Halloween 2010

Well we've have Nanna (my Mother-in-law) up for the half term week, and Mark took her back home to Surrey this weekend.  This left me an the kids at home.  So today being halloween turned into a very creative day.

We started by making the jack-o-lantern (something I've never seen or done before).  Alana loved  helping me to pull the insides of the pumpkin out but Kai wasn't too keen on the slimey feel of the seeds and raced off to was his hands.

I'd also bought some gummy sweets that can with gel pens that you could paint decorate the sweets with, which amused this kids too.

 Finally we made some Thomas (the Tank engine) cupcakes which they got to decorate in the afternoon. 
I brought down the bag of dressing up clothes and the kids decided on which costume they wanted to wear.

In the evening Kai decided that he would rather stay at home and give out goodies to trick or treaters than go out and about himself (although we did pop next door to show of my little cuties pies.)

As soon as people knocked on the door (and on a couple of occasions before they had a chance to knock) he'd open the door and hand over his pumpkin bucket full of chocs. 
He even invented a new word rather than trick or treaters he called them "trickles".

Kai kept his costume on until bedtime, although Alana wanted her's off much earlier.  I did like hearing all comments when he opened the door and was still in costume, although quite why the wrestler costume for Halloween I'm not sure. 

Can't believe that tomorrow Kai goes back to school and that's the end of our half term, we've done so much, he probably needs a rest.

Chester Zoo day out

Today, as the weather was still supposed to be quite nice we decided to go and try out Chester Zoo.  We arrived about 15mins after it opened, even then there were quite a few people in the car park.  We went into the Zoo and started to follow the recommended route.  We hadn't got far before we came upon, the monorail station. Of course this got Kai very excited, and my theory was we get on do a loop of the zoo see what there is to see and then continued on our route.  However that would have been too easy. 

Having just forked out over £40 for the three of us to get in, (Alana was free being under three) they still expected us to pay to ride the monorail and the boat ride.  But to top it off the ride was only half way round the zoo, you had to get off the monorail and re board (paying again of course) if you wanted to go all round the Zoo.  So we got on (feeling a bit cheated).  It was a nice ride, and great to see the layout from the tree top level, but it was obviously too cold for a lot of the animals as it took a while for us to see any animals.

The Zoo was well looked after, and the animals all had space and looked well looked after.  We saw the Elephants including a baby who was born in July 2010



3 month old baby elephant





I want to hold your hand!





We went into one of the indoor areas and found the Komodo dragon, who looked rather seeply.

Komodo Dragon

  We needed an ice cream break.  Alana managed to make it last for a very long, long, long time, but she was determined not to let anyone else eat it.

Ice Cream Break



A painted Rhino





A giant tortoise shell.

We had a great day out, saw a lot of animals (eventually), watched baby Elephant, Orangutans, giraffe, dear and a whole lot more.  OK the Zoo's a bit sneaky trying to get money from us at every turn with money press, monorails etc.but nothing that other places don't do all the time too.

They had a lifesize shell from a giant tortoise  for the kids to pose in, So Kai got in and Alana was sat ontop Overall we had a great day, and we recommend to everyone, with or without kids Yong and old, everyone would have a great time

Rudyard Lake & New clothes

Last week on Sunday afternoon we dashed down after football and lunch to another small railway line Mark had heard about at Rudyard Lake near Leek. (Kai's fascination with trains means the whole family spend many weekends checking out new railways, ideally steam but he''ll take what he can get).
The sun was shining and it was a fab afternoon.  We pulled into the car park and there was a train sitting at the platform so we rushed and got out seats.  Having paid the guard/ driver we relaxed and sat back for a lovely little ride along the side of the lake, waving to the people walking.  Our engine was called Escaliber, and there was a another one running the opposite direction called Pendragon.

When we got to the end of the line Mark got out and decided to "race" us to the visitors centre station.  He set off and thanks to the kids distraction half way of luring him over with a love heart sweet saying "I love you" we managed a draw.

We popped over the bridge to visitors centre for a drink and watched the boat leave before heading for home.

The next week I had to go shopping for something new to wear for an interview.  For the first time in a very long time I bought myself a skirt and top (OK I bought some thin leggings to wear under the skirt but that was instead of a petticoat).   I thought I'd share this with you as many of you won't have seen me in much other than tracksuit bottoms / leggings

Unfortunately I didn't get the job but never mind, there's more to apply for and I'm sure I can fill my time with Pippas Web - Web design

The Cat's Back and Kai's still Misbehaving

Haven't written an update for a little while so thought I'd do a quick one now.

Last week we were quite sad ad Buffey our eldest cat ( and first baby really) went out on the Friday night, only the second time she'd been out since the move and didn't come back.  She's used to having the luxury of a cat flap but there isn't one here, so the door had been locked, and we think the neighbourhood cats chased her off.  We saw nothing of her all week until Saturday morning, while trying to get kids dressed, I looked out the window and saw a small black cat on the fence at the end of the garden.  I sent Mark out to check and it was Buffey but she wasn't too keen on coming in.  She'd found a nice hiddy hole between the fence panels to our house and the one to the house behind, so Mark spent a lot of Sat trying to coax her out, she'd pop out for food then run straight back.

However on Sunday he tried again and managed to coax her further out of her hole and grab her and bring her in.  She was never a big cat but she's lost weight (maybe I should go hide out in the garden for a week or two see how much I could lose).


Kai's behaviour hasn't improved lately.  He says "I don't know why?" if you ask  him. (Same answer if you ask him what he's done at school strangely enough).  So having established that his behaviour gets worse when he's tired, we asked him about his extra classes at the weekend. 
The upshot is that as we'd just got to the end of the first four week block of his football (which is paid in 4 week blocks luckily) he won't be continuing with it.  Supposedly so he can have a lay in on a Sunday.  So Saturdays after Ballet we're going to have a quieter day????  Then we've got Sundays to go out or do something if we want, (after our lay in of course).

Just aside thought it was 10/10/10 this weekend, which brought with it changes in the energy.  Did anyone feel totally wiped out at all this weekend, (OK I know it's a normal state for me but any feel it more so than normal)?  I know Kai friend at school had similar behaviour issues to Kai over the weekend which he doesn't usually do, so perhaps this latest burst was just in response to this latest energy change?  If so roll on Ascension and Dec 2012