A Great Start To The Year!

I can’t believe it’s February already! What happened to January? Where did it go? It seemed to zoom by, probably because I had so much fun. Where should I begin? Oh yes, at the start of the month I met up with an old friend (Shaun) in Lancaster and we had a fun trip down memory lane. We also had a lovely meal at The Penny Bank pub. I'd never tried it before, but the meal was delicious and reasonably priced, so I’d recommend it if you’re ever in Lancaster.

Shortly after this Judy and Dimitris threw a lovely party to celebrate their first wedding anniversary. When I say ‘a party’, it was actually two parties, one for the kids in the afternoon and one for the adults in the evening. I helped organise both and they were both a lot of fun, but I actually preferred the former to the latter, probably because I love watching my kids having fun.

Most of the kids came dressed in casual gear, as requested on the invitation – there were lots of messy party games and Judy wanted the kids to have fun without worrying about their clothes. My personal favourite was the cream bun eating contest, which I wasn’t allowed to enter! (I don’t know whether this was because I was too old, or because of my professional status!)

Keith and his friend Michael came dressed as scouts, complete with cap, scarf, woggle, shirt, belt and pants! As a prank, Keith wore his uniform and told Michael that it was a scout only party to get him to come in his uniform, then he changed clothes when he got to the party, leaving Michael as the only one dressed as a scout! It was meant to be funny, but only Keith seemed to see the funny side – everyone else just thought that Michael looked smart in his uniform and he wasn’t at all bothered by the ‘joke’. (Unfortunately, Keith gets his sense of humour from his father.) Anyway, it was a great party with lots of fun had by all and a great start to the year!

Christmas!

Well Christmas has come and gone again! I can’t believe how quickly it seems to come and go these days. Like last year, the day started with Sarah waking up Ben and I at the crack of dawn, eager to open her presents. And in no time the whole family was up and gathered in the living room ready to open their presents. 

As usual, the kids all seemed to like their presents. Sarah was particularly excited about receiving a new Barbie doll with lots of new accessories (including a toy car) and a Despicable Me DVD from uncle Jim. We already had it on DVD, but it’s one of Sarah’s favourite films and she wanted to have her own copy of it. Last year she dressed up in a cute woodland fairy dressing up set, but it was a little bit too small for her this year. Instead she persuaded Simon to let her wear the pirate outfit he wore last year, which was much too big for her. But she enjoyed wearing it, so what the heck.

This year Simon wore a combination of his knight dressing up set and a cowboy hat his aunt Judy got him for Christmas. He looked very comical walking around as a cowboy-knight and he gave us all a good laugh. I think that the cowboy hat was one of his favourite presents, but he also seemed thrilled with the Avengers toys we bought him and with a funny pair of elephant slippers bought for him by uncle Jim. If you’ve never seen a cowboy-knight-boy walking around with giant elephant feet you’ve never lived!

As usual, Crissy wanted mainly clothes for Christmas and we bought her a wide selection, mainly from Cachet Kids. She seemed to like all of the clothes but was particularly taken with a beautiful red and black dress with red bow that Ben and I bought her and with a lovely pair of patent leather Mary Jane shoes decorated withleather flowers that her aunt Judy bought her. Crissy wore the dress and shoes all day, and I have to say that the combination worked well together. 

Keith wanted mainly X-Box 360 games again. I don’t know much about the games – Ben is the games buyer of the family. But I think that one was something to do with assassins and one was something to do with modern warfare. Anyway, Keith loved them, so Ben must have made a good selection. Keith didn’t put much effort into dressing up this year – he wore an old Christmas jumper with reindeer on the front and a funny hat that had ‘Bah Humbug!’ written on the front.  

The kids played with their presents until lunchtime, then after lunch we all sat down and watched Elf together (a Christmas tradition). After receiving our annual fix of Will Ferrel, the kids headed straight for the X-Box and Wii and Ben and I headed for the kitchen to prepare Christmas dinner. As usual, it was a lot of work, but well worth it: the whole family seemed to love it. Then after stuffing ourselves silly, pulling a few crackers and playing a few parlour games, the younger kids headed back to the wii and Keith went to a friend’s house, leaving Ben and I to watch a bit of evening Christmas telly.

