New Years Eve

Well, we had a huge party to go to until the small hours but decided just to stay at home and go to bed instead (yeah right!!)

The kids suddenly rushed off to tidy their rooms and polish this afternoon as they have got an idea to have a New Years Day party tomorrow. Unfortunately they didn't think of this until nearly tea time so they didn't have time to invite anyone yet!! It might end up being a party just for us, who knows?! Mind you, the house stank of orange polish so I think everything was liberally dosed which may have been a good thing (?) They were both very industrious, even Ben decided to help out, which is unheard off, typical boy!!

Not much has happened over the last few days.... cleaning cottages, making junk models (or inventions as Eilidh calls them!), doing some more bead pictures, listening to story tapes and today we went for a nice drive up to Pooley Bridge and had some lunch. The weather has been awful, there are ponds in the fields around here and the roads by the lakes are at the same level as the lake itself!

Eilidh has lost another tooth tonight, she has been playing with it all day today..Yuck! Here is the gappy girl!!

This morning Dave was feeling ill so we left him in bed to sleep it off and got on with some crafty bits. Both the kids got a 'Hama' bead kit for christmas (mainly because I liked the look of them!) so we made a start on these. Ben has one with emergency vehicles to make and Eilidh has a pony mobile to make. Ben found it a bit too fiddly, so I ended up making him a helicopter while he handed me the right colour beads and Eilidh did brilliantly and made a lovely pony with very little help so she was really pleased. I will get some pictures when they do some more.

We then went off to see our friends Kate, Dennis and Florence for coffee and playing and spent most of the afternoon there. Ben got really tired and starting bouncing off the walls so we decided to head home for dinner and bed. That's about it for today!

Boxing Day

While we were being lazy sleeping in this morning Ben and Eilidh were busy playing in Eilidh's room. I was just thinking how good they were being when Ben appears by the side of the bed telling me exactly what they have been up to!!? Well, they had decided to play with their new plasticine on the bedroom carpet, on his new wooden garage and then decided to try and clean it up with wet toilet paper. This got me out of bed pretty quickly!! Fortunately it wasn't quite as bad as I had imagined, but there was a trail of wet toilet paper from the bathroom to Eilidh's room and half his new wooden cars had been 'buried' in a horrible looking lump of brown plasticine. Great!!

We decided that we all needed to go out and get some fresh air after breakfast so went off to Windermere Lake for a wander. It seems everyone else had the same idea, we couldn't believe it was so busy, the few cafe's and shops that were open were heaving! It's funny being in a big tourist area, after summer holidays end usually we all feel as if the area becomes ours again but this year it seems to have been pretty busy all year around. Still, we used to be the tourists so I guess we can't complain too much!!! We had a lovely, very windy walk around part of the lake and the kids had a chance to run off some steam and get some fresh air.

When we got back Ben decided he wanted to do some painting of his new dinosaur moulds and Eilidh got on with painting some fairy figures while I made dinner. Then it was just eating and watching Monsters Inc. then off to bed for the kids.

Christmas Day

Ben was awake at 5 o'clock this morning. We had told him last night that he could only get out of bed once it was light outside as Santa may not have finished bringing presents until then. Unfortunately he sat up in bed, saw his nice full stocking and when I said he had to go back to sleep he informed me that it didn't matter now as Santa had already been!! Honestly sometimes he is just too smart for his own good!!

Still he popped in and out of our bed, back to his own bed, played with his toys and lasted out opening his stocking until Eilidh woke up at about 7 o'clock, mind you we were absolutely shattered by that point!

They managed to get down for breakfast and then opened a few presents before going off to the Christmas service at church. They took presents to show at church, Ben proudly took his knitted snowman and Rudolph and Eilidh took some russian dolls and a bead set. Then home for christmas dinner and more presents. The kids had loads of lovely presents and spent all day opening them in stages! They seemed to love everything and we even managed to squeeze in some time doing some of the puzzles and crafty bits they got as well. All in all a really nice quiet(ish!) day and now I just have to find places to put them all.

Here are some piccies of all the fun and one of Eilidh's new pony(!) which thankfully she loves! And of course Dave didn't want to miss out on all the fun!

We hope you all had a good day too!!

Christmas Eve

Well...presents are all wrapped, all put under the tree and kids are asleep...Hurray!!

We went off to a childrens service at church this afternoon where Eilidh became an angel and Ben rebelled at being a shepherd! To be honest I couldn't hear much of it as it was so noisy but the kids seemed to enjoy it. They are both still a bit snuffly but not as bad so hopefully tomorrow it will have gone completely.

Both of the kids have been an absolute nightmare this week, not sure if it's the overdosing on sweet chocolaty things, the snuffles, being stuck indoors a bit more or the excitement of Christmas but they have been driving us up the wall!!! Still, they will have plenty to play with tomorrow, we have stacks of presents under our tree, so much for the small, low key christmas!!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

Well, the weather was not only cold but HORRIBLE!! We had freezing rain this afternoon which made all the footpaths slippy and the back roads even worse. After going to the library and re-stocking we did last bits of shopping and then got the snuffly kids back home to veg out in front of the fire. I then had to go off to Morrisons and get the food bits I had forgotton yesterday!

