Sunday Summary 2

Yesterday (Sunday), we headed up to Steve's parents to spend a few days away from home. They're still in France so it means we have the run of the whole house! 

To start, we headed to Chillingham Castle, apparently the most haunted castle in England (but no, we didn't witness any paranormal activity)!

It was quite interesting reading a recent post by Janine at A Handful of Peanuts, talking about not taking time to enjoy the moment; I'd bought a special offer on Groupon to get half price entry to the castle but when we arrived, they drew my attention to the small print: the offer wasn't valid on that day. We ended up having to pay full price and my excitement of a bargainous family day out was pooped on from a great height. Annoyed is an understatement! Then I stopped. I saw Steve and Ben running round the castle grounds enjoying the sunshine, I looked down at smiley happy Finlay strapped to my chest, I looked at the stunning sunshine that drenched the picturesque castle grounds we were sat in. I was missing the moment entirely. 

Sometimes you need to make sure these beautiful moments aren't lost to sweating the small stuff, that really, when you look back, never really mattered anyway.

Hope you all had a lovely weekend folks.xxx

Sunday Summary 1

On Saturday the weather was glorious, it was frustrating that we spent most of the day having to run yawnsome errands rather than making the most of the beautiful sunshine. However, in the evening we were off to the evening wedding party of friends Clara and Jamie, taking place on a gorgeous farm in the Northumberland countryside.

The whole thing was pretty spectacular, the most amazing part (and saying a lot about how much these two are loved) is that nearly everything was given or made for them, from the real ales, to the HUGE vegetarian banquet to the even huger marque that the dancing took place in- all made just for their special day. 

We did have our 'smart' shoes with us, but after we spotted the bride had swapped her sandals for white trainers, we took our cue from her and grabbed our wellies from the car.

Excuse the lack of decent photos, a certain 13 week old baby decided he didn't want to miss a single second and was pretty much wide awake the whole evening!

{Just after the bouquet thrown... and caught by the 87 year old grandma!}

{Ben and the beautiful bride}

{Ben and the boys}

{Fading light}

{The baby that would not sleep}

{Ben and Alex}

Congratulations guys and enjoy the honeymoon (which they are spending in a lighthouse- how romantic!)xxx

Sunday Summary 2

Once a year, Newcastle comes alive at night (or rather, more so than usual)for The Late Shows. The concept is pretty cool: numerous venues that are normally closed to the public or, at least closed at night, open their doors to everyone. Everyone who attends gets a funky glow stick so people wander round the city illuminated, as though we're all part of some secret society.The best bit? It's all pretty much free of charge. 

In the past, I've attended with friends and was usually accompanied by a cheeky bottle of sloe gin in my bag for top-ups when walking round the venues. This year, we had the boys with us and it added a new, more placid vibe to the night. We began with dinner at a local Lebanese restaurant Albaik.

{Falafel is probably one of my fav foods of all time}

{Amusing how in every photo Finn is eye-balling the food}

We managed to fit in a visit to a pottery, a print works and Seven Stories (the national centre for children's books aka heaven for two English teachers) where they had exhibitions on Enid Blyton and 'How to Train a Dragon'.

{In the story telling chair with my boys}

{Ben trying his hand at being a Viking}

{The Gruffalo and his little friend}

{Handsome boy}

{Funky graffiti}

{Runaway horses above a doorway}

{Ben tries his hand at operating the printing press}

Another lovely weekend, and the best part? Next week it's half-term so Steve and Ben are off for a whole week!

Sunday Summary 1

The North East Children's Cancer Run has been a bit of a family tradition, both for Steve's family, my own and, well, probably most families in Newcastle! 

The aim of the day is to raise as much money as possible for running five miles around the course (or a mile round the children's course). This was the first year that Ben was able to do the full course and, motivated by the free picnic all runners receive at the end, they ignored the mud and came in at a respectable time of one hour three minutes.

{Well done boys, you make me and little Finlay proud} 

Extra special thanks to my parents who sat and kept me and Finn company while the boys ran.

We had a busy weekend so part two will have to wait until tomorrow, until then...Rx

Sunday Summary (Life lately)

This isn't strictly restricted to Sunday but hey ho! Here's a summary of our half term escapades:

{A rare date night at a local Lebanese restaurant} 

{Tree climbing}

{Horse riding- how cute are the little ear muffs to keep the flies out? NB- Ben didn't have a helmet on as it was only a short guided walk}}

{A terrifying friendly scarecrow}

{And to think he's the father of my children!}

{On the farm}

Photos taken from both the Lakes and at home. Seriously don't know how the time crept away from us!

Hope you're all enjoyed the holidays if you were lucky enough to have half-term off.xxx

Sunday Summary

Should I just rename this the Monday Summary ,given that's it's nearly always late anyway?

This weekend I've been taking it easy as I'm still not back at work and this pregnancy is proving to be more of a challenge than when I was expecting Ben (nb- I'm not complaining here, I know we're very blessed to be expecting).

Sooooo........

Friday was craft night with the mums from Ben's school (I'll post on this later)

Saturday was Ben's break dancing class and then my lovely friend Emmie gave me a lesson on how to use a sewing machine (I hadn't touched one since school). The evening was spent on the sofa vegging out!