I do love Christmas, I can’t wait for next year!

Christmas Shopping!

I’m so looking forward to Christmas! Ben and I went Christmas shopping in Preston yesterday and it really put me in a festive mood. Preston is a great place to shop this time of year. There are lots of great shops, with lots of great pre-Christmas bargains and wonderful Christmassy window displays to enhance your shopping experience. And the council always does a great job of decorating the town centre with a fabulous array of lights and other Christmas paraphernalia; they’ve even gone so far as to transform The Flag Market into a winter wonderland, comprising an outdoor ice skating rink surrounded by log cabins serving food and drink. Nice!

Although we’d already bought most of our Christmas presents, there were still a few things left to get. For example, we’d already bought Crissy a couple of Mayoral girl’s skirt and ivory T-shirt outfits (one brown skirt and one purple skirt)  in the Cachet Kids sale and we were looking for some rabbit themed accessories to go with them. After lots of searching we managed to get hold of a cute white fluffy hat with rabbit ears and a few different kinds of socks with rabbit designs on them that I’m sure Crissy will love.

We’d already bought Simon a boy’s purple wizard outfit with hat and we were looking for some wizard themed accessories to go with it. Fortunately, we were able to find a grey false beard, a toy magic wand and a toy black cat that went perfectly with the outfit. I can’t wait to see him all dressed up as a wizard on Christmas day!

And we’d already bought my nephew Ashley a boy’s solider outfit with red beret hat and we were looking for some toy weapons to go with the outfit. In the end we bought him a toy machine gun and some plastic hand grenades, which I'm sure he'll love.

Anyway, I had a great time shopping and will no doubt return to Preston with the whole family before Christmas. We might even give the ice rink a go, who knows!

Halloween Fun!

I absolutely love Halloween! It’s a great excuse for a party! Last year my sister Judy threw a children's fancy dress party, which was a lot of fun and I decided to do this same this year.

Ben and I decorated the house with lots of spooky stuff, like fake cobwebs, creepy crawlies, resin skulls and pumpkin lanterns and the kids all dressed up in cool costumes.

Keith was dressed in some of his father’s clothes (which were much too big for him) and said that he had come dressed as his ‘mini me’!

Crissy was dressed in a witch’s outfit which she and I had made together, which comprised: a long black dress with a jagged hemline, a large black pointed hat, a black haired wig made of wool and a crooked paper mache nose held in place with a piece of elastic. (Actually, it was only held in place for a few minutes before drooping and being discarded.)

Simon was dressed in a wonderful Brave Heart knight’s outfit, which consisted of: black tunic style top with a red plume emblem and gold net chain-mail effect finish, black trousers with gold net chain-mail knee pads, a gold gauntlet and short sword. 

 Sarah was dressed as a fairy-tale princess, wearing a special occasions ivory dress with flowers and sequins, special occasions girl’s white party shoes and a gorgeous faith communion tiara.

Many friends and family turned up to the party and there were lots of great costumes, but my favourite was a cute little dragon costume worn by my nephew Ashley. He looked so adorable running around as a tiny dragon, playing with Simon at dragon / knight slaying!

We played lots of games, like bobbing for apples, pass the parcel and musical chairs, but my favourite was a fun quiz in which we took turns at answering questions and every time you answered a question right you got a treat and every time you answered the question wrong you got a forfeit (like a shaving foam pie in the face or a bucket of ice water over the head). I was the quiz mistress and to make things ‘fair’ (and entertaining) I made sure that the kids all had very easy questions and the adults all had impossibly hard questions. The kids absolutely loved it! And I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so much in my life! 

Welcome Guests!

Just had a great weekend! As promised, my old school friend Sally brought her gorgeous daughter Jessica over for a visit and I persuaded them to stay for a few days.

I showed them around the town and we went to Morecambe for a day trip, which was fun. The weather wasn’t great but it was still fun walking on the beach collecting shells and having lunch on the seafront. I don’t know about you, but I think fish and chips from the seaside taste much better than ordinary fish and chips, particularly when you eat them on the seafront looking out over the sea.

By the way, if you’re ever in Morecambe don’t forget to check out the wonderful bronze statue of Eric Morecambe on the promenade. I was there when it was unveiled by the Queen in 1999 and I always pay it a visit when I visit the town.

