saturday is our gala, but after that they will be the retired retinue. We will still go to some of the other Gals as i am the chairperson, but for them it won't be the same. They can join in the choosing for the year after though.

Molly met Elsa, she was one very very happy bunny!!!!

It was really nice to see the other retinues. Unfortunately i am having a flare up of my bad leg and by the time i got home i was in agony so Paul took over so i could have lie down. Then he went out and put all the banners and posters up for us , as its the car show in cleveleys tomorrow and its good advertisement for us.

I am so lucky that Paul is more than happy to get involved as, especially now it all hands to the pump, with a week to go, it feels like our house has been taken over, the kitchen is full of gala stuff and everything else has taken a back burner, but Paul loves getting involved just as much as me. The kids love it as well! God knows what we will do next week when its all over!!! well for another year at least!! No i have loads of plans, but the first involves a rest and some well deserved family time!

Haven Part 3

Just sat looking through the pictures from holiday so i can put up the last few and it feels like months ago, not weeks. you wait so long for your holiday and then its over in the blink if an eye. Good job we hopefully have some camping to look forward to and next years holiday.

So here a some pictures form the last couple of days of the holiday.

Molly & Ewan Fencing, Ewan loved it Molly not so keen.

 Freddie with Polly, he loved the characters and the shows.

 Ewan on the Arial adventure.It was quite high and he got a little worried on the first Zip wire, shouting help help, so the guide went up and did it with him.

They had a fantastic Bushcraft area, but we unfortunately didn't get chance to do any of it.

This is the main building , it was actually part castle, its like they have built, the entertainment building over the top, its great, i keep meaning to google the history.

Alex Dancing

Molly entering the fancy dress competition as Elsa, nearly all the kids were Elsa or Anna

We took a trip out to Lindesfarne Priory, on Holy Island, we had to drive over the causeway, which the kids loved

 I think the museums are great for kids they had lots of activity's from them to do, thats one of the good things about out English heritage pass.

Every day we had swans and Geese including 10 baby geese visit us at the caravan

We are home now and no one of us wanted to leave, little Fred cried on the way home “want to go home to caravan”” I think his change in attitude to holidays was one of the things that made this holiday so great, its awful when they are unhappy and while its clear Fred doesn’t like change and it seems to affect him a lot even making him physically ill, it seems that now we have had a few of these types of holidays once we get there he can relax and enjoy himself. I think his favorite bit was the night time entertainament he would be sat at the front watching the shows and joining in and each night he had to put his party clothes on. By the end of the holiday Alex was also staying awake for the shows and clapping along, he loved the characters and when they came on you could see his eyes light up

So thats this years holiday xx