Fun at the beach

As some of you know, we are living at my parents' house while our house is being extended. But before we settled in we spent some of the week with relatives near Woolacombe North Devon. Yay! Sun, Sand, Sea...okay its February so we had sand and sea but the sun made no appearance whatsoever. The rain on the other hand was very pleased to see us and stuck around to enjoy our company...like alot.

We don't let a little thing like bad weather stop us though. We had a great time...

The photo below was taken just minutes after we arrived on the beach and seconds before Isaac fell over head first into the water. He was completely soaked! No worries people, mummy extraordinaire (that's me obviously) had a second change of clothes (just forgot the towel).

 See he's fine.

And from then on Daddy promised to be more alert to possible falling/wet situations.

 I think he was distracted eyeing up birds on the beach!

Although I can't talk since I was easily distracted from my hole digging duties...

Actually the hole digging got quite competitive...

Isaac however decided he'd rather branch out and start his own hole digging company. Yeah good luck with that puny little spade!

*sigh* fun at the beach

The builders are here!

 Here is our little house people! 

 It's a 2 bedroom house and the second bedroom is tiny. This didn't seem like an issue when we bought it pre children. Now with a 3 year old and a one year old it is feeling a 'tad' squished to say the least. So we are finally having to some work done. Yay! See the little side extension on the right? That's our kitchen and above  it a new bedroom is going to be built! As well as some other things that we've wanted to change for ages. The builders arrived this week and the work has progressed fast. In fact this weekend me and the kiddies are going to be moving in with my parents for the rest of the work (God help them). It could take which could 6 to 8 weeks. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't giddy with excitement...

Goodbye disgusting fireplace!

Goodbye disgusting kitchen walls...

 Goodbye disgusting light and ceiling...

Hello Patio doors here...

Hello new bedrooms, new plaster on walls, bigger living room, new decor, no more leaking bathroom...etc etc *faints from too much excitment*

You wanna see what going on? 

Look how much they have done already this week!

And the boys have been so excited by all this activity...

'Whoa what's this in our garden?'

They absolutely flipped out when the skip and the mixer arrived...

Obviously the tool kit came right out...

 As did the toy diggers...

 And then the real building work started...

I'll keep you updated and obviously show you what it looks like when its finished!

Valentines Tradition

We do Valentines a little differently and I'd like to share it with you. 

We do give cards but never gifts, flowers or chocolates. We certainly don't go out for a fancy meal. What we do instead of all these things is have a very specific meal at home which in my opinion is way better. This meal is our gift to each other. 

Why? As some of you may know me and Tim met in America even though we are both English.  While we were there, a good friend of ours invited us to stay at his house. He took us to a supermarket where we each picked out a lobster from a tank to take home alive! (something you wouldn't normally get to do in England.) I kept kept peeking at my little fella in the car all the way home, wondering how I felt about the fact we were going to boil him very soon. While the boys teased me that I would hear him scream when we put him in the water. Turns out I felt okay about it! Especially when he turn pink and delicious. And delicious he was! He was my first ever Lobster and certainly wouldn't be the last from that day onwards. We also bought 3 massive steaks obviously.  So for our meal we ate (with melted butter) a whole steak and a whole lobster. Anyway

to remember this meal and the fun we had, this is what we do on Valentines day...

I decorate the table to set the mood...

We upgraded the beer to a glass of champagne...

As Tim is an amazing cook the meal is a little fancier than that first time. The starter varies each year and this time it was poached egg on a bed of Asparagus. Mouths watering yet anyone...?

And here is Larry the Lobster and the large pot in which he would meet his end... (we share a lobster these days as Lobsters in England are well expensive) I think Larry suspects today is not his lucky day...

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Here is Larry looking so tasty with some massive prawns to keep him company. I'm surprised I managed to hold back enough to take the photo. We also have a steak each, sweet corn and homemade chips...Yummy

Oops I almost forgot to take the picture of the dessert because I already started eating it (as you can see). I actually made this chocolate moose myself. It is full of double cream and lots of naughty but lovely dark chocolate.

So there you have it. Afterwards we can barely move but I love how we've created this tradition to remember when we first met over 10 years ago...

What did you love to do as a child?

So recently I bought a bike in an effort to get more exercise. I'm pleased to say I've done 'quite' well exercise wise and the bike is certainly the reason. I hadn't ridden a bike for over 10 years! So I was a tad wobbly at first thinking 'Oh god have I forgotten how to ride?' But apparently you never forget and as soon as I got going I remembered how much I used to love it! What I didn't remember however is the sore bottom afterwards. Yikes!

Well this weekend the sun hinted that spring is on its way. So out I rushed with camera! and my bike obviously (I would have looked pretty silly if I'd forgotten the bike). And it was a lovely ride. I think it had to do with the sun shining, the breeze flowing through my hair and the smug feeling that comes from doing something active early on a Saturday morning (when you would usually be nursing your first cup of tea and watching the TV). So here you go...

This particular bike route has loads of horses in the fields along the track. Now I have a shaky history with horses which is a long harrowing story that I shall save for another day. So I usually admire them for afar. I think this particular horse had heard of my checkered past...

 Although this dude came right over and give me a chance. I even braved a little stroke of his nose. Aw....

 He even started to strike a pose! Although its possible he just had a itchy hoof...

 
Great bike ride and I got to take photos as well! You know I've always been a little Jealous of how much my hubby loves playing rugby. He trains twice a week and plays a match on Saturday. Its not too difficult for him to be motivated because he does it for fun. I've often complained that I don't have a thing like that that I do for fun rather than trying to loose weight. Therefore I ALWAYS give up after a couple of weeks.

So I thought about it... what did I enjoy as a child? Well I loved to imagine, to play with friends, draw and wait!...I realise that riding a bike was one of my most favourite things to do! And I did it everyday if I could. I would ride up see my best friend who lived up the street. She would hop on her bike and off we went. Often just up and down our street chatting along the way but for hours and hours. We weren't thinking 'oh this is so good for our health and our legs will be so trim!' We were just having fun. *light bulb moment!* So I think that's what I'll be doing from now on rather than doing things I hate *that's right Gym membership I'm looking at you!*.

What did you love to do as a child?