Trick or Treat!!

Our Halloween spread over 2 nights this year as actual Halloween (tonight, the 31st) is a school night! Last night we visited Charlie and Courtney's grandparents Trick or Treating and saw Aunty Karin, Maddie and Dan too at my parents in laws. Tonight we've been to see our next door neighbour and the decorated house around the corner that we went to last year too. They decorate it for charity and are always very welcoming! This year they were serving soup and a roll! Charlie has really enjoyed it all but Courtney was a little too scared to join in fully, OK, being honest she was TERRIFIED, LOL!!!!

Too cute to spook!
with Nanna (my Mum)


with Nanna & Grandad (Mark's parents)
with Aunty Karin, Maddie & Dan
My mother in law, Sylvia, makes the best cakes! She was telling me last night that she uses the same recipe that she's used since her boys were little and it was a recipe she found in an Army married quarters recipe book!
Hughie!!
Sylvia!!
Tonight



The skeleton pirate and his ship!!

A Perfect Aunumnal Day! (Williamson Park and a bike ride!)

It was glorious sunshine yesterday, although a little nippy with it! We'd arranged to meet up with our friends yesterday morning at Williamson's Park in Lancaster. We all had a lovely morning and I suggested we get a group photo of our Children again as they've all grown and we now have Courtney! Getting 9 children to look at the camera at the same time was fun! Jude, Terrina, Deborah and myself were all calling them from behind the camera, LOL! I think the result was pretty good though!
A couple of other pics from the morning........


I'd arranged with my Father in Law, Hughie, to go for a bike ride in the afternoon with Charlie and Courtney in the trailer. We met up at the Midland Hotel and continued along the promenade to Broadway then made our way to the cycle path. Charlie and Courtney were wrapped up well!!

We cycled to the Crook O' Lune, one of Hughie and my favourite rides. It's very beautiful there, when we arrived Hughie took this photo.....

We made our way over the bridge and down to the Crook......

There were quite a number of ducks quacking away as we arrived, Courtney thought that was highly amusing! Hughie took Charlie and Courtney down to the waters edge and they had a little play throwing stones into the water. A lady then arrived to feed the ducks and kindly offered to share.

We cycled back to my parents in law's house and after around 23 miles cycling (pulling 4 stones in the trailer) I'd had enough, LOL! Hughie drove us home where after a nice long soak in the bath and Charlie and Courtney going to bed I just spent the night on the settee, I couldn't move, LOL!!!

Pumpkins!

There are no pumpkin patches anywhere near to where we live but we came across this rather nice display of pumpkins in the local garden centre today.

Big Girl Bed!

So at 2 1/2 we decided today was the day that we'd make Courtney's cot into a big girl's bed for her! What I loved about her cot when we bought it is that it made into a day bed, it's so cute! She is still very tiny for her age and I wasn't sure how she'd take to it plus we weren't' sure if she'd actually stay in it, LOL! (I guess all parents go through this when the transition takes place!) So far so good! She was quite excited when she noticed it, we put her PJ's on and she climbed into bed herself and didn't attempt to get out once!! She's fast asleep in it now, she does tend to wake most nights so it'll be interesting to see what she does and then she's usually first up in a morning so I'm quite sure we'll know when she's up, she'll probably come into our room!!

Sister Act!

So last night saw the last of my theatre fest trips! Sister Act was at the Opera House in Manchester. I struggled to find someone to accompany me, some didn't fancy it (Mark included!), others were working, some couldn't afford it but I'm a strong independent woman so went by myself, LOL! I decided I might as well try and make a day of it, have a little mooch around the shops and have a nice tea out. I arranged for Courtney to go to my parents in law and for them to pick Charlie up from school (thanks Sylvia and Hughie.) I caught the train from Chorley and arrived in Manchester around 1:15pm, it was a fair walk from the station as I needed to buy a return to the station near to the theatre but it didn't matter, I had nobody else to think of but me! The only thing was it was raining quite heavily so I got a little wet, LOL! I decided to avoid the rain and spent most of my mooching time in the Arndale Centre. There was a good variety of shops and I enjoyed it there and would you believe I didn't buy a single thing :O Oh, except for a latte and cinnamon bun from Starbucks!
I slowly made my way back to the theatre looking in a few more shops, I knew exactly where I was going to have my tea, there's a pub just around the corner from the theatre called The Old Grapes. I discovered the pub with Sarah and Rachael when we went to the theatre a while ago. On the walls there are loads of photos of Liz Dawn (Vera Duckworth from Coronation Street) We wondered the significance of this so asked the barmaid and apparently she owns the pub! I remembered the meal being very nice there last time and this time didn't disappoint either! The only downside was they didn't serve desserts, now I'm a desserts kinda girl (or puddings as I usually call them, LOL!) so was a tad disappointed but then when I thought about it perhaps Liz was looking out for my waistline and of course I could always have an ice cream during the interval! (which I did, mint choc chip, mmmmmmm, LOL!)


