Monday 24 December 2012

Merry Christmas


Me and my little Jedi would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year ...

Saturday 15 December 2012

The North Sea........


Today I had to take the boys to a friends party in one of those dreadful soft play places , you know the ones I mean, the ones with 50 screaming kids running all over the place high as a kite on sugar and then filled with those greasy chicken nugget things bleurgh. I have to say I wasn't looking forward to it but the good thing was that it was right on the beach so at least we could have a little walk afterwards.

When we went into the party it was very cold but sunny and bright which makes a change from all the rain and snow we've been having the past few days but when we came out it had all changed .


The sky had turned grey, it was raining again and the waves were sky high and crashing over the barriers. It was an awesome sight and made me realise just how powerful mother nature can be . There were a couple of surfers quite a way out but for the most people were standing way back and just watching.

Do you remember this post back in the summer when we took a walk along the pier ? Well I found out when we got back home that while we had been at the party some anglers had got stranded on that very pier and one of them had been pushed against the barrier by a wave which had resulted in him breaking a leg. He had had to be airlifted off the pier and the rest of the anglers had been taken off  by way of an underground tunnel . I had never realised that there was actually a tunnel underneath the pier but it makes perfect sense of course . Luckily the man with the broken leg is going to be okay.
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My dad just sent me this photo also taken this afternoon off that pier ( you can see the fishing rods and how calm the sea is  ) . The ship is the MPI Discovery which is the biggest ship of it's type in the world ... huge .


 So now the boys are both tucked up in bed and I've got the Christmas movie channel on TV, time to get the needles out and fingers crossed I'll get the reindeer and the green monkey finished in time for when the man in red comes .........



Thursday 22 November 2012

Grrrrr

So here I was all ready to write a new post when I get a notice saying I can't upload photo's as there isn't any space left and it tells me I have to pay $2.49 a month for 25GB or $4.99 a month for 100GB......... Now I have no idea which to choose .... what do you guys do?

Sunday 18 November 2012

York.....


I've been trying to write this post for a few weeks now, in fact I've been trying to write several posts the past few weeks but something always gets in the way , something called life.


I am going to try harder though , honestly I am , I've missed you guys .


So , here are some photo's of somewhere I visited a couple of weeks ago... York.


I'm really lucky with where I work as they really want all their staff to be super trained in every product that they sell . A few weeks ago they sent some of us off to a training course in Manchester and then another course in York.


They were both long and tiring days especially the Manchester one but York is a bit closer to home. We got there about 9am and it was so peaceful and quiet, apart from the Minster bells ringing that is. So we had a little time to grab a Starbucks and have a wander around .


We didn't get to explore a lot but what we saw was beautiful..... don't you think?




Sunday 11 November 2012

So Proud.....







Apparently Sunderland has the 2nd biggest cenotaph in the UK.... the largest being in London.

On Friday Milo had the huge honour of laying his school wreath on this cenotaph, I couldn't have been prouder .

Sunday 21 October 2012

Foggy...





 Sometimes when you're having a bad week it only takes the littlest of things to make it all better...








Glad there wasn't any spiders in them though...

Saturday 13 October 2012

Homework ............

This is going to be a post where I have a moan ... a moan about the boys school and homework in particular.

When Gabriel first started school at age 3 he went to nursery for half a day, during that time they played a lot , mostly with educational toys but it was fun.

At age 4 he was in Reception full time, in this class he mostly played but there was also work done and the odd bits of homework were sent home .


He is now 5 and is in Year One His birthday is in July so he is one of the youngest in his class, some of his friends have already had their 6th birthdays.

During the week he gets a piece of homework which incorporates reading and spelling. Once the word has been learned he can colour it in. He also has reading books which are to be read for ten minutes every night. Once the book is finished I mark it in his reading folder and he is given a new one.



On Thursday nights he is given his ' homework folder' which is to be done over the weekend and this is where my problem starts. In the folder are 3 pieces of work . Two of them are literacy based where he has to read, write, and spell the words and then make up a sentence which incorporates that word and the other is for numeracy.


Personally I do think that this is perhaps just a little too much for a 5 year old but I can go with it. My main objection to this homework is the fact that they have said ' it is to be done over the weekend' !

Now most of the parents that I know work during the week and see the weekend as family time. The two days where you can actually see, spend time and have fun with your children. The time when memories can be made , to laugh, to run about and do all those things that can't be done during the week.

I have no objection to reading at the weekend but all this homework just takes the biscuit so I've decided to take a stand.
I will do one thing when it is first brought home and the rest can be done during the week. On Monday I am going to send a letter into the teacher ( I tried to make an appointment to see her but that was a week ago and I'm still waiting for a response). In this letter I will explain what I have said here and see what she says .

It will probably end in me being summoned to the head teacher ho hum..

So do you think I'm right or am I wrong.... I'd love to know what you think?


Wednesday 3 October 2012

Being A Hedgehog.........

It's just gone 1pm and outside the rain is lashing down one minute and then sunny the next. There is only me at home and I'm taking some time to enjoy the silence because it doesn't happen very often.

I've got the heating on, the smell of sausage and bean casserole is wafting through from the kitchen and I'm thinking about making some banana bread.


Autumn is most definitely here and I've just gone into total hibernation mode.  Most days once I've finished work and collected the boys from school I can't wait to get home close the door behind us and wait for it to get dark so I can draw the blinds and shut the world out.

I've gone from wanting fruit for breakfast to hankering after full on fry ups and from salads for tea to casseroles or stews with dumplings or mashed potato. I'm in total stodge mode, which is not good for the waistline!

I just feel like being a hedgehog and curling up for a nice long sleep then waking up all refreshed in the Spring.

Oh and speaking of Spring.... our strawberry plants have just started flowering !!

Sunday 9 September 2012

Sunny Sunday...

















I wonder how many more 'sunny Sundays' we are going to get this year?  There is a definite chill in the air on a morning now and it's dark by 8pm.

Leaves are starting to fall and there are different types of seed heads blowing in the breeze looking for somewhere to settle until next Spring.

We had our first Barbecue today and I think it will probably be the last too. Soon it will be time to snuggle up on the sofa with woolly blankets ........... not just yet though. There is still time to get out and about and make the most of the last of Summer .