A dangerous lighthouse

Just discovered that poor Sonny is incredibly glad to be alive after his visit to Souter lighthouse - until now, he thought we'd taken him to Shooter lighthouse and the whole time was expecting to be shot at!

I have just suggested that, seeing is it is a beautiful day, we could cycle to the lake and feed the ducks.

'We can, Mam, but why do we have to feed the ducks. They can feed themselves, you know...'

I like that.

Things that have made us laugh

Anya: Grandma, what does that sign say (pointing to a sign in Caernarfon Marina)

Grandma: No Swimming

Anya: No swimming? But what if you fall in. They can't just expect you to drown and die...

***

I gave baby Huw (8 months) two raisins. He picked one up with each hand and stuck them up his nose.

***

Bought Sonny a Wispa lamb choc bar thing. He 'read' the ingredients (loudly, in the shop): blood, guts, bones and brains. He then bit it's head off and squealed, 'Mam, it's full of frogspawn'. Walking out of the shop he told a passing old lady that his next poo would be full of baby frogs.

S: What are you cooking, Mam?

Me: Rice and bean stew

S (looking truly disappointed): But rice makes me boring....

Me: If anything rice will make you more interesting as it's a nice centered grain, it'll help you think more clearly

S (walking away): I'm bored already...

He's 3. He'll go far.

Have finally accepted that my still 6 month old baby no longer fits into 6-9 month old clothes any more. Keeping him in them will, well, just rip them...

Where did he come from? Weighed him this morning. 20lb. 20lb! Anya was only 17lb 3oz on her first birthday...and Huw's not 7 months yet.

He is cute though, and incredibly happy and content. Except when he's hungry.... guess that explains the 20lb.

Sonny's turn:

I want to go to Greenwood.

I am Sonny.

I want to go o Greenwood now, Mam.

I am 3.

I like trains. I like ducks. I don't like swans because they peck.

How do you stop the telephone ringing?

How can you make a crocodile stop snapping his teeth?

How can a balloon pop into the sky?

Why have you got orange and blue and how can orange and blue mix up?

How can you stop me hitting Mammy with a balloon?

I want to go to Greenwood right now. I like the big rollercoaster and the big slide.

Anya is at school and I'm Betty the caterpillar. Poke my foot.

How did Sonny eat all of his apple?

Hmmm, stream of a 3 year old conscious....

Sun is shining, birds are singing, snow hanging on in the gullies and the stream is still frozen... what a wonderful day.

Lakes with Daddy, Woodfest and garden nakedness...

Some pics from the last few days...

Kids at Howtown

Sonny's new bike, 3rd birthday pressie

The owl flying at Woodfest

And the flying squirrel

Pirate fairy candy-floss girl

The little man himself

Think she's taking the P in this one....

Now they both are..

It rained. The slide filled up with water. The kids made a truck run out of it. Sonny removed all of his clothes, claimed he didn't want to get wet. Quite amusing considering it wasn't at all warm really!

Garden improvements

Anya and Sonny's insect garden is taking shape, they counted over 17 bees (well, they would have done could either of them count to 17) slurping nectar at once the other day, plus loads of spiders, millipedes and stuff. Got a few more ideas, mainly for insect houses to install over the summer, but it's definitely taking shape!

Considering it was a muddy, conifer infested 'rockery' (well, it had big rocks in it!) piled up against the side of the house (read: damp) when we moved in, it's quite an improvement! And it's only taken 4 years!

Ingenious

What do you do when your Mammy's too pregnant to spend hours bouncing you up and down on the see-saw but neither of you have legs long enough to reach the ground?

Use sticks.... lateral thinking from the kids there...

Vice squad

Realised we were on a downward spiral - heading rather quickly towards being the family in the BBC show 'Outnumbered' - when the other day I uttered the words,

"Sonny, how many times have I told you not to put snails in that vice?"

'as x as y' similes

Anya is exploring the wonderful world of similes and is peppering her language with a wide variety (all her own inventions of course... none of this widely-used rubbish for her..)

Here is yesterday's collection:

As white as a snowbear

As sweet as a cherry tomato

As cold as a horse

As hot as a cow

As tired as a moose

As hungry as a caterpillar

As happy as a rainbow (I like this one!)

As sad as a baby

And a new one this morning; as comfy as a house.

I asked her if houses were particularly comfortable and she said that they were because you could sit down or lie on something soft if you wanted to and therefore they were comfy!

She came in from school this morning and announced that the sun was making her skin too hot. She disappeared into the house to 'do something about it' and came out like this....

Not sure how effective it was at cooling her skin down!! I noticed that all but the sun hat had been removed about 10 minutes later.

A very Sonny picture

Pic says it all really... I love this picture of him. Taken last Friday by the Ogwen.

One of my favourite pictures of Anya is from when she was a similar age. She's in Llyn Padarn.

I just need a little...

Sonny (on the sofa): "I just need a little..."

and then this happened:

The boy really has inherited his father's sleeping patterns!

Vintage steam fair and other weekend-y gubbins

Took the kids to a vintage rally at the weekend so that Ian could get out some of his old car enthusiasm and the kids could look at steam-y things. To be fair, it wasn't as geekish as I'd imagined. Spending over half an hour watching the tractor pulling competition was just about to wear me out but managed to persuade them to move on with the promise of an ice cream. Anyway, the bit they loved most of all was of course the fun fair and the fact that they got to eat candy floss at the end. I did try to convince them it was pink wool and that they'd poo a pair of socks but they didn't believe me.... pics below.

