Thursday

 

Our Acer is getting it's Autumn colour. Love this time of year!

 

xx

Photo a Day : 05 June 2012

I have a feeling  both the photos below will end up in my Project Life album for this week :)

 I think this has to be the photo for the day as it shows us watching the Diamond Jubilee procession on TV while Alice plays with her dolls house and Mac lies close by. She'll then know what was going on in years to come.

However, I just love this one too! Playing games with Uncle Hugh!! On Monday she saw Hugh playing a game which had cows, sheep and chicken in it.  She loved it. Today when Hugh came through, she headed straight for his room, grabbed a controller and asked for the Moos. Uncle Hugh's now one of her favourite people ;o)

xx

Photo a Day : 25 May 2012

We've been having some wonderful weather recently, with temperatures up to 26C.  It's felt really warm and we've been conscious of making sure Alice has enough to drink. Whenever Emily gets home from school, the first thing Alice asks for is her water bottle with juice in it, which is in her school bag. On Friday I had an empty water bottle in the kitchen so I rinsed it out and put some juice in it for Alice - she was more than happy to drink from it and I didn't have to worry about her not getting enough fluids.
xx

Photo a Day : 23 & 24 May 2012

This week has been a bit higgildy piggildy because Claire didn't work her normal days.  She normally works Monday, Wednesday and Friday but this week was asked if she could change and work Tuesday instead of Wednesday.  This means I haven't had Alice for the last couple of days. The weather has been wonderful and I have made the most of it by sitting outside and having my lunch. However, I haven't been that good at taking photos so I'm going to have to make do with what I have.

23 May 2012

Yesterday I made another trip to Sainsbury's for a top up shop - fruit, veg and baking supplies. These roses on special caught my eye as I walked through the door and I decided to treat myself. 

24 May 2012

This photo was taken this evening when Jon got home from work. Whenever we have decent weather he likes to head outside to check for any last emails.

I spent most of the day in the kitchen baking today. I haven't mentioned, up until now, that I have a rather significant birthday coming up this weekend ;o) and, seeing as I have Alice tomorrow, I thought I'd better make a start on some baking.  It probably wasn't the best day to do it as the temperature was up to about 26C. Add to that the oven being on in the kitchen and it was quite warm!  However, I'm glad to have made a start and there are just a couple more bakes to make either tomorrow night or Saturday morning.  We have the family coming round on Saturday afternoon for a birthday tea and I'm hoping the weather will hold so we can sit outside.

Do you have anything nice planned for the weekend?
xx

Photo a Day catch up

04 May 2012

Theresa went into hospital for keyhole surgery last Friday and my sister, Kay, was looking afterTyler and Alyssa. Alyssa was missing her Mummy in the morning (Tyler was at school) so Kay phoned and asked if they could come round and Alyssa could play with Alice. Alice loved having Alyssa here and they played so well together.  There were lots of cuddles and kisses when it was time for Alyssa to leave.  Unfortunately,  Theresa was still in a lot of pain this week and on Friday was readmitted to hospital as they think she may have an infection. She's on antibiotics and we're really hoping that's all she'll need. She's due to have a scan tomorrow and they'll reassess things then and hopefully we'll get a better idea of how long she's likely to be in for.  

05 May 2012 

 Saturday morning Sainsbury's shop and a photo of my trolley at Starbucks where we go for a well needed coffee ;o)

06 May 2012

 Lazy Sunday morning.  Hugh was playing a selection of his music for us and was making us laugh with stories of his night out the night before. I don't talk much about Hugh on my blog (and that's the way he prefers it) but he really has a wonderful sense of humour and often has us in stitches.  We have been so lucky to have three wonderful children (and a super cute, adorable granddaughter :o) ) and I'm able to say I'm so proud of all of them and the young adults they have become. I couldn't ask for more!

07 May 2012

 Monday was a bank holiday in the UK and we didn't have any plans. It felt so good to finally get a chance to work my way through Kerri Bradford's first Silhouette class on JessicaSprague.com  My Silhouette Cameo is still very new to me and I haven't had much chance to play around so I really enjoyed working my way through the class. I haven't made the mini album yet, because I need to decide on the papers I want to use, but hope to make it in the next few weeks.

08 May 2012

 Things were back to normal - Emily was back at school, Jon back at work, Hugh on his Personal Trainer course and Max (my nephew who is staying with us) working an early shift.  I spent some time in the morning round at Claire's flat with her and Alice and in the afternoon made another Playlist on my iPad. It's something I've wanted to do for a while but never got round to it - I made my first playlist the night before and then the second one this afternoon.