The kids absolutely adore Jessica – she’s so cute and funny. In fact, she and Sarah got along so well that the two were virtually inseparable for the whole visit. They’re about the same age, they have a similar sense of humour and like the same things (clothes and Peppa Pig, mainly) so it’s not so surprising that they should enjoy each other’s company.  

Sarah even let Jessica try on some of her best clothes. Jessica said that her favourites were:  a red polka dots girl’s summer dress with blue bows, a Sarah Louise white and navy summer dress and a Sarah Louise Ivory dress with lilac frills and flowers. I thought that Jessica looked adorable in these, but my personal favourite was an ivory dress with cerise bow that I bought Sarah recently.

Alas, the visit came to an end last night when my lovely house guests had to return home. I was sad to see them leave, but hopefully it won’t be too long before I get to see them again.

Visiting An Old Friend

Well, I’ve just had a great day visiting Sally, an old school friend in Skipton. If you’ve never been to Skipton I strongly recommend a visit. It’s an attractive market town nestled in some fantastic countryside close to the Yorkshire Dales. It has a lovely shopping centre with some great shops, a picturesque castle, an attractive canal that runs through the town and some of the nicest people you’re ever likely to meet.   

Sally and I go way back to infant school. In fact, I’ll never forget the first time we met - on the first day she came up to me and said: ‘You can’t hit me, my dad’s a policeman!’, so I hit her … and the friendship (somehow) developed from there. Those were the days!

Anyway, Sally’s daughter, Jessica was having her First Holy Communion and I just had to be there. Unfortunately, Ben had some work to do, so he stayed at home looking after the kids. (Fortunately everything was still in one piece when I got home!)

I arrived early in the morning to help Sally with the preparations and to catch up on some gossip and the ceremony was held in the afternoon. The ceremony was beautiful and Jessica looked adorable in her Communion outfit, which I helped pick out. She wore a Molly Communion dress with satin and organza lace trimmed skirt, some white Communion gloves with three pearls and three flowers, some Communion shoes with ray of diamante decoration and a narrow diamante Communion headband. She's such a lovely girl and the spitting image of her mother at the same age. 

After the ceremony most of the guests headed back to Sally’s house for a reception and it was amazing how many of our old school friends turned up. Sally was very popular at school and she’s always been great at keeping in touch with her friends.

I had a great time and Sally's promised to bring Jessica over to Garstang for a visit in a few weeks, so hopefully I’ll get to see them again soon. 

Clitheroe Food Festival

We had a great day out yesterday – we went for a drive in the hills and ended up in the beautiful market town of Clitheroe, which was having a food festival. I was told by some locals that it’s the biggest food festival in Lancashire and I can well believe it – I’ve never seen so many food stalls in one place before, showcasing so much wonderful food! 

Keith had the great idea of buying one of everything that took our fancy and having a little each so that we could sample a broad range of things. And I have to say that everything we tried was lovely! Ben’s favourite was some delicious creamy, crumbly Lancashire cheese produced by Leagrams Organic Cheeses – a small dairy located in Chipping, a picturesque village nestled in the hills between Garstang and Clitheroe. Keith’s favourite was a scrumptiously irresistible chocolate tart from Posh Tarts, based in Lytham. Crissy’s favourite was a mouth-watering chocolate cake from Apricot Meringue - a wonderful little coffee shop in Clitheroe that we like to visit when we're in town. Simon and Sarah’s favourite was some absolutely gorgeous Mrs Dowson’s Ice Cream produced locally in the Ribble Valley. And my favourite was some scrummy chocolate from Choc Amor located in Botany Bay, Lancashire. After stocking up on our favourites we had a walk around the beautiful castle at the top of the town and then we went down to the river for a picnic. 

On the way home we stopped by my friend Nikki’s house and dropped off a birthday present for her youngest, Jessica. Ben and I bought her a lovely hand smocked blue stripes summer dress from Cachet Kids (my favourite online children’s clothes retailer). I know that Jessica loves the colour blue and I thought that it would go well with the blue T-bar shoes in matt leather and knee high pom pom socksin baby blue that her mother bought her recently.