Winner Winner

I am so sorry that it has been some time since my last post, things just got kind of crazy. However we are now finished with school for the summer and now let the fun begin.

I used one of those random number generator sites and the winner of my giveaway is

Marit

So if you can email me your address using my email address on the top right of the blog I will get your parcel sent off soon.

I appreciated all of your comments and apologise for not replying to them but it has been very busy here recently. Hopefully now we are in the holidays things will calm down and this means we have much more time for the fun stuff.

4th July and a giveaway.

Happy 4th July to my American friends.

Why is it that in England, we celebrate nothing. I mean St Georges day passes without anyone noticing, Remembrance Sunday is of course remembered by some, to name but a few. I can remember as a child having street parties for things and certainly during my Grandmother and mothers time people would remember and celebrate event. But in modern day England "Certainly not" unless it is Christmas when people rush out to buy all sorts of crap and junk to get themselves into debt over. Halloween is kind of celebrated but only by children out alone in the dark wearing garish masks knocking on peoples doors for money and not sweets. Most of these children are teenagers who have gone into the nearest shop and bought a £1 mask. (sigh!!).

We have no national days, no special celebrations, remembrances or partys..

WHY ????

Because we are British ... (bleurgh)

OK so I am not feeling all too patriotic today, perhaps I should go out and buy a Union Jack to display, oh but there are rules about those too. grrrrrr..

Ok so as I have American relatives, who granted I have not seen in years (but my Mum keeps in touch with)... am I aloud to celebrate things like Thanksgiving and some of your other fun stuff. Can I be made an Honourany (is that spelt right???) American for the sake of my children who will grow up not having fab celebrations apart from their birthday and christmas ( yes I am probably one of those who dashes around getting stressed buying crap ;> ..... )

Now my English friends if you can prove me wrong then please do so and tell me what we celebrate over here.. Is it just that living way up north we are not civilised enough to know about these things, is there a whole party scene going on that we dont know about and the county dont tell the rough and ready Northerners for fear of invasion.. OK so I am kidding please dont send me emails!!!

BUT please do tell me what as English people we celebrate for our country. Please leave your ideas, links or suggestions in the comments and I will enter all of your names into a hat for a fab giveaway. I am happy to post overseas, please leave your ideas.

The children and I have been enjoying afew days away. It was truly wonderful and we cant wait to go again. I have wanted to take them for ages, I have been before but didnt have children at the time and I think it is so different when you have your own children with you. Magical.

We are looking forward to the summer holidays, only two weeks to go. Although I have nthing planned at the moment I have lots of ideas of places to take the children and things that we can do at home. I have been searching the web, blogs and the huge amount of activity books I have collected over the years to come up with some cool things to do. My daughter is now ten and I wonder how much longer she will want to do things with me, I know it wont be long before she would rather be out with her friends doing their own thing and Mummy will be the taxi or the personal bank supply. LOL....
I have decorating that I need to do also, My daughters room needs to be done an the front room also needs to be tidied up. Then there is the BIG DE CLUTTER I have planned (shudder) we have lots of old toys and books that have been dearly loved but surely it must be time for them to be passed on to someone and then there is the forest (garden) that my house sits on. It has become so overgrown recently due to lack of time to do anything with it that the dog and children could get lost in the long grass.

I hope that there will be lots happening that are worth blogging about and not just the usual day in day out stuff.

Take Care.

I dont do mornings.

Urgh at 6.30 this mornng I heard the pitter patter of tiny feet coming through the bedroom door.... WHY is it I cant get this little man out of bed during the week when we have to go to school/work ? But as soon as the weekend comes he is up at the crack of dawn. Mamma is tired and doesnt want to get up so early so she sends him back to bed and peace continues in the house for all of 20 seconds. Can you imagine how LOUD a toy aircraft carrier can be at 6.30 in the morning ( you need to imagine the noise of planes landing and taking off and those noises that ships make, honestly why do they make toys so bloomin loud) so cue : cranky Mummy, Daddy goes off to work and we get out of bed....

I have to stay in all day today waiting for some mail that will be delivered between 9.00 and 5.00 , the sun is shining but stay in we must. I cant go out to the garden as I cant hear the door and I NEED this package today. I dont think that the house has recovered since the children came last week for my sons birthday so there is plenty to be done but I just dont want to do it. Ha.

