Shock upon Shock, I've blogged!!!!

Hi everyone, yes I decided it was time I posted a blog.  It's been nearly a year, so there are loads of photos.  I have chosen highlights from last year and so you will have to bear with me.  Hopefully, I won't wait quite so long to blog next time.  I don't have as much time as I used to any more, which is a good thing!!!  Last thing I posted was our holiday in the Lake District last May with my mum (Pauline).  So here's the rest of the year after that.

 In July Stuart and Alice (minus me, as I was taking a bit longer than anticipated to recover from some minor surgery) went down south to meet the newest member of the Grant clan.  Benjamin Patrick was born on the 1st June after 3 days of labour!!!  Alice's Grandpa showed her how to play his big drum, which he plays in a jazz band. 

 Then Alice got to meet her new cousin. 

 They spent quite a lot of the week at the beach.  Apparently the weather was lovely and they had a great week.

 We grew some sunflowers in the garden in our new vegetable patch.  We had three huge trees taken out and so this has left loads of room to grow veg and salad.  I think it was my sunflower that won!!!

 In August we went to Northern Ireland.  I visited places this time I've never been to before.  We went to The Ulster Folk Museum.  Alice really enjoyed walking round the houses and particularly liked seeing where they went to the toilet!!

 We spent an afternoon at Carnfunnock Country Park.  I'd never been there either before and it's brilliant. 

 Then a trip to W5, a science centre in Belfast which is so exciting.  It's absolutely massive you could spend the whole day there!!!

 Then Alice started school in September.  Where has that time gone!!!!????   They're born, you blink, they start school.  She really enjoys being at school and the school is so lovely and friendly.  The mums go out regularly, at our Christmas dinner we had 20 mums!!!  She's made some really great friends and given there are only 11 girls in her class they all seem to get on really well!!

 In October I turned 40.  Stuart did 40 days of presents leading up to my birthday.  So 40 days until my birthday I had little bag full of 40 love hearts, 39 days to go I got a DVD of The 39 Steps etc.  Then on day 1 I got a beautiful necklace which had been created by the same designer who made my wedding and engagement rings and was designed to complement them.  It really is beautiful.  We had family and friends together for a gorgeous birthday weekend (the weather was the warmest it had been for over 100 years). 

 The end of October we went down south for Benjamin's blessing.  The weather again was really beautiful.  It was a little service in the house and was really personal and special.  Everyone went for a walk to the local park in the afternoon.

 This is Stuart's parents with their grandchildren.

 In November I decided to knit Alice a scarf.  So she wanted to give it a go too.

 Stuart teaching Alice to play "giraffes", no I mean draughts!!  She was trying to plan her moves and work out where Stuart might go, I think he may struggle to beat her at chess in years to come.

 In December, we were treated to Alice's school nativity, The Whoopsadaisy Angel.  Alice played Mary.  We were so proud of her, she did brilliantly!!  The whole play was so special.

 At Christmas we had Stuart's parents visiting.  Poor Nana, what she has to endure whilst playing with Alice. I think she's dressed up as a shepherd here.

 Alice got loads of gorgeous toys, mostly for her dolls' house.  She got a Sylvanian family and now the dolls' house family have been evicted and the rabbits have moved in!!!

 She got a game called What a Performance and Grandpa and her played this most days!!!

 She also really enjoyed playing Mummy and Daddy's new game Mario kart for the Wii.  She's actually quite good!!

 Just after Christmas we decided it was time for Alice to move out of her cot bed and into a grown up girl's bed.  We bought this cot bed 3 months before she was born and she's slept in it since she was 8 weeks old. 

 Time moves on and she only had a couple of centimetres left at the bottom.  We're going to redecorate her room when we get all the building work done (subsidence, yep, still ongoing, don't get me started!!!!!!) and make it look a bit more grown up for her.

 Alice was a bit poorly in January with croup, when she was starting to feel a bit better, but still not ready for school she had her first pedicure.  Really I needed to cut her toe nails, call it a pedicure and put her feet in some warm water and she's really up for it!!!

 In February Alice was off school again with a different vomiting virus this time.  When she was starting to feel a bit better she built this den with Stuart.  His house had fallen down next door and so she was allowing him to stay at her house.

 On the 1st March it was World Book Day.  Alice decided to go as Peter Rabbit.  Thankfully I saw this little jacket in Next and she'll get loads of wear out of it over the summer too!!!

 She loved her little pom-pom on her bottom, however I don't think I tied it tight enough and it ended up all over the classroom floor by the end of the day!!

Just a family photo of the three of us.

Hope you've enjoyed this trip through the past 10 months.  I will really try to post sooner next time.  Watch this space!!

