Sunday School Rose Queen Weekend

We have attended the Rose Queen weekends before but this year there was a special reason for attending, Charlie is in the retinue! In the photo above there are 3 of the boys missing, here they all are. (the photos are a mixture of mine and the professional ones)

We were delighted when Charlie was asked as, apparently, being asked depends on behaviour and Sunday School attendance. We then went inside for a photo of the retiring and new queens with their retinues.

All the other children could dress up so Courtney was Little Red Riding Hood.

We had a family pic taken too.

So Saturday was crowning day of the new Rose Queen, Elise. First of all we took part in a parade around Heysham. I held the tape and walked with the boys, Mark, Sylvia and Courtney all travelled on the open top bus!

 

After we returned it was time for the service and crowning. Unbelievably there are no official photos of this and we couldn't see to take photos where we were sitting. Also, there are no photos of her after the service, she got changed too quite early on! Never mind, after the formalities it was time for the family fun afternoon! As a parent of a child in the retinue I am also expected to perform certain duties! I took charge of the key cupboard and balancing coins games, I had queues most of the afternoon! *note to self - do not volunteer for this next year!!

 

 

On Sunday we paraded again but only from school to Church this time! It was Elise's welcome service which was at St.Peter's, a lovely service in a lovely church on the edge of the bay.

 

 

School Summer Fair

It was a perfect evening for it, lovely, bright and sunny but not too hot! Lots of fun was had!

Diet Coke names!

There's a big Coca-Cola promotion going on at the moment, they have printed names on to their drink bottles! I checked the list and 'Karen' is on it but after looking for what seemed like forever (do you like the exaggeration there!) I finally found one right at the front of the fridge at work!

 

Of course we had to find 'Mark' first, at Lancaster Castle a couple of weeks back there was only 3 bottles in the fridge and one of them was his name!

 

 

 

 

Mr Snowman is finished!

I am so delighted with him and his little friends! We have bought a bigger scanner now (A3!) so I was able to scan him in whole!! I was fiddling around with photoshop how I'd like him framed and this is what I came up with. I can't wait to take him to the framers but he won't be adorning our walls until Christmas!

Father's Day

 

Happy Father's Day to Mark and Hughie, my lovely Father in Law. Of course today I also always think of my Dad who passed away 7 years ago.
We had a run out to Red Bank Farm which was lovely.

 

We invited Sylvia and Hughie for their tea, even if I do say so myself we had a gorgeous roast dinner followed by trifle!

 

This is one of the pressies that was given to Mark, I saw the chart in a magazine and just had to stitch it for him, I made it into a coaster.

Charlie and Courtney's first Rugby match!

For his Father's Day treat Mark chose to go to a Rugby match and he wanted us to all go with him. His team, St. Helen's were playing at their new ground (opened 2012) which Mark hadn't visited yet.

I wasn't sure how the children would react during the game but they have both been to Football before so I thought they'd be Ok and they were. The weather was really lovely so we hadn't the perfect day for it!

Lancaster Castle

Lancaster Castle has always hosted tours but after the prison's closure in 2011 these tours have been re-vamped to include parts of the former prison. In fact the whole of the visiting areas have been very nicely made over and even though a former prison made it a very pleasant place to visit. We were a little early for the next tour so had a very nice lunch in the café. The tour took us around the court rooms like it has always done and into the original cells. We were all brave and were locked into one and the lights were turned out! It was pitch black and your eyes didn't adjust so I can't imagine how it would have been to be in there for a great amount of time. We weren't allowed to take any photos around the court areas. We then moved onto the courtyard where we learnt the history of each addition to the castle over the years.

 

It was a little eerie when we entered 'C' wing. To think that prisoners were serving their sentences in the cells only a couple of years ago. They had been preserved exactly as they were, including graffiti on the walls.

 

 

 Our little inmates, they were told this was the one and only time we ever want to see them in a cell! LOL!

