July & August

Well the Summer holidays came and the boys were keeping me very busy. Didn't get the camera out much, well there are only so many photos you can take of the boys playing with cars ! :-)

Time for their second visit to the Dentist. Unfortunately the lovely Dentist we had had moved on and we were assigned to a new one. As it turned out she was a lovely Portuguese lady who was just brilliant with the boys. She examined Carol first and got the boys dressed up in surgical masks and gloves and asked them to help her look at Mummy's teeth. They thought this was excellent.



August

Carol and I thought it would be fun to have a long weekend in a Caravan. Carol found a site in the New Forest that had Caravans set up and you just hired them.



We had a mixed bag of weather but that didn't stop us having fun. We introduced the boys to the tradition of bad weather board games, well what else do you do in a caravan when it is raining :-)





We visited Beaulieu whilst we were there, the boys loved it and they have seen the Top Gear Challenges DVD of mine where the lads tried their hand at Amphib' vehicles and stretch limos. Harry & Ben loved seeing the vehicles there in the Top Gear exhibition.

Damper Van:



Toybota:



Clarkson's outrageously long limo:



We also saw Chitty !



The boys also got the chance to have a drive themselves. Look at the concentration on their little faces :-)



We even got a day down at the beach :-)





Well that's it for this entry, will try catch up before the New Year, I want to start with a clean slate in 2010 !

June = Holiday 2009 !

In June we went on holiday. Again we went back to Bosinver near St Austell Cornwall, unfortunately we won't be going there next year, as they are already booked solid. So we will have to find somewhere else to go.

This time we went for a little two bedroom bungalow, which was lovely. Bosinver never fails to deliver :-)



We had a mixed bag of weather, so on the bad weather days, we had already planned some activities.

The Plymouth Aquarium was excellent the boys thoroughly enjoyed it and there was loads to see. They have a massive tank, that is three floors high !





On one of the other poor weather days we went off to the Maritime Museum at Falmouth. I have to say this was an excellent day out as well, loads to see and lots of things for the boys to play with and climb on/in. The restaurant had awesome cake as well :-)



They had a large in door pool, with air vents at water height. These blew wind across the surface of the water simulating a gentle steady sea breeze. In the pool were radio controlled boats, all you could control was the tack of the sail, so you had to sail these boats properly just like their life size counter parts. Great fun !



All these things to do and see, was a lot for little men :-)

Harry



Ben



Then came the good weather and off to the beach !

When you are in North Cornwall there really is only one beach to choose, the fabulous Watergate Bay, just a couple of miles up the coast from Newquay.



I love that beach when the tide it out it stretches along the coast line for miles. It is lovely walking along the beach. I left Carol and the boys making sand castles and went for a wander north along the beach, as I came around an outcropping of rock I found this arch in the cliff and the beach continued beyond it. I didn't have my camera with me, so I took this shot with my mobile phone and tweaked it slightly with my photo software when I got home.



For a snap taken with a phone, it turned out pretty well.

The next day we went back to the National Trust property at Glendurgan


It is a great place for the boys to explore. They love it.

Another slightly overcast day brought a trip to Paradise Park, a wildlife park not too far from where we were staying. There we found all sorts of exotic birds and the boys really liked the penguins. After the penguin show they could get to meet a penguin. Harry was up for it, but Ben was a little reserved. You could tell he really wanted to but was a bit nervous, so Mummy went with him and gave him a little bit of encouragement. This is a bit weird because it is normally Ben that is the adventurous one.



Further into the park we found a little Farm area, with a 'post card' board - the boys thought this was very funny.



Well that was our holiday, sorry I really am useless at updating this blog at present. Next I'll tell you what we did in July. Hopefully I will get to writing this soon :-)

May - We get some glorious weather at last !

With the start of May, we got some great weather. The boys had lots of fun in the garden, playing and having picnics:



Whilst Daddy did some eBaying, hence the baby seats visible in the background. I was taking photos of their old stuff and we had a good sale on eBay. We made a decent amount as well.

My Mum came down and stayed for a while, the boys loved that and had a great time with her. We went to visit my cousin Stephen and his family in Lindhurst, it was a lovely day.

Stephen's wife Alison did us proud and we all sat in their garden having a lovely afternoon long lunch, like the French do, just sat around taking, eating and drinking. I really relaxing day. Simply fab :)

My Cousin Stephen and my Uncle Bill.



Grammy wanted to take the boys to the Zoo. The boys were very excited about that, so off we all went down to Marwell Zoo

Penguins !



