Gadgets and more....

After a long blogging break I have finally gotten round to updating this somewhat tired blog; can it be that nothing has happened in the 3 months that have now passed since I last posted?....I'm afraid that this may be the case!
So, what's happening?

Two things I am loving right now - the first is my iphone, anyone who knows me will know that I am a bit of a gadget freak, but this gadget totally rocks and to be honest, I don't actually know how I ever lived without it!! - here it is in all its glory,



The second thing I am loving right now is my Pandora bracelet that Roy bought me for our 10th wedding anniversary, I reckon my family are also loving the fact that birthday and christmas gifts for the next while are sorted as I compile a wishlist of beads and charms to complete the bracelet.



We celebrated our anniversary with a night away in our favourite hotel and a meal in our favourite Thai restaurant, both of which happento be in Dublin.

The girls are currently off on their Easter break, Lauren and I spent last week at an Easter Mission - "Avalanche Ranch" - which was held at our Church. Approximately 250 enthusiastic kids attended a busy programme which involved, songs, games, craft, story and snack time, all with the aim of teaching the kids that God is real, with us, stong, awesome and in charge - Yee ha!!

Unfortunately and rather predictably the weather for this holiday season has been mainly wet and windy with the odd glimpse of sunshine, so today we opted to hunt for easter eggs indoors. Easter Bunny masks were compulsory and the girls really enjoyed hunting for the eggs that I had, in some cases, too well hidden round the house! All too soon however, the searching was over and the girls got to open their eggs which I managed to fill courtesy of Mr Tesco, with mini rubbers, pens, stickers, toy story figures, chocolates, finger puppets..you get the idea.



I hope to be back sooner rather than later...so... watch this space. Enjoy the rest of your Easter break!

2009 - A Year in Review

Happy New Year!!

Just a very quick post to share the highlights of 2009. Hope you enjoy this slideshow with a difference.

P.S. you need some volume!

Half-Term Happenings

Can you believe that it the beginning of November already?...there has been very little to blog about of late - hence my complete abscence.

Half-term holidays have passed and we had the opportunity of spending a busy 3 days together in Edinburgh. This trip was more for the girls but I did manage to squeeze in a little bit of retail therapy....I love John Lewis's and could spend hours just wandering the numerous departments, unfortunately I didn't get hours, not even half a one!! Enough complaining, we did get to visit Edinburgh Castle, the Royal Yacht Britannia, Edinburgh Zoo, go to the cinema to see UP (well worth a watch in my opinion), and have birthday tea for Roy in the Hard Rock Cafe. Needless to say, the girls were absolutely shattered when we came home but no rest for the wicked and we were up early on Thursday morning and off to visit schoolchums for the day in Bushmills. Thankfully school is back to day and so life should become less hectic once again - I wish !!

On another note we eagerly waited a couple of weeks ago for the arrival of Jen, Ben & Sam...who by the way is even more gorgeous in real-life. Lauren & Amy are very taken with him. Lauren has taken her role as "big cousin" very seriously and wants to spend every minute with Sam, helping Auntie Jenni to change his nappy, cuddling and kissing him..ever so gently, reading him books and is looking forward to helping to bath him tomorrow night...a real mother hen. In return Sam gazes at her, "talks" to her and watches her every move. It is lovely to watch them together.






Since my last post Lauren has lost another top tooth, she would have held on to it quite happily for another couple of weeks but a tickling game involving Amy resulted in a few stray limbs and the said tooth got kicked clean out of her mouth!! oops!! We have now got used to the gummy bear look and already the new adult teeth are making an apperance.

Lastly a few photo updates.

I snapped these photos of Amy a few weeks ago and I simply adore them...





A collage of our "fun" Saturday evening. We don't go in for celebrating Hallowe'en in our house but did have fun carving a pumpkin with a happy face, as requested by Lauren (minus a nose - he was a small pumpkin), lighting up a few sparklers, playing ducking for apples and indulging in a few party eats..yummy. Thankfully pumpkins at a lot easier to carve than the goood old turnip my Mum had to scrape out when we were small...



Update complete...who knows, maybe I might be back before Chrismas!!

A day of "firsts"

I realise that yet again I have failed in keeping my blog up to date...massive apologies. Today as the title might suggest has been a day of firsts; Lauren's first day of year 2, my first day making a packed lunch; the first of Lauren's top teeth to fall out over breakfast (luckily she noticed it whilst munching her Rice Krispies!); Amy's first day at playgroup, which she absolutely loved and the first of many days in which I found myself home..alone.







We spent a fabulous 3 days in Disney at the start of August, the sun shone, the skies were blue and the girls ecstatic - what more could we have asked for? We participated in the usual hugging of characters, queueing (sometimes for a little longer than we would have cared for) for the rides, Disney shopping and eating junk!!

The girls are also a year older, Lauren turned 6 at the end of July and Amy turned 3 just last week. Lauren enjoyed the chance to get creative at Seaside Ceramics and Amy spent her birthday bouncing with friends on a bouncy castle.



My Mum is currently in New Zealand with my sister Jenni and my gorgeous nephew Sam. I will have to wait another few weeks until I get to cuddle him. In the meantime I put my scrapbooking hat on and set about making her a little journaling book in which to record the memories and milestones of Sam's first year.





The rest of the summer holidays was spent at the swimming pool, the Zoo, the Transport Museum, cruising on the Stena Caledonia (kids fun day), having a sleepover at Granny and Grandad's whilst Mummy and Daddy spent a night in Dublin, taking the train to Belfast and going on the Belfast Wheel.
...and so the summer is over and our autumn routine begins. Enjoy your week.

