Hugh is 20

I'm a bit late posting this one as Hugh turned 20 on 20 June! He had to get up before Emily left for school, even though he didn't have work that day, because he wanted to have his presents early. You can see how surprised he is about this present ;o) He had wanted this for a while and finally got it on his birthday - complete with the musical instruments ie. drum kit, bass guitar and microphone.

Opening one of his cards in the evening Had to have the candles shot - no matter how old he is!
We went out for dinner in the evening. This one of Jon was taken at the restaurant
Emily and Claire
And by this one, I think Hugh had had enough of having his photo taken - lol!!xx

Happy Father's Day

To all the Dad's out there, Happy Father's Day. Hope you've had a good day/weekend. We had been told to expect showers all weekend but, fortunately, they didn't come to much and we ended up with some beautiful weather.

This morning Jon got his presents from the children and, of course, I had to take a few photos to mark the day.

And once presents had been opened I managed to get a photo of Jon with Hugh, Claire and Emily. I don't have many photos of Jon and the children so this will be one to keep. As blogger won't let me move my photo (once again!!) the photo I'm talking about is at the top of the page.

After lunch we went down to Mum and Dad's with Dad's presents and to invite them for a braai (bbq). I did get a photo of Dad opening his card but seeing as blogger is playing up I'll leave it for now. We had a lovely afternoon with lots of laughter and sat outside until they left. So nice to have the sun shining and to feel the warmth!

xx

55 Years!!!

This is my Mum and Dad and today they celebrate 55 years of married life!! In this day and age I think that's quite an achievement - congratulations to you both!!
This morning, for a change, we took a drive out to Tulleys Farm for morning tea. We've been going to Tulleys since we first came back to the UK and have seen quite a few changes in the past 17 years. We don't go as often as we used to but it's always fun to see what they have added/done/in the shop!Today we chose to have cream teas - which turned out to be big enough to be lunch too! The scones were delicious and we all agreed it was a good choice! Dad took photos but I'm afraid I didn't - too busy getting ready to eat them! ;0)
We had a wander around the farm shop and were just leaving when we saw this van parked at the entrance

The pink flowers (Argyranthemum Crested Pink) were so pretty that Mum and Dad decided to buy one (and bought me one too). Dad went off to pay while Mum and I waited outside and the next thing we saw was the same flower man bringing in a tray of double Bizzy Lizzies which Dad had just been talking about.

Mum went off to let Dad know and once he'd paid for the first plants, they chose which Bizzy Lizzies they wantedI meanwhile, had been playing! These plant pots were stacked up at the side and I caught sight of my reflection in one of them so I had to try and get a photo. It's not brilliant but it is fun!

Back at the car, plants into a shopping bag to stop them from falling over :)

When we got to Mum and Dad's house we took a few photos to mark their anniversary

And we'll finish with a couple of shots taken in Dad's garden

Have a good weekend

xx

I've been told ....

New laptop

New shoots on Acer

Emily

That I don't post very often on this blog and I guess I'd have to agree with that :op. I don't really know where to start again because it has been a while so I guess I'll just miss out a whole lot of the inbetween bits and think about what we've been doing lately.

The girls have been on half term this past week and we've had a very quiet, relaxing time - a lot of it spent at home but no one seems to have minded. I can't believe that once they go back to school it's the final half term and then they're finished for summer. Claire has had her last lesson at college and is on study leave until she writes her exams in the middle of June. Emily will leave primary school at the end of the term and come September it'll be the start of Senior school for her - big changes and a much bigger school! Wow, big adjustment for me too!!

We've been trying to make a start on the garden but it's slow going. The garden is small but not much has been done to it before we moved in. Jon has been making a start on digging the flower beds but we have such heavy clay soil that it's not easy. Gradually we'll add more compost into them and hopefully it won't be too long before we can put more plants in. We've picked up most of our pots from Mum and Dad's house and it helps to make the house feel more like home. Our acer has settled well again and it's starting to get loads of little shoots coming off the main stem -we're hoping it'll bush out a bit more.

For my birthday last week I got a new laptop. My old one has seemed to be on it's last legs for some time and we kept waiting for it to give up the ghost. Fortunately it hung on and I've managed to get most of my stuff transferred onto the new one. The old one has had all my photos etc removed from it and Hugh is now using it. This one has a bigger hard drive and should be able to cope better with all my photos. I'm finding my way around Vista and Jon is going to put Windows Office 2007 on for me - something new to get used to.

Apart from that, I have started looking at going back to work. I find the thought quite daunting but I think it's because I've been a SAHM for the past 20 years - things have changed a lot in that time. And, while I am quite happy doing things on the computer at home, I worry that I won't have the right skills for the workplace. I guess the only way to find out is to go and try! My ideal position would be in a school so that I could still have the holidays off with Emily - unfortunately that is also every other mother's dream job and they're not easy to come by. I will keep trying.

I've just tried to download some photos but blogger isn't letting me drag the pictures into position so it looks like they're all going to sit at the top of the page!!