Of course, being my usual dappy self I merrily went off down the back roads...bad idea! They were like a skating rink and after crawling along at snails pace, having to stop to let someone through I managed to skid into a grass verge. Fortunately it was only the front wheels that I bashed but unfortunately the car started juddering over 40 mph after that. Well off I went to Quick Fit where a very nice man looked at my wheel, got a tool and scraped off all the mud jammed in the rim and told me to try it out! It worked... fortunately but I did feel like a complete dizzy blond (sorry all blondes out there!) for not realising that a bit of mud could affect the car so badly. Never mind, at least it didn't cost us any money even if I did feel a tad silly!

Great.....three days to christmas and the kids have come down with sore throats and snuffles...typical!!!

Yesterday we went to see our friends in Kendal to drop off presents and things we had borrowed off them throughout the year so the kids spent all afternoon playing with Dennis and Florence (prospective son and daughter-in-law!) Dennis and Eilidh were busy playing super heroes and running around in the park at the back of their house while Ben and Florence were busy tipping cars all over their living room floor! Me and Kate were extrememly busy drinking proper coffee and yakking..hard work! Eilidh had already been complaining of a sore throat but seemed fine but on the way home Ben started as well and both of them are sniffing for Britain now. They got well dosed with parecetamol before bed last nigh and hopefully we will kill it off before Christmas Day.

We have woken up this morning to white frosty fields again, so another cold day.

Yesterday we went to Lancaster to meet up with a crowd who also Home Educate to have lunch and then go onto see a play. We met up in the Whaletail, a vegetarian cafe and had a really yummy lunch and then headed off to the Dukes theatre to see The Twits by Roald Dhal. It was fantastic, just a small play with six people but they had us singing, shouting, putting our shoes over our heads (don't ask!) and Ben and Eilidh loved it. We had read the book to them a while ago and Eilidh seemed to be the only one who could remember the story but it was still brilliant. At the interval all the kids were given a tub of ice-cream and Dave managed to get one too!?

Afterwards we headed into Lancaster to do a little bit of shopping but it was getting really cold and very busy so we ran for the car. We haven't been to Lancaster for about a year and although it has good shops, I realised that I can cope with Kendal but going around Lancaster for any length of time would drive me nuts!! Obviously not a city person.

Today we got up late and ran around trying to get the house sorted as Dave's mum, sister and brother in law were coming (Hi Barbara and Alan!) . Well, we didn't get much done as Wendy (our little helper) popped around with some pressies and cards and as soon as she had gone everyone else turned up. Oh well, people just have to take us as they find us (Usually extremely messy!!) Dave's mum brought even more presents, so much for the small, low-key christmas. I wrapped a load of the kids presents last night and realised just how much stuff they have actually got!! I'm not quite sure where it is going to live but hey ho.

Spent the rest of the afternoon watching telly as our Sky dish has now been sorted so we can get all the Freeview channels. I've got to go food shopping tonight so psyching myself up as Asda's will probably be packed out with christmas panic shoppers!

We wrapped ourselves up this morning and headed up to Penrith to go swimming then onto the Home Ed group there. Frosty mornings don't tend to put me in the mood for swimming but Eilidh was so excited as she wanted to show me her underwater swimming so off we went. Eilidh has really come on in confidence since going a bit more regularly again, she went in with no arm bands , put her goggles on and she was off, collecting things from the bottom of the pool and then actually swimming (with no feet on the floor!!!) underwater. Brilliant!!
Some of the older boys came and played with Ben, putting him on their backs and swimming along amidst screams of laughter. This time I actually got to go for a 'proper' swim while Dave kept an eye on them all. Well, I say swim but I only managed four lengths in the big pool and came out again feeling completely deflated! It wouldn't have been so bad if it hadn't been as busy and I could take it at my own pace but they all seemed to be in a hurry charging up and down the pool so I gave up!!

We went on to the Home Ed get together afterwards where we spent the afternoon chatting while the kids killed each other.

It was a long day for the kids and they were both shattered tonight so hopefully we will have a good nights sleep as well.

We got all dolled up yesterday to go to our friends wedding at our church. It was lovely to see them get married but the kids were bored and fidgety. They had a sit down three course meal, lovely food but we were the last table to be served each course which was really slow by which time Ben was having cabin fever! Fortunately they got some toys out and provided bubbles for the kids but we ended up leaving before the speeches and evening do as we were all worn out!! Never mind.

Today we were meant to be getting up for church but ended up all snuggled up in our bed keeping cosy warm and reading and didn't get up in time!! We decided instead to go out for the day up to Ambleside although we never got there. We spotted our friends were having a house clearance on the way through and popped in there to have a look. They are off to Canada in February and are getting rid of practically everything so had the whole house contents up for sale. We picked up a few books, toys and other bits and had a chat then headed off. By this time it was nearly two so we decided to get some lunch at a pub in Ings which was really lovely and then went back home for the promised tree decorating.