So long!!!!

Having checked the last time I actually blogged and today's date, I am horrified to discover that it has been 3 1/2 months since I posted. I either lead a very dull life in which there is nothing to write about or a very busy life which doesn't allow time to blog, somehow I fear the first statement is probably the most accurate!

So, if I have any blog readers left this is what we have we been up to: (Apologies in advance for the large number of photos)

:: Lauren has finished her first year at school. She received a glowing report from her teacher and we are very proud of her. It is amazing to see how much she has developed during the school year, not only on the reading and writing front but in her confidence and willingness to try new things. She also passed her Level 4 swimming award and now progresses, in September, up to what is commonly referred to in Bangor as the "big pool"
Here are a couple of photos I took at the start of Year 1 and some at the end. Is there much difference, I'm not sure - apart form the length of her skirt!!





:: We have spent a number of weeks knocking down walls, building up new walls, eating dust for breakfast, lunch and dinner to create a new kitchen/dining area. We are absolutely delighted with the result and I am glad to report that it was all worth it. Just a bit of painting to be done next week and the room will be finished; imagine some almond white walls in the pictures below.







:: We spent a week in Center Parcs (Sherwood Forest) at the start of July and there were plenty of opportunities to go swimming, cycling, 10 pin bowling, visiting the numerous play parks. The best bit was the 3 hours that Ann and I spent at the spa - truly relaxing! We even managed to squeeze in another trip to Alton Towers.









:: Amy is turning into a real little chatterbox and is definitely the family comedienne - coming off with some classic one-liners! Here she is playing up to the camera. She is off to playgroup in September and they don't know what is going to hit them!!





:: The summer activities are now in full swing - Lauren is spending this week at CSSM and so far she has loved every minute. Unfortunately it will come to an end on Friday but will be replaced the following week by a week long Ballet Summer School after which we head to Disney Paris for a couple of days.

:: Trying to be a little creative and completing a scrapbook layout of Lauren's trip to Eden Pottery - ( can you tell I'm a little behind)



...and finally...we had some very exciting news in the early hours of Monday morning about the birth of our nephew, Samuel James Carswell, weighing in at a very respectable 8lbs, 6ozs. Lauren wasn't at all sure about having a boy cousin at first but seems to have adjusted to the idea - phew! Unfortunately Sam being at the other side of the world means that I won't be able to share in those early baby cuddles but I hope to make up for it when Jen & Ben bring their precious bundle to NI in October, until then I will have to make do with shopping for little blue things!!


Sam : 2 days old

That's all for now folks

Aliens and Bunnies

I guess that by now, anyone who reads this blog will have given up checking to see if I have posted anything new and will have presumed that I have either been abducted by aliens or an incredibly large Easter bunny!
The last while has been a bit hectic and the run up to Easter was even more so..I know, excuses, excuses. Life has become calmer again and I hope you enjoy the little update.

Roy's first BB display as Captain was very successful and I managed to get the job of "official company photographer!" - not for my photography expertise, but because he knew I would do it for free!! Being behind the lens and attracting the attention of some 96 boys and officers is no easy task (pro photographers - I take my hat off to you)! I managed however to make it look like I knew what I was doing and having received the prints today, I am pretty pleased with the results.
Two days later it was Lauren's and my turn to star in our GB display. Again, another successful night, Lauren had to recite a poem with the other girls in her section and performed a little routine in her role as an Angel Fish. Unfortunately, spending the night running about like a headless chicken did not enable me to get any photos. Needless to say she was a little star and *proud mummy alert* came home with a little cup she had won.

The first few days of the Easter holidays were spent in Alton Towers with Roy's family - I seem to be the only mad member of our family who puts herself forward for roller coasters -I am not actually sure whether I enjoy them but someone has to keep the side up. Of all the ones I tried; Rita, Queen of Speed, Nemesis and Air, in which you are seated facing the ground (the last 2 which, when in motion rendered me incapable of screaming etc,) Nemesis was definitely my favourite, the sheer noise of it as it whizzes past is enough to get your heart racing!

Anyone who lives here in NI will know that when the sun shines (albeit briefly) you have to grab the chance to get outdoors. We headed off to Portaferry Aquarium on Saturday with friends, followed by a picnic at the play park. Hopefully the weather will remain dry enough tomorrow as we are hoping to visit friends in their caravan in Castlewellan.







I took this really random photo of the monkey rings at the play park - I am actually really pleased with it - no idea what I am going to do with it though!



Today I treated Lauren to a session of handmade loveliness, courtesy of Eden pottery. Since our visit to their shop during one of their recent sales, Lauren has been keen to create her own little masterpiece in which to eat her breakfast cereal. We met up with a school friend and got busy creating, I had to resist the urge to get involved in the process and was frequently reminded of whose bowl it was, anyway, great fun was had and the best bit?...the most enormous and delicious buns and scones to finish off the morning.



And so the update is complete - I'm off to eat some of those eggs the Easter Bunny left, enjoy the rest of your Easter break.

St. Patrick's Day

Just a short post to wish everyone a "Happy St. Patrick's Day!" I couldn't resist buying this little pot of shamrocks yesterday!

My sister posted the prayer of St. Patrick and I thought I would include it here on my blog ( hope you don't mind Jen) as a reminder that St. Patrick's Day is not all about leprachaun's and pots of gold at the end of a rainbow!!



Enjoy your day!