Deer Walk

So I think it's pretty clear from this post here and here that I love Skipwith Common. This morning I went there at 7:30am (- yep am)  to go on a guided deer walk. Nic and Imogen came with me, which was really nice. There was no guarantee that we would see some, but the group got lucky and we caught view of a herd of about 30, including 3 stags - squint  and you can just see the white of them in the distance . OK we were quite a way from them but people shared their binoculars and we got a good sight.

Here are some of the better ones that I managed to get on our compact -

I love this one of the deer and flock of birds.

One the way back the sun came out and the Skipwith colours sprung into all their glory.

To top it off as we were leaving, I spotted a rainbow

A really great way to start off the day. There is something special about catching a glance of animals wild and free.

The way we roll

Sometimes before bed we have a dance session, loud music and crazy moves :) 

This is actually a photo of Ben with Herbie not just a trolley - Herbie. He loves him and drags him everywhere at the the moment :)

Joseph turned photographer and I had to dance so he could take a photo.

Valentine's making

I had great fun making these salt dough decorations for Valentine's day, they really got the creative juices flowing again. I got the inspiration from here and here

Grandma gave me her collection of stamps before Christmas which I used them on some to make the patterned effect and my small alphabet stamps for the words.

My first batch ended up in the bin :( as they rose in the oven and cracked. The second batch I made thinner and baked on a lower heat for longer. I then spray painted and varnished them adding, lace from may favourite Haberdashery shop - Stefan's :) 

The card I made for Nathan .. can't beat a bit of Barry on Valentine's day 'Oh baby!'

I paired the decorations with some simple cards for secret valentines.

Don't eat Pete - OK

On Monday night during FHE a few things are becoming traditional : we sing popcorn popping, we do ring a ring a roses, we try to do a lesson, the boys are restless during the lesson - we keep trying  :) and Daddy brings sweets. This past Monday, Nathan was later home than usual so tea was late and hence FHE was late. It was almost 8 o'clock and yet we still proceeded with the game which followed a lesson on missionaries. The boys loved to look at the photos of Nathan as a missionary. 

Anyway, Nathan introduced the boys to 'Don't eat Pete' a favourite FHE game he used to play. The premis being that you put down a number of sweets on a grid (this time there were 16), one is secretly chosen to be called Pete. the person on tries to eat as many sweets without eating Pete and when they are about to eat Pete everyone else shouts DON'T EAT PETE. Their go is over and someone else gets a turn. Joseph went first and did very well, he got about 11 sweets, he ate about 4 and then without prompt put the rest back on the grid when his turn was over.

 

Ben's tactic was pick a sweet eat it, pick another sweet eat it..

 pick another sweet eat it..

 and so on and literally and so on and so on and so on..

and what would you know he managed to completely dodge Pete and ate all 15 other sweets lol!

 Nathan and I couldn't quite believe it how well he was doing and just let it roll :) Not sure how many 'good parenting' points we get for allowing our 2 year old to eat sweets at 8 o' clock but hey :)

Note - if you are wondering about the monstrosity in front of the fireplace (see photo 1) - that was my impulse buy last Monday night - a little Tykes Kitchen for £15 - I know bargain :) the boys loved it for FHE last week,  but we have absolutely no where to put it ( I obviously knew that before but went ahead anyway - duh)so presently it resides in Tom and Sharne's garage whilst I find someone else who wants it. Must learn to walk past things which are bargains that a) we do not have space for  b) don't need and c) don't actually really want.

 

Snow Much Fun :)

Snow arrived in our neck of the woods on Saturday afternoon :)

The boys were really excited and Ben finally complied and put on his Bear hat without any resistance  - this called for a photo!

It's snow much fun to play when it's snowing! 

On Sunday when it had all settled, Daddy and the boys went out to  have snowball fights..

..build snow castles..

..play snow football..

(not entirely sure why Joseph needed to pull his trousers down?!)

.find the deepest snow to walk in..

.. go shopping?!..

.. and build a snowman which as you can see didn't turn out quite like they'd planned. Apparently the snow was too powdery and so would clumped together in order to make a traditional snowman so instead they made a snow face - Joseph was very pleased - small and simple things hey?!

The Saturday after the boys went round to Grays for some more snow fun which included...

...making a larger though by no means large snowman :)

January Making

Finally got round to finishing off the Tokohu tote (for tutorial and pattern click here )I had intended to make for Gemma's birthday (24th December) which I actually finished and gave her on the 27th of January.

I love the grey wool fabric of this one and was tempted to keep it myself :)

Joseph made this dragon at school as part of  their Chinese New Year theme for the week.

Mrs Rodgers was really pleased with him as he spent about 20 minutes colouring this in (it really is quite  a rarity for him to get so involved in art work). I love how intently he has coloured in the head and has blue flames coming out of its mouth - very proud mummy :)

Handa's surprise

Last week for the first time ever, I bought avocados to make my own guacamole - it turned out pretty well (trying different recipes and having less food waste is one of my goals for the year, hence why we currently find that our fridge homes a fennel and beetroot of the unpickled kind)

Before the avocados went for the chop/mush, Joseph recognised what they were and said 

'Let's play Handa's surprise' He loves the book and everytime we say over at Granne's that is the book he asks her to read him before bed. Even if I'm staying over with them, Granne insists that she reads it to him as it's one of 'their things' :) 

So we gather all the fruit we could, which actually was quite a bit and reenacted the story. He carried the fruit in a basket, I pretended to be all the different animals and stole the fruit then  poured in lots the tangerines at the end. He loved it, I loved it and we did it again and again :)