 

Charlie and Courtney had been so good on the tour we bought them a treat each from the gift shop, Courtney chose a whistle

 

 

and Charlie a sword.

 

Now the nice thing about the sword is that it had a cover so Daddy was able to join in the fun too!

 

 

 

 

Poppy & Kizzy

Our friends have just got 2 new puppies, we were invited to go and meet them! Sooooooo cute!

 

Courtney and Poppy

 

Charlie and Kizzy

Mark and I to a T!

I mentioned in the Blackpool post that Mark had treated me to a gift whilst in Freeport. Here it is......

This is us, absolutely! I adore it ♥

 

 

Blackpool Weekend

Do you remember me saying a few weeks ago that we 'babysat' a caravan on our driveway for a friend? Well, as a thank you Linz said we could stay in it! During the half term holiday Linz and Imogen went away to Singleton, a small village near Blackpool. They stayed Monday to Thursday and we then had the caravan Friday to Sunday! We set off when Mark finished work. We quickly dumped our things in the caravan and went out to the local restaurant for tea. It was exceptionally nice, unfortunately they were short staffed so the service was slow but we weren't in a rush, it just meant Charlie and Courtney were a little restless between courses and were suffering from Friday night tiredness! Once back at the caravan we settled them, unpacked and made up our bed. We just watched TV until bedtime.
We all slept well and indeed slept in until around 9am! Mark had printed off vouchers for a breakfast at a chain of pubs (can't remember which one!) It was in Cleveleys so we got up and dressed and tootled off for breakfast. Mark has never been to Freeport so we ventured off there. We each bought a hoody from Gap for our cruise in July and Charlie named us the 'Gap' family! We looked around the other shops and bought a few bits, Charlie spent some Birthday money and Mark bought me a gift which I'm going to do a separate post about. After walking back to the car via the marina we made our way back into Cleveleys to fulfil our promise, a ride on a tram! Blackpool has just upgraded it's tram system and the new trams are posh, LOL! We rode it into Blackpool town centre, I exchanged a T-shirt and we had a quick look in the Disney shop where we bought Charlie some new shortie PJ's (he has lived in his others but they're now too small!!) One thing we forgot was bucket and spades so a quick trip to Poundland and we were all kitted out to go to the beach! We hit lucky with the weather this weekend and it was glorious sitting in the sun. After a while we decided to take the tram again but instead of going straight back we'd bought a day ticket so ventured right to the end of the route at Starr Gate! There wasn't much there so just had a quick pit stop and then returned on the same tram right the way along Blackpool promenade back to Cleveleys. We then drove to McDonalds for tea! Back at the caravan Courtney was tired so went to bed. Charlie and Daddy planned a boys movie night! I cross stitched.
Again on Sunday morning we had a leisurely start to the day. We had taken cereal with us and ate breakfast in the awning. It was another beautiful day. Linz, Lyndon and Imogen were meeting us at 11:30 to collect the caravan so until they came we played at the site. There were 6 pitches but was only us and a camper van so we had loads of room to play! Charlie had taken his skittles and football and badminton set that he got for his birthday for us all to play with. We also played chase and catch! Once they arrived Charlie and Courtney continued to play with Imogen whilst Mark and I helped pack the caravan up.
There is a craft shop by a windmill in Blackpool and it's a while since I'd visited it so wanted to go there with the idea being Mark and the children could go into the windmill whilst I browsed! The craft shop had closed down though only the week before due to retirement! So we all went into the windmill, they have displays and interactive things set up on the ground floor which was fun. We would have taken the tour but Courtney wasn't old enough so instead we'd seen a miniature railway on the way in so went to explore that. It's a railway enthusiasts club and they take you on a ride for a donation. After the ride we nipped into Tesco for late lunch supplies, we pic-nic'ed in the car before coming home. Linz had said we can stay in the caravan any time, we might just take her up on that as we had such a great weekend away!