Paralympic Opening Ceremony

Unfortunately our Freesat recording box didn't do a very good job of recording the opening ceremony and I missed quite a bit of it. I did manage to catch up though through my iPad, thankfully. The ceremony was every bit as good as the Olympic opening ceremony. I really enjoyed it and took pride again when our athletes entered the stadium.

What's your name?

'Nonny' she relies! Little cutie!



Raines Hall Farm

Today we planned a day out with Kathryn, Jessica and Daniel. We decided to go to the Maize Maze near to Kendal. Unfortunately the weather hasn't been too great lately and we had a little chuckle to ourselves how muddy everyone was looking as they emerged from the maze! In previous years they've put straw down to soak up the mud to make it an all weather experience but I'm guessing this year it was just too muddy and they were doing welly hire instead! As neither Kathryn or I were wearing socks we decided against this little adventure! Fortunately there is quite a bit to do at the farm, we petted the rabbits and guinea pigs, had a ride on the tractor, treated ourselves to lunch in the cafe, played in the indoor area and groomed a horse. All in all we had a fun day!

Bank Holiday weekend

I can't believe we're at the last Bank Holiday weekend of this year! The year is flying by! We arranged to go and visit my Aunty and Uncle in Northampton over the weekend. We set off on Friday night and after quite a long journey down (roadworks and torrential weather) we arrived and settled in nicely.
Saturday we headed off to Wicksteed Park. I was taken here when I was little and the memories came flooding back, especially after seeing the water chute! We had a smashing time there on the rides.

We had a break and went back to the cars for a picnic and play. Charlie had a very big piece of grass to play football on!  We went back into the park area to have a few more rides and met Wicky Bear, Courtney enjoyed a dance along with him! It was a great day!

Sunday morning the 4 of us had a walk around Earls Barton (where Aunty Win and Uncle Pat live.) It's a very pretty village, some buildings have thatched roofs, there is a green and a very nice picturesque church. We found 'the rec' (recreation ground) and had a play on the swings before going back. We were booked to have a carvery around 2:30, on the way we visited Sywell Aerodrome. I think we go there every time we visit, it's such a cool place to go! There are small planes taking off and landing constantly!

The meal was very nice, after which we said our goodbyes to Aunty Win and Uncle Pat.

Whilst watching TV a few weeks ago we'd seen an advert for 'Milkshake Live!' Charlie and Courtney enjoy watching Milkshake in the mornings. All their favourite programmes are on it! We just thought, like most of these live performances, they wouldn't be anywhere near to us and indeed this one wasn't either but on researching the locations I realised it was playing in Buxton, Derbyshire on Bank Holiday Monday! Perfect, it was on the way home (ish, with a *slight* detour) and there was ticket availability! So we made our way to a Travelodge in Macclesfield the night before. Monday morning we drove into Buxton, to be fair there wasn't much open on the Bank Holiday but there was enough to entertain us for a while. We made our way to the theatre and found our seats. Charlie and Courtney were very excited!

The performance itself wasn't very long, we were in the theatre an hour and a 1/4 and that included a 20 minute interval! It was long enough though for littlies and they both had a brilliant time!

It was a bit of a long drive home, quite a lot of the way was on windy country roads but once we got onto the motorway it seemed to go OK. I think we were all happy to be home though.

Blackpool Zoo

Charlie, Courtney and I had a really good day at Blackpool Zoo yesterday with Elizabeth. The weather forecast was very changeable for the day and boy did it live up to the forecast! It had stayed fine all the drive down to the zoo but as soon as we'd paid for the tickets, it poured down! Thankfully it was only a shower and we had a look around a few enclosures. We realised that it was soon feeding time for the penguins. I really like penguins so wanted to see it. We got a good view and suddenly a very big flock of seagulls circled above our heads, they obviously knew what time it was too, LOL! A keeper gave a very interesting talk about the penguins whilst another keeper was feeding them. Shortly after it was time for the sea lion show. It was just around from the penguins so we made our way there, we got really good seats and waited about 1/4 of an hour. Just as the show started we could feel a few rain spots, then a few more, suddenly it was torrential!!! We tried to sit it out, thankfully Charlie and Courtney had raincoats but it got unbearable and we made our way out of the arena, just as we did they cancelled the show. We piled, with everyone else, into the cafe! The handryers in the loo came in very handy! Courtney had a change of clothes in her nappy bag and we dried Charlie's jeans. As we were in the cafe we decided to have lunch whilst the weather calmed down. It did and we walked around a few more enclosures. We dared to try the sea lion show again at 2:00. We arrived about 20 minutes before and sat waiting in the baking hot sunshine!! The show was very good and well worth seeing. We made our way to the children's farm after, Charlie and Courtney fed a few animals. We then had a last look around some more enclosures, avoiding a couple more showers on the way! All in all though we had an excellent day out and to be honest the weather we had was much like a lot of how our summer has been!