After my tea I ventured over to the Tesco opposite the theatre to buy a drink for the performance, it was still only 6:30 at this point and the show didn't start until 7:30 but I could see people were starting to arrive. I spoke to Mark on the phone for a little while and said goodnight to Charlie and Courtney before going into the theatre around 6:45. I bought the CD and a programme and went to find my seat, I was really pleased with my seat M15, almost in the middle of the stalls! A very tall young girl came to sit in front of me with her hair styled on top of her head so I thought I was going to be able to see anything but the way the seats are positioned (kind of staggered slightly to the left and right) I could see perfectly! The show was amazing!! I hadn't realised there was any famous faces in it until I read the programme, Denise Black played Mother Superior and Michael Starke played
Monsignor O’Hara (both have been soap stars previously) The whole cast were great and I really enjoyed the performance. I caught the train back to Chorley, drove home from there and got in around 11:45 after a truly enjoyable day :D

Saturday Scrapping!

I know, it's Monday but it's taken me until now to scan in and edit the layouts! I'm not overly happy with the scans, some didn't scan well at all and others just look too saturated but if I de-saturate them they just look grey and drab! Hey ho, that'll teach me for investing and doing a lot of research into a naff scanner!
Saturday was our Chorley Roses crop, I haven't had a scrapbook session like Saturday for months, LOL! When I go to Chorley I'll maybe take 1 or 2 scrapbooking projects but lately I've taken my cross stitch and last month I took my die cutter and spent almost 9 hours just cutting out shapes for my Christmas cards, LOL! (Next month we are having our Cropiday where we rent out a lovely house for the weekend and spend it in our PJ's crafting, it is then that I intend actually doing a production line and putting all my Christmas cards together, LOL!) So back to Saturday, I had 5 layouts to do to catch up so I planned all 5 for the crop, if I'm honest I didn't think I'd get all 5 done but I almost did! I just put some finishing touches to one when I got home. I did 4 single layouts and 1 double!
I'm not sure if I've explained before but I used to design layouts for classes, used to design my own layouts for personal use etc but since Charlie and Courtney came along my creative juices have left me! I'm still as keen to create but at the moment for me it's more important that I document my children's childhood and my life generally so quite a lot of my work is 'inspired by' or 'directly scraplifted.' I am really enjoying Studio Calico at the moment, I cannot afford to subscribe to their kits as they're in America and the shipping every month works out expensive even though the kits themselves are a good price. I do however treat myself every 2-3 months to a kit or one of their add ons (all the kits have the most lovely stamps included!) Their gallery and blog always inspires me, they have a very good range of designers, each one brings something different and it's quite amazing how 2 designers can use one sheet of paper so differently! And of course, the big plus for me is that one of my favourite designers, Susan Weinwroth, designs for them. I am not advertising for them, it's just my own opinion that I am enjoying their inspiration at the moment!
So here are my layouts from Saturday, most of which are inspired by or scraplifted from Studio Calico and the Wildlife Oasis one was from my friend Wez!

We plough the fields and scatter......

This morning we attended the Harvest Festival service at Church. The service, as always by Rvnd. Tickner was lovely. Our beautiful village church was decorated and looked very special.

Grease!

I'm having a real theatre fest at the moment, I really enjoy going! This was show 3 out of 4 that I'm seeing, the 4th being Sister Act next week!
Grease was amazing! I really like the film and when I was looking into booking Ghost in London I google mapped the theatre and noticed Grease was on just before Ghost in the Piccadilly Theatre. I'm not sure why I thought it but wondered if Grease would tour now it has left London. I googled and was delighted to find it was! I booked for Mark and I to go to the Palace Theatre in Manchester.
The only top name in this production was Robin Cousins who played Teen Angel so not a big part but wow, he played the part well! I knew he could dance but I've never heard him sing! Obviously having played in London the other cast members were wonderful, very talented people, I'd just not heard of them before. I really liked the staging, so much going on at any one time and the scenery was fab! We had a really good view of the stage and we were quite surprised to find that there was hardly anyone sat near to us so we had a very clear view!

Courtney's Christening

Today was so special. Courtney Grace was Christened at St Peter's Church in the village. She looked beautiful and we are very proud of her.
Typically it rained! To be honest we kind of expected it with booking the Christening in October but we have had glorious hot sunny weather all week and I just knew it would break for today but never mind we did manage to get some nice photos outdoors inbetween the many showers!

Beautiful girl♥

arriving at Church


I cherish my sweet family


Courtney's God Parents Philip and Sarah

The cake was made by our friend Maria, it's lovely and tasted yummy!

cutting the cake

taste tester, LOL!

with my family

with Mark's family