After promising the kids the tree would definately be put up today, Dave suddenly remembered that our ladder (to get into the loft) was at the house he is painting!! Oops! So I ended up having to climb up into his hands, onto his shoulders then onto his head to get into the loft. That was bad enough but it wasn't until I was safely up that I wondered how I was meant to get down!! Still we managed to find all the christmas bits and peices and got them down safely, then it was my turn. After trying to balance on Dave's head we decided I would just have to hang on for dear life and he would catch me..........well, he did thankfully but we ended up rolling around in fits of laughter wondering what people going past in their cars thought we were up to!!!

Anyway Dave supervised the kids decorating the christmas tree (I always get too stressed with it!) and it looks great. They all did a brilliant job and now it feels a bit more christmassy in here.

Yesterday was pretty much the same, kids were busy doing computer work on 'Starfall'. I insisted they did something a bit more educational the CBeebies much to Eilidh's disgust! We also found a great site www.woodland-junior.kent.sch.uk which has an online advent calender which tells you all about christmas traditions in other countries each day. This is actually a school site but it has loads of good stuff on. We learnt all about christmas in Sweden (very strange!) We then got on with making chocolate brownies and snowmen cakes.

I was waiting anxiously for Dave to get home so I could rush out to the shops for late night shopping in Kendal to get an outfit for a wedding on Saturday. What a farce!!! Late night shopping consisted of about five shops being open and none of them clothes shops!! So it was back to good old Asda to find something other than jeans to wear!!

Today it was Art Group with a shared lunch. It was a bit unorganised this week as the kids were all excited and ended up spending most of the time running around rather than doing art. However Ben and Eilidh did manage to do a few pictures with copious amounts of glitter and glue. Then we headed back into Kendal to get me some shoes and to find stocking and cracker fillers and a wedding present. Not like us to leave everything until the last minute!?

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day, cleaning a cottage in the morning, then off to our friends wedding for the rest of the day.

Yesterday Dave went off to get on with his next job, painting window frames at someones rental property. Ben spent most of the day on the colouring and playing on the computer while Eilidh helped me sort out some of the kitchen and then disappeared off to colour as well.

Pretty much the same today, Dave working, me sorting out more of the house and the kids busy 'doing' things all day. They finished colouring in all the 'Numberjacks' (kids programme to teach numbers) so they could make a number banner out of them. Then I had printed off a load of pictures to make a nativity scene which they got busy with. They coloured them in and I had the job of cutting around them and trying to laminate them. Unfortunately the laminator had other ideas and decided to eat one of the sheets which disappeared completely inside the machine. So then we had a lesson in electronics while I attempted to find it!! Needless to say the laminator is now still in bits waiting for daddy to 'fix' it!!! So the nativity will have to wait, the idea is we will laminate all the peices, put some sandpaper on the back and then make a felt board to put them on so the kids can move them around and 'tell' the story.

They also did some christmas mazes we got off the internet (we love the internet!) and some word searches. Both of them LOVE mazes and will sit for ages merrily mazing away. Ben sat on the computer for a while working his way through his Learning Ladder CDRom which is great as it makes learning fun. They seem to go through phases of wanting to do these so I make the most of it when they do!

Our decorations and tree are still not up as the house is still a mess, I have promised that they will definately go up this weekend as Eilidh is getting impatient!

We got back yesterday complete with huge trailor with a huge shed on! Fortunately it all got back in one piece with no problems. Dave and Andrew (nephew) spent all day Saturday taking his dads old shed down in the snow. Poor Andrew was frozen and was very upset that he was missing an online computer game! Still, they did a good job and got it all done. The kids decided they wanted to play in the snow so got togged up and ran around the garden for a while. Ben had enough when Eilidh threw a snowball down the front of his jacket!

On Friday evening we had a get together with most of Dave's family, the kids were so over excited and running around being painful!! It was a good time, and great to catch up with everyone.

Last night we had howling gales here and our house was freezing! Our fire seems to not be heating up enough to kick start our heating BRRRRRR! Hopefully it's just the coal and not the back boiler which is useless!

Eilidh and Dave went out and about today, while Ben kept himself busy playing games on the computer, printing off pictures and doing colouring. It amazes me how much he has learnt without us actually teaching him much!!

I got on with scrubbing the kitchen, no christmas decorations are going up until this house is tidier!!

Sorry, we have been completely hopeless with the blog recently and I've already had complaints about there being no photos!!! Well, the garden we have been working on is finished...Hurrah! It looks fantastic, of course!!

Well we are off to 'little Grandma's' (Dave's mum) this weekend so we shall write more after that and I promise we shall try to have more photos!!

Saturday was another drizzly working day, we had no cottages to clean so it was getting on with the gardening.

After church on Sunday we went for a drive picking up a few bits we had acquired off Freecycle and had lunch in a lovely cafe in Sedbergh.

Today was back on with gardening at Steve's, more flower beds to be covered with wood chippings, weeds to be pulled and coffee to be drunk (!!!) Eilidh, Ben and Jason, (Steve's son) had great fun paddling about playing boats in the beck in the woods, then went off indoors to watch Ice Age (very educational!!?) It was lovely and sunny this morning and then poured for about and hour and half this afternoon. I got home and got into a lovely warm bath to wallow...lovely!