09 May 2012

 My day to have Alice here and the first day we'd had together since the previous Friday. At lunch time I dropped down the height of her booster seat and took off her tray so she could actually be pushed in to the table to eat.  I then sat opposite her to have my lunch.  Another sign of how much she's growing up but I just love seeing her develop and learn new things. She's a real little chatter box now and is such a pleasure to have around.  I love the days she's here and realise how lucky I am to get to spend so much one on one time with her.  I'm afraid I am a totally besotted Grandma!

10 May 2012

A busy day - dropped Tyler and Alyssa at school/playschool, a quick coffee with friends, took Max to the Dr, picked Alyssa up from playschool and took her home, home for a quick lunch before going back up to school to pick up Tyler and take him home. Once home again it was time to start making cottage pie for dinner. I also finished sewing up this little cardigan for Alice.

11 May 2012

 Alice and I had a fun filled day and I got to take a number of photos. We spent the day at home and as the weather improved in the afternoon, were able to spend time outside too. She started the day wearing this little t shirt and a denim pinafore dress with cream tights. The shoes and tights came off soon after we got to the house. Once outside it wasn't long before the dress had to come off because she'd poured the water from her watering can over herself so she was down to a t-shirt, vest and wellie boots. By the end of the afternoon I had to take the t-shirt off as well as it had got wet and then she'd been playing in the sand and the sand was sticking to it.  She ended up going home in her vest and the little cardigan I'd just finished :o). I have lots more photos from this day which I'll be able to put in as an extra page in my Project Life album. For those who are friends with me on Facebook, I'll also be posting them there.

Hope you've all had a good week
xx

Photo a Day 03 May 2012

I made my third shopping trip this week for more fruit.  Our fruit bowl at the moment has bananas, oranges, grapefruit, apples, lemons and there are grapes in the fridge.  So far this week I have bought 6 bags of oranges, 3 bunches of bananas, 3 bags of apples, 4 grapefruit and 2 punnet of grapes. Hopefully this will now last till Saturday ;o)

xx

01 May 2012

After the amount of rain we've been having the last few weeks, it was great to be able to get the washing on the line to dry.

02 May 2012

Alice likes to point out where her Mummy is in the photo :)  

xx

Photo a Day : 28 March 2012

Tonight was haircut night for Emily and me.  We go round to Mary's house where she has her utility room set out as a mini salon.  We always have a good natter and catch up with what's been going on.  Emily is growing her hair and is pleased with how long it's getting. She had a little bit more shape cut into the front tonight. As for me, I tend to just have a trim and get mine back under control ;o) 

xx

Last ones from Monday

As I said in a previous post, we spent most of Monday outside in the garden. Here are some more photos from our day ...

 This little truck had the toys for the sand pit in it and it's been a big hit as Alice likes to pull it around the patio (sometimes while making choo choo sounds??)

 My nephew, Max, is staying with us and he and Alice had fun playing peek a boo through the slats of the bench.

 Hello, beautiful!! <3 xx

 From when she was little, Alice has enjoyed playing with my clothes pegs.  Monday was no different and she spent ages playing with these two pegs on the chair.

 We then had a period of water play, which resulted in Alice getting soaked through and Grandma also getting a bit wet  ;o).

 After the water play we came inside to get Alice into something dry and to play and read books for a while. I even managed to tie her hair up in little pigtails - though they didn't stay in for too long.

 Big smile for Grandpa :o)

 And then it was back outside again for a while.

If you've stuck with me through all these photos, thank you ;o)  

xx

Photo a Day

Sunday  25 March 2012

Our clocks went forward on Sunday, never my favourite time of year as I hate losing an hour's sleep! However, we had another beautiful day and my parents came round for an early dinner (though by the time it was ready it wasn't that early ;o) ). We sat outside to begin with until it got too chilly. I merrily took photos of the cats in the garden and I got this photo of Hugh making himself a pizza when he'd got home earlier in the afternoon, but I didn't actually take any photos of Mum and Dad! I'm not doing so well with this photo taking at the moment :o(


Monday : 26 March 2012

We had so much fun on Monday. The temperature went up to 20C+ and Alice and I spent a lot of time out in the garden.  We put the garden umbrellas up so that we had some shade for her to play in and I also applied sun lotion a few times.  I did well taking photos this day and ended up with about 50 of Alice :o) (doting Grandma perhaps?) so chosing one for my photo a day was quite difficult.  I think an extra page may be added to Project Life this week because I love them all.  Some of you may have seen more on my Facebook page already.