Sunday we went for a walk on the beach...

{My boys}

{Ben and Granny Smith}

{Yummy- I went for a tub of pistashio and hazelnut praline, Ben has bubblegum, Mum had ginger and banana and Steve had... none- he's being 'good'}

{Picnic time}

Finally got round to sorting some more holiday snaps so the next post will be on the stunning city of Paris.

Hope you all had a super duper weekend.xxx

Sunday Summary

Yes, I know... it's Tuesday! Unfortunately I've not been feeling the best (see below if you're interested in pregnancy related stuff- if not I won't bore you with it!) Never mind, here's a belated snapshot of the weekend anyway...

Steve was away this weekend so I was both mammy and daddy (hence I felt justified in using his mug)! Let's get this straight, I am not a woman who pines and mourns when away from my other half (not that there's anything wrong with that), I actively look forward to it! The bed to myself, time with Ben all to myself- I love it! I know some people have to be away from loved ones for long periods and that must be tough but when it's a rarity (as it is for Steve and I), it's divine! 

The vegetable basket is looking remarkably autumnal at the moment. I'm eager to get started on some soup making and cosy down for some hibernating in this cold weather (it's raining so much we have flooding here).

I'm a bit cheeky popping this in as part of the weekend summary but I have to mention that we went to see 'Oliver!' at the Theatre Royal on Tuesday with some of Ben's friends from school. A fab time was had by all although sadly we were sat in front of some people who have a lot to learn about theatre etiquette- I think our well behaved seven year olds could have taught them a thing or two...Grrrrrrr.

We popped into Newcastle for Ben's break dancing class at the weekend and my mum couldn't help treating us to this towel from Marks and Spencer and these cute trousers and baby gro (I love the knee patches) from the Next sale. At the moment we still don't know the sex of the baby (and we can't decide if we want to find out; we didn't with Ben) so we're buying all unisex at the moment.

And finally (excuse poor quality of photo- it was taken in the dark), this is Gizzy making himself comfy on a cushion that had fallen on the floor! This was Sunday night when we were all curled up with candles and the heating on! 

Hope you all had a lovely weekend.xxx

PS (pregnancy related)- I'm actually off work at the moment suffering from sciatica (a trapped nerve). It started playing up on Sunday night and then had me awake from the stupidly very early hours of Monday morning. Being pregnant, there's little the doctor can do; she advised hot water bottles and gentle exercise. Seems a little better today so hopefully it'll just be a short term thing.

Sunday Summary

Saturday
On Saturday we headed into Newcastle as Ben had his break dancing class at Dance City; it's a bit of a win/ win situation as Ben loves the class and Steve and I get to relax and have some time to ourselves in the coffee shop.

We were really hungry by lunch time so stopped for a tasty slice of pizza at a sweet little place we've been to a few times in the Grainger Market.

You think we'd have had our fill after that, but no! We then headed to a bakery in China Town (on Stowell Street) to try the some Chinese pastries, I opted for milk and peanut butter, Steve for beef and Ben for pork- we were all very impressed and it cam to under £2 for the three of us, crazy! I think it could become a Saturday ritual. 

In the evening I popped over to see my parents for a cuppa while Ben had a friend from school over, his dad is a friend of Steve's too so they had a couple of drinks and caught up. 

I slipped off to bed at eleven which is actually a late night for me these days!

Sunday

Despite the weather being against us, we headed off early to Cherryburn in Stocksfield. Defying the drizzle, we still had a lovely time...

• Finger and print painting:

• Saying hello to the alpacas (Steve is a bit obsessed with them):

• Exploring Thomas Bewick's (artist) childhood home:

• Building dens:

• And finally, trying really hard NOT to share our picnic with the chickens!

And now, as much as I'm trying to deny that the weekend is nearly over, I'm starting to realise that the pile of washing and marking aren't going to do themselves so sadly it's time to stick my work head on- booooooo! 

It's hard not just counting the weeks until maternity leave, when every day will be like Saturday. Bring. it. on.xxx

Sunday Summary

What a lovely weekend, helped out by a large dose of the most GORGEOUS weather! A few highlights of the weekend were:


Wine tasting and dinner at Hotel du Vin:

I had a lovely evening on Saturday with my friend Kirsten. We found out all about different wines but my favourite part was the tasting! There wasn't a chance on this earth I was going to spit it out afterwards.

Crazy Golf:

This was a hilarious way to spend a Saturday afternoon and the weather was so gorgeous it felt as though we were somewhere far more exotic than Newcastle! We didn't bother with score cards but it would be fair to say Kirsten and I were worse than Ben and Eve and that there was a fair amount of cheating went on!

Sunday picnic in the park:

Steve was nursing a hangover after being out at our friend Karl's stag do but still made out of bed to enjoy the glorious sunshine with a picnic in Saltwell Park. 

There were other lovely parts of the weekend such as: spending Friday night with my lovely friend Gemma, grabbing a cheeky drink at The Cluny in the sun, a visit from my parents, we visited Ben's great grandma and (phew) I did a little project in the garden! It's amazing how much you can fit in when the sunshine provides you with glorious long days. Long may it last-although sadly the weather forecast is predicting clouds for tomorrow.

Hope you all had a chilled weekend and managed to enjoy some sunshine.xxx