Building work finished pictures!

As I said in my last post the decorating is now complete, Yay! We had Courtney's room decorated a few weeks ago but wanted to wait a little longer before she moved upstairs. We bought her a bed last week and she moved in on Tuesday night (the 14th.) The first night was fun! She was certainly working with the novelty factor and it was almost midnight before she settled to sleep! Bless her, she has been fine ever since, thankfully, LOL! Here she is on her first night.♥

..........and this is her room. (although I'm sorry to say I don't think the photos do it justice as the lighting wasn't good in our house today, it's very pink and girly!)

a close up of her bedding

we chose a sweet daisy wallpaper for her feature wall, she loves sitting at the little dressing table we bought for her Birthday.

We've also put out the accessories in the upstairs bathroom. (shower room) I got most of the things I wanted from the Next stripy range I mentioned here but couldn't get hold of the soap dispenser so I made do with another one in the range. The toilet roll holder and towel ring have also been put up.

This needs a new mount yet, I'm thinking of getting a coloured one but wanted to put it up.

There's been a London theme added to the study. Don't you just love this huge canvas from next!

These were Birthday gifts from Mark

A little cross stitched soldier that sits in front of the printer. (The London stitch-a-long that i'm currently doing will also go into the study.)

Keyrings hanging from the drawers under my desk.

 and finally canvasses hanging down the chimney breast.

The last room to be decorated is the hall, stairs and landing. We purposely left it until last as we wanted to get the actual rooms decorated first and in case any damage was to be made to the new decor carrying furniture and the beds up. I'm going to be honest here and say I am actually a little embarrassed to show the before photos. I wish we'd got the panelling painted way before now. We last decorated when the first loft conversion was done 11 years ago. (*blush*) Still it suited our taste then but certainly not now! We can't believe how much brighter and light it all is now, we knew the red wallpaper made the room a little dark but the difference is amazing. I absolutely love the finish, we are in the process of changing the old brass handles downstairs to the same as the modern chrome ones upstairs (they are just balancing for the purpose of the photos, LOL.) We are just waiting for the decorator to come back and gloss the other sides of the doors before they can actually be fitted.

Do you remember the plaster in our living room?

Our poor living room being a victim of the builders!

Well, it now looks like this.......phew!

Finally, we had a problem! We discovered our downstairs toilet had a leak and not just a little leak! We had to take up the old vinyl and ply flooring. We had a dehumidifier on for a couple of weeks after the leak was fixed to completely dry out the floor, that's how bad it was! It seems it was never fitted correctly so has probably had the problem for a few years, it was only by chance we noticed it. The back of the old vinyl was stained so we got a new piece. Isn't this stripetastic! It's so clean looking! Of course then we needed a new bathmat and towels! I love how the bathmat matches the frog bath toy storage, that was quite an accident, I took a sample of the vinyl with me to match to a colour and by co-incidence they're exactly the same! This room used to be all blue and beige (the old vinyl was beige pebbles) but it really suits the injected colour! 

"Bring me Sunshine!"

Today I welcomed Cara, Sue and their daughter's Sian and Allie from the 'Chorley Roses' to Morecambe!Allie has wanted to visit the Eric Morecambe statue for some time and as we aren't having a crop this month we arranged a day out instead. It was lovely having them all over, they also saw our building work, now that we're completely decorated and Courtney has moved upstairs, they were the first guests to see it all! (Blog post to follow soon showing the complete work!)
It wasn't looking good for their visit first thing, I dropped Courtney off at Nursery in heavy rain! Thankfully by 11:00 it was clearing up. We decided to head straight for the Eric Morecambe statue whilst it was dry. We then walked to Trawlers Chippy. I suggested there as we could eat indoors, just in case! It was still dry by the time we came out so we had a walk along the prom and stopped off at the Clock Tower. (or Little Ben as Charlie calls it) We ate Walling's ice cream there, the sun even came out for us as we were eating it! I then picked Courtney up a little early so she could have some time with us all back at home.