Lake District Holiday 2011

See, I told you I would try better to post more often. However, this post is for my Mother and Father-in-law. The family is awaiting a new arrival, however the labour started on Monday afternoon (it's now Wednesday morning). So this is to give them something to do while they are waiting for news.

Alice started nursery a few weeks ago. She really enjoys it, however there are loads of tears (from Alice, not me) when I leave her. I'm assured that as soon as I leave she is fine and when I pick her up she is all chat on the walk home about what she's been up to. We filled in a wee book about Alice and what she likes to do and her development stage. She drew this picture of herself for the book.

A very good likeness, I'm sure you will agree!!!


Last week my mum came over from Northern Ireland and we all went off to the Lake District for a week's holiday. We stopped in Bowness as that's where we had to pick up the keys and went to the Beatrix Potter Experience. It was good, but not worth the money it cost. Alice did enjoy it and thankfully we have the complete works (in one book) of Beatrix Potter, so she knew most of the characters. This is Alice with Mr McGregor from The Tale of Peter Rabbit.

Next day we went to Hill Top where Beatrix Potter lived. Stuart and I joined the National Trust for a year (we got 25% off a year's membership through a voucher I got in a child's magazine), so we got in free here. It was a very good afternoon, though. Alice did a little trail looking for paw prints on stones and then writing down the letters beside it and we had to re-arrange all the letters to make a word. She really enjoyed that. This is Alice with her Nanny (my Mum) at the door of Beatrix Potter's house. Also the lady inside gave Alice a book and she had to find all the places in the book from the cottage. This kept Alice's attention (a bit more anyway) as we looked round the house. It was very interesting, talking to the people who work there about her life.

We went to the Aquarium on a very wet and windy Monday. It was absolutely pouring it down, then went swimming in the afternoon. Stuart had his first experience of a Sauna and Steam Room. He said he prefers the Sauna. I don't go near them given last time I went in one I came out and fainted!!!

On the Tuesday we went into Kendal. Then went onto Sizergh Castle. There'd been a really horrible road accident and the main road had been completely shut. So we had to drive up and down really tiny wee roads to get us to the castle. Alice was a bit fed up by the time we got there and so her behaviour left a lot to be desired. We then had a very long drive home as we had to drive up and round Windermere and the traffic then came to a standstill about 5 miles where we needed to turn off. So we managed to turn round went into Bowness and had dinner. By the time we came out the road had cleared. We didn't fancy the route round the top of Lake Windermere we were going to have to take otherwise.

On the Wednesday the weather was a bit better. Cold and cloudy, but not wet!!! So we went to the animal park. It was a really great park.

Alice nearly got eaten by the Hippo!!!!


A good display by this peacock!!! Thank you for obliging.

These Rhinos were hilarious. They stayed like this for a good hour!!!

A couple of other rhinos a bit closer up. Remember you can click on the picture to get a closer look.

We really liked this, the baby monkey riding on its parent's back.

Alice was desperate to feed the giraffes. We had to wait for quite a while until they decided to come down for something to eat. It was fascinating watching them run down the hill though. Stuart talked a lot about their legs. Apparently most animals walk using opposing legs (right front and left back etc) whereas giraffes use the same legs (right front, right back).

Just really liked this bear having a good old lounge!!!

Alice was very brave and tackled this crocodile!!! Who do you think won?

My mum got pretty close to this lemur.

Then it was time for the feeding of the tigers. They hung the food pretty high up in the trees. So when they came out they just jumped up the trees and grabbed the food and then jumped back down again and tore into dinner!!! Fascinating to watch.

Alice was very upset that she didn't get to go down and feed the penguins. However, the enclosure was packed and she wouldn't have got near them, so we watched them from above.

Thursday was a very wet and cold day!!! So we went on a steam train and then the boat up Lake Windermere to Bowness. We reckon it was about 60% Chinese, 30% American and then 10% rest of the world.
Just a view of the Lake in Bowness.


Alice and Stuart feeding the swans and ducks.

Stuart went for a walk from the cottage to a place called High Dam one night. So he took these photos on his walk.



I think this one is my particular favourite. He changed the shutter speed and got this amazing photo.

On the Friday, the weather was a bit better so we went swimming in the morning and then went to Brockhole Lake District visiting centre. It was a really beautiful place. Alice and Stuart sat on this boat.
They weren't going to be going anywhere!!!


A view of Lake Windermere.
Alice on the zip wire at the playground. It was a really great adventure playground.


We had a really great holiday. The weather was cold, wet and windy, but it didn't hamper us getting out and about. It was the first time Mum had been to the Lake District and she said she really enjoyed it. We all came home with colds though. So we all spent the bank holiday feeling really ropey!!!