We are looking at changing things around here a little.
We moved here 6 years ago and at the time I thought that this house was huge compared to our last home but the walls are fit to burst with stuff and it feels oh so small now. They say that the bigger the house the more stuff you fill it with, boy this is so true. In our last kitchen I had a set of drawers, cooker and one double floor unit on one side with the fridge, above this was one double wall unit. On the other side I had the washing machine and a double floor unit with the sink in it. The kitchen was tiny tiny and you could only fit one person inside, if you opened one of the cupboards the door nearly touched the cupboard opposite. Now my kitchen is huge in comparison with lots and lots of storage but the cupboards are fit to burst, I try to sort them out but find that the stuff inside is stuff I want to keep.
The childrens rooms are another story, they are jam packed with stuff and it was only afew weeks ago that I had a huge clear out and took a boot full (volvo estate, so you can imagine how much ) of stuff to the charity shop and yet I feel that there is still so much. I also know that if I were to risk life and limb and climb into the loft that there are piles and piles of stuff up there too.
I am off to get some work done and kick the kids off the TV.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Sarah x

Camping

During the half term holidays we took a family camping trip. I love camping, there is nothing like sleeping under canvas for the night. I dont mind the bugs and creepy crawlies ( unlike me at home), I dont mind the coolness of sleeping under the stars, I am a happy camper as long as I can go and get a nice hot shower to scrub up at the end of the day. This was our base for the week, not the best picture but hey ho !!
Beautiful walks along beautiful beaches. This is what we practically woke up to every day. The beach was right next to the camp site.

Looking the other way. I went walking here on a morning and found it the most wonderful way to start the day. It was so warm when we were away, we were just so lucky. It rained once during the night but as the tents were pitched on sand under the grass it drained and dried up real quick.

Pretty sky's at night.

Happy Puppies.

Happy children going for pony rides along the beach. Well you just HAVE to ride on the beach. The camp site had a riding school and it just so happened that Little Miss packed her riding gear and twisted Daddy around her finger to pay for two lessons (not to mention the lessons she has weekly at home, alas but what are Daddy's for?)

Goodness she is nearly as tall as me, how did that happen?

Oh and yes please take note Mum and Dad, I am actually walking along the beach WITHOUT SHOES.. ha ha ha

I dont think that my poor Dads back has ever recovered from having to carry me onto the wet sand when we went to the beach as kids. I absolutely 100% cant bear the feeling of the sand on my feet. I am no different now but Andrew refuses to carry me anymore, I mean comeon I just dont understand why!!

Well that sums up our little camping trip. I have a busy few weeks ahead of me but there will be lots of fun also. I just cant wait t show you the pictures.

What are you all up to?

Sarah x

Happy Birthday Little Fella

Yesterday was my not so little boys 8th birthday, I cant believe that he is eight already. Where did the time go? We had a house full of little boys on Saturday, running around and keeping me on my toes.
We bought him the "bestest" present ever. Click here to have a look as the batteries have run out on my camera after taking lots of pictures at the park today. I am exhausted and worn out after a long weekend, so will be back later in the week.

Sarah x

Rose Swap

I was lucky to join in with Melanie's Rose Swap recently and was paired up with Vanessa. I was blown over with the kindness Vanessa has shown me when I opened her gifts. Just take a look at what she has sent me

This is a beautiful rose box, the kind that you may put photos or cd's in (although this is destined for greater things, not sure what yet though)


The flash is not working on my camera so the pictures look very dark but here are the goodies inside the box.

A pretty rose jug, rose flavoures chocolate (yummy) rose tissues, rose drawer scent bag, rose ornament, rose petals for the bath, rose soap AND.......

The prettiest necklace that I have worn every day since. It is so me...

Girlie and pink.. after all folks a girl can never have too much pink or lip gloss (that is what all the girls in my family get told from their dear old Aunty..lol)

Thank you to Vanessa for her kindness and it you follow the links above to her blog you will get to see much better pictures of the things she has sent for me and you also get to look at more of her stunning pictures.

I have enjoyed taking part in this swap and thought that perhaps we could organise another one maybe a "Pretty in Pink" swap..let me know what you all think.