Mummy, Harry & Ben



Some little monkeys



Two more little monkeys and a brass Hippo :)



An Ant Eater



Gorgeous little Ben



Handsome little Harry



Harry does look tired in that last photo bless him. It was a good day out, the boys got a little bothersome, kept going on about riding on the little train around the Zoo, which we eventually did do once they had settled down and were good little boys again :) In fact the pictures above were taken on the train.

So that was May, next onto June !

Hopefully I will get this done soon. :)

Illness stops play

Slight delay in updating our blog, due to an outbreak of Chicken Pox. Once Harry & Ben are back at school. I will have time to continue with my 'catch up - updates'

April Fool

April Fool !
Well not really a fool, but lets face it, you've got to be a bit daft falling asleep like this !!!!



How on Earth Harry managed to fall asleep half standing up I have no idea.

April 6th
Claire and the girls came to stay and we all had a lovely time. Claire had been working herself very hard with work and really needed a rest. I am very glad that she came and Claire really seemed to have a good time and recharge her batteries. The boys adore her and the girls.





Now the Boys had been very good and completed their sticker reward charts. The end result being (drum roll).................Bicycles !

We went to Salisbury and got them both a Go Diego Go! bike each. (Thank goodness they were on special offer!).

Ben was adamant that he wanted a pink bike, but I just could bring myself to buy him a Barbie Princess Bike that was double the cost of the Diego bike. We compromised and Ben was very happy with his pink bicycle helmet and pink bell for his handle bars.

Harry got a bit fed up with his Go Diego Go! handle bar panel, so we took his off. Which made it easy for the boys to know which bike which. Saved on the arguments :)

Facing up to reality

Well I have been very lacks again in updating this blog. I think perhaps this is because the boys are entering their last term in play group and it will soon be Summer holidays and then in September they start Infant School.

I can't believe it, where has the time gone ? - I am so dreading them going off to school. I'm going to miss them so much.

I suspect that this is why I haven't updated this blog for so long, I have to face the reality that pretty soon, they won't be around so much.

So over the coming week or so, I will make lots of entries, catching up with things we have done since the end of March.

So lets finish March off, nothing much happened at the end of March, we found Ben asleep on the landing again, having fallen off to sleep during playing there.



Next post will be about April and what we did then.

The Humour of Harry & Flour Power

Every now and then Harry just comes out with something hysterical. Be it something that he says or does. Ben is equally funny, but more in his actions and the way he looks at you in the ultra cute way that he does. Ben has the most infections chuckle ever and just cracks me up.

The other day Harry was having a pee, we are just at that stage now where he does everything himself, ie lifts the lid/seat, drops trousers and aims etc. The only help he needs from me is sometimes getting his trousers back up and help at the sink washing his hands afterwards as the taps are a little too high for him to reach and turn on.

So picture the scene if you will, Harry has gone to the loo
'I want to do it all by my own Daddy'
'By yourself Harry'
'Yes, all on my self'
'OK' - (Sometimes it is just too much like hard work trying to correct his English at this stage.)

Harry promptly 'went through the motions' and on finishing his 'Pee' - he gave a little shake and looked at me and sang 'Drip went the Weasel' and giggled himself silly.

Now where the hell did he hear that !!!

Carol came home the other evening and the boys were lounging on the sofa watching CBeebies and said to Harry,

'Where have you been today Harry'

He promptly pulled his playschool sweatshirt taut and looked down at the playgroup emblem on it and then looked back up and Carol and said 'We've been to Little School' and gave her a look of 'What are you blind or stupid', kind of expression !!!

I swear he is 4 going on 14 sometimes. I hope this isn't a sign of things to come, I really don't want a 'Harry Enfield - Kevin' type teenager as a son !

Now I kind of need to take you back a few weeks, as I forgot to mention some fun we had when the Snow was thick outside and we had to find fun indoors.

My friend Claire had given the boys two kits for making Gingerbread Men and the boys had a great time mixing all the ingredients together. Now we had sometime before they were finished in the Oven and Carol realized that the flour that we had used from our cupboard was close to it's expiration date, so she thought it would be fun for the boys to have a play with it whilst we waiting for their G'men to finish baking. This was a great idea, well....perhaps if it wasn't for the fact that Carol had spent the morning spring cleaning the Kitchen. Ho hum, the boys had a blast. The best game was to make a little mountain out of the flour and then slam their hands down onto it sending a shower of flour everywhere :)