We then went to Karen and David's for a bbq to celebrate Karen's 40th. Had a great time, kids loved it, playing in the tree house and spending hours with a bunch of other kids chasing the poor chickens and dogs round the fields. They finally crashed about 8pm which, considering that neither had had a nap, was pretty good going considering how much they'd done. Tummy aches ensued all night unfortunately.... think ice cream, candy floss, fizzy pop, sausages, copious quantities of olives and crisps, grapes, strawberries and cake.. mix it all up by running round and round a field until you are so exhausted you fall asleep in your clothes... not surprising they had tummy aches really is it???

Greenwood Forest Park

Now that we are the proud owners of a season ticket, this afternoon saw the first of hopefully many visits to Greenwood.

Some pics...

Big boys racing... Ian and Torquil getting out their competetiveness

Fairy power!!

Rufus couldn't quite manage the pedals, so they resorted to the nest best thing - Sonny power!!

Anya and Rufus in the den wood

Anya den building

Rufus, Anya and Sonny in the sandpit

The Big Green Slide - Sonny, Ian and Anya. Anya reckons Nan would love this slide!!

A sociable weekend

A few pics from the weekend, all spent with good friends in glorious sunshine...yippee!

Spent yesterday with Lisa, Megan and Lauren in the morning then we all went to Seiont to meet Marion, Grace and Alex in the afternoon for ice cream, playing on the park and coffee. The kids played so well together. For the most part, Sonny, as usual, shunned the option of boy-of-his-own-age (Alex) to play with and went for the big boys on the campsite. Found them playing planets in the willow stand; some big kid was the sun, Anya was Mars, Sonny was Pluto etc... the game smelt distinctly of Anya but they were all very happy running around this boy at varying speeds depending on whether Anya thought their orbits were fast enough!

Today was spent with Tamsin and Mabli, or Mabsin as Sonny calls them both. I've never has friends with a collective name before! Had a lovely picnic in the sun by the lagoons, then a bike ride and an ice cream trip. Was really nice to see them, they both (but especially Anya) really appreciate spending time with Mabli, she's just like a big sister to them. It's also so nice that they are now of the age where Tam and I can sit and talk and eat while they all play - they're getting very good at tree climbing and the lagoons it just the perfect place to do it as the trees, for some reason, all have really good low branches so the kids can get started. Few pics below, all from today as I was camera and phone-less yesterday...

Big cuddles...

Poor Mabli had to do lots of these!

I love this picture.

Sonny emerged from his dressing gown this morning (it was his chrysalis) and turned into a butterfly, hence the wings - which he wore all day - and got very cross with random strangers who asked if he was a fairy!

Well, I am now officially like a whale. I feel huge and most people now look shocked when I say I still have 12 weeks to go. I stood with Kath today, a woman I work with who is due in 2 weeks, and I was the same size! And it's not her first either so I can't say that her tummy muscles are holding hers in... The baby is so low it feels like it is about to fall out, all of the time, and I am getting so many contractions that last night I nearly rang the midwife! Apparently it is all par for the course for a multip (the much nicer medical name for a woman who most people would just call daft, you know, one who has taken leave of her senses and has ended up having lots of children - how did people ever have 10? Their bumps must have scraped the ground as they walked...) and I should expect it to carry on if not get worse. Oh, joy. This is definately my last child, I'm going to book myself into the vets to be spayed once this is over... I mean, it kicks me so low I can feel it on the top of my thighs when I'm sitting down (really, I can) and to make matters worse, I've started leaking colostrum - you know, the yellow milk stuff that stains. So I was in a meeting at work the other day, wearing a white t-shirt, and felt the warm drip, drip, drip land on my tummy... nice. It's ok when you've just had the baby, everyone expects (or at least understands) that you walk around with crusty, milk stained clothing and you're never without the baby over your shoulder or attached to your boob anyway so it's fairly obvious what is going on, but in a meeting where not only was I the only woman but also the only person in the room to have kids, well, it isn't so easily explained. Glad I had a body warmer with me - must have looked very strange though, sitting in a swelteringly hot room, red-faced and sweating, wearing my body warmer! Thought I was going to pass out.

The children are getting more excited though, as is Ian (I am too, of course, could just do with being a bit more comfortable!). Sonny is now also claiming to be having contractions and Anya is getting more adventurous in her suggestions for names, thankfully she forgets most of them within 5 minutes of making them up...

Our holiday in the Lakes was superb, could have done with longer really, and it's great that the good weather seems to have stayed with us and will do for a good few days yet. Anya was running round and round in circles through the daffodils singing, 'Spring is here, spring is here, spring is here at last' the other day - I know exactly how she feels... Sonny of course is 'very lots sad' because he can't use his skis but hey, he'll get over it.

Few pics for you. Some from the Lakes, some from home, all from the last week or so. More to follow when we find where we've packed the camera... oh, to be organised... and by the way, Anya doesn't get her dress sense from me (probably just as well really).

With Sally in their den

On the bike track from Keswick - they rode so well and really enjoyed it, so much so they didn't want to turn around. Anya has plans for the C2C (aka Nan's house to the caravan on her bike).

She rode all of the way up this very long hill, and really enjoyed coming back down it again!

In Caldbeck

In Caban, on home turf

Not sure of the reasoning behind the head-dress, or even if there was one

Dinas Dinlle this morning

More Dinas Dinlle from this morning

Ian's new shed base - his afternoon's hard work. Good, eh... insurance have finally paid out so maybe now we can get the 9 bikes we have between us out of the house!

Some photos from the last few days

Happy on the bike track

Singing cyclists

With Frantic in the garden of Electric Mountain

Sonny's strange expression is because he's just lost 4 woodlice up his sleeve

Look what Anya has acquired - and she can skate!! Thanks, Cass, you've made this girl very happy

Bedtime snuggles

They must have 10's, if not a hundred, soft toys between them yet tonight Sonny has gone to sleep with 2 plastic trucks and 4 metal cars and Anya has gone to sleep with a butternut squash...