Calvin's hospital trip

Our poor little Cal man got scalded with water from our Quooker tap yesterday. It all happened without us realising even though the wee man cried for an hour while we thought he had trapped wind. It was only a few hours later when I was putting on his coat to take the kids for a walk that I noticed his trouser leg was wet. I rolled it back to discover that his little calf was burnt and the skin had come away. After a 2.5 hr wait in A&E we had it dressed and were on our way home again. The wee soldier smiling the whole time.

An ordinary afternoon

It seems we spend a lot of our afternoons like this. The weather is cold or wet or both so we huddle in the lounge/kitchen round the wood burning stove doing homework, playing with puzzles or playdoh and listening to music through Alexia. This week MJ has introduced us to 'Imagine Dragons' but his favourite song is still 'Midnight by Cold play'.
Lj and I long to be outside playing tennis or walking the tow path spotting Herrons. Let's hope we have an early spring.

Christmas 2017

It will soon be a month since Christmas but 'better late than never'. Here are a few pics to summarize our week in Chester. I got a new phone for Christmas so I'm really hoping I take more and better photos in 2018.

Entertaining Calvin

Whatever anyone is doing, Calvin is involved.
Ezra reads him a story.

MJ forms a battle plan with him.

Ezra and M play 'peek a boo' with him.

Our local museum.

By Saturday afternoon we had barely left the house and I was needing to get the two little ones out. Lj loves our local museum and requested that she take us there...she knows it best having visited with school and her Grandparents. She calls it the toy museum which surprised me because although it is probably going on for 30yrs since I was last there, I don't remember any toys. So off we trotted for an explore. It turns out that the 'toys' are little crafts and a box of very nice puzzles, books and puppets which don't seem to have anything to do with the exhibition but are to happily keep the kids amused while an adult can browse, albeit in my case the browse was extremely limited owing mainly to an energetic toddler. Going to a museum or an art gallery for me is similar to going for a walk in the forest or through a pretty garden. I find them a chance to breathe and take in something new, away from the chores and daily tasks. So it brings me great delight when I visit and watch my children engage at their own speed and ability, enjoying the environment as much as I do.

Afterwards we had a quick play on The Mall before Calvin decided it was dinner time and time for home.

Autumn tidy up

From Lj to Daddy

From Lj to Daddy picking up on his current love/obsession with Cacti!

I love it when my children write me little notes...even if they come from an unpleasant experience!

I'm in the midst of an autumn tidy up. Perhaps it is because we have a large skip in the drive so it is easy to get rid of things or maybe because the start of a new school year feels like new beginnings and time to get rid of the old. Or is it just because the days are bright and fresh and I feel energised (as much as you can with a new born) to clear out. Anyway in tidying up I sorted the kids display wall, keeping rid of a lot , scanning some (like the above) and leaving some in place.

Chickens

Meet Sue, Babs, Starlight and Eva. After a rocky start of me having to chase them around at night to get them into bed they have now settled in and started laying.