Monday : 27 March 2012 

I've been on the go most of the day today - I think I was at home for about an hour today and the rest of the time was spent out and about doing stuff. However, after an early dinner, Emily and I went to her school for a talk on the World Challenge the school is planning for 2014.  They are taking 18 children to Uganda for 4 weeks.  Emily, and a couple of her friends, were interested in finding out more. The talk today was just to let them know what the trek entails and what sort of things they might expect to do. It was very interesting and has certainly given Emily food for thought. The next step, should she want to take part, is to write a letter of application to the school explaining why she would like to go, what she thinks she'd get out of it and how she might go about the fundraising. From the applicants received, the school then have to choose the 18 children who are going to go. Not an easy task. For those who are chosen, I have no doubt it will be a life changing experience and one they will never forget.  Emily now has to think carefully, taking into account all they've been told, and decide whether she is going to apply or not. 

xx

Photo a Day : 21 & 22 March 2012

Alice and I had a wonderful day yesterday. The weather was kind to us once again and we spent a lot of time in the garden playing in the sand pit and splashing in the water.  She had Hugh is stitches when she was splashing water all over herself but in the end we had to strip her down to her nappy because she was soaked through. She then needed to be towelled dry and put into something warm to warm her up again.  She's so much fun, I never knew having a grandchild would be like this :o)

However, while we were having all that fun, I didn't get one photo :o( so yesterday evening when I looked outside and saw these two cats sitting out on the step together I knew they'd have to be my photo for the day - don't you just love how thrilled they look about that ;o)

This afternoon, I was sitting outside having a coffee when Emily arrived home from school.  After changing out of her uniform she came out to join me and do some revision for a test she has tomorrow.



It looks like the warmer weather is going to last most of the weekend so I'm looking forward to more time spent outside. Hope you're having decent weather where you are too!

xx

Photo a Day : 15 March 2012

Thursday was a glorious day here, beautiful clear blue sky and warm sunshine. I had a busy morning planned but after lunch decided to take Cloud out for a slightly longer walk. Can I just add at this point that it was warm enough for me to go out in just a sleeveless top, that's how warm it was!

My photo of the day was actually taken near the end of our walk as we got to the bottom of the road leading up to our road.  The Church tower can be seen for miles around and is one of my favourite landmarks in East Grinstead.

I took nearly 40 photos on this walk of ours but decided not to put them all on here ;o) Some of the ones I've chosen show Spring is here and others are just because I like them.

I love seeing vapour trails in a blue sky and they make me wonder where that plane is going and are the people on board going on holiday, a business trip or moving to live somewhere new? 

Having walked from one end of the main road through our estate to the top at the other side, you come across this house. It's so unusual, I'd love to get a chance to look around it some day.

If you turn right at the top of the road, you would walk to the top of the next hill and be in town. It takes me about 20 minutes to walk in to town from our house (unfortunately, it's all uphill on the way in but at least that means it's all downhill on the way home :o) )

Instead of heading in to town on Thursday we went left and down this little pathway, through the staggered "gates" and back down the hill towards home. 

More signs of Spring :o)

Now if only the weather had stayed like that instead of turning much cooler again for the weekend.  Still, it's nice to know it will be getting warmer soon.

xx

PS Please excuse the layout of my blog posts at the moment, Blogger is telling me that it no longer works properly with Internet Explorer and I should change to Google Chrome.  Unfortunately, I had problems when I was on Google Chrome before which is why I changed back to IE.  :(  If anyone else has had this problem and has any suggestions, I'd love to hear.

Photo a Day : 13 & 14 March 2012

Wednesday 14 March 2012 : This evening Emily made some chocolate brownies to take in for a cake sale at school tomorrow.  She had never made brownies before but wanted to give it a go, so I stepped back and was just there to supervise.  They've turned out very well and I know one of her friends in particular is looking forward to getting her hands on some tomorrow :)

Tuesday 13 March 2012 : The day seemed to go by so quickly yesterday so it was nice to be able to go in to the garden in the late afternoon and enjoy the last of the sunshine.  Our days have been quite mild this week; though they start out grey and cloudy in the morning, the afternoons have been lovely. I'm looking forward to another warm day tomorrow :)

xx

Photo a Day : 12 March 2012

Yesterday was a beautiful day here.  The sun was really warm and there was no breeze so Alice and I went outside and set up the sand pit and put water in the lid.  The water in the outside dog bowl was more appealing though :)  It was warm enough that I took off Alice's jumper and leggings and let her get on with it. She was far too busy to want to look at me for photos so I settled for what I could get. As you can see, the soil in the flower pot was much better than the sand in the sand pit. This little taster makes me look forward even more to summer coming so we can spend days outside playing.

I'm also glad to report that the cold is much better too. I stopped taking the cold and flu tablets which were actually making me feel worse and took ibuprofen instead and I feel so much better. Thank you for your well wishes :)

xx