The Good Life

Sammy The Seagull

2011-08-11T07:17:00.000-07:00

This seagull hurt his wing and fell off our garage roof! He survived and his wing was okay after a little rest in the box.

My Very Own Plank

2011-08-11T07:12:00.000-07:00

I have a plank, he is almost 15 years old, dark hair and answers to the name of Ashley. Whilst out for a drive in the Mourne Mountains recently Ashley decided to try this planking craze out for himself. It wasn't so successful on the see saw as he kept sliding back and forth as the children see-sawed up and down.

Poznan, Poland

2011-08-11T06:57:00.000-07:00

We visited Poznan, Poland last month. Just for a few days but nonetheless it was a nice trip. The weather was glorious, in fact a bit too warm as it hit 32 Celsius on one of the days.

A traditional fruit market.
The buildings were all so ornate.

The street cafes, our hotel was the green & white building 4th from the left.

Poznan town hall. The mechanical rams above the clock were iconic, they came out every day at 12 noon and butt heads together.

The tram lines, I loved them! They always looked so busy I didn't dare go on one, I was afraid of where I might end up.

The Cathedral.

The ornate ceiling in the cathedral.

A street cafe - very pretty.
Blowing bubbles!
Balamory

Easter Week Photos

2011-05-09T15:11:00.000-07:00

These are just random photos taken over the Easter week.

Round Up

2011-05-09T14:39:00.000-07:00

The last couple of weeks have been a blur of going out every day for some reason or other. I'm not sure if I could recall it all and publish it here on my blog.

Easter was interesting, we spent almost every day that week out soaking up the sun. We spent a day in Kearney Village flying the kids kites and had a very tasty picnic. Two days on the beach and several other days just out and about, we hit the town of Portrush too. The children all have a little colour in their cheeks now and me a healthy glow.

Other things were GCSE exam papers, three of them to be exact and now a stack of revision work for the eldest child's next three papers. Once the 27th May is here that will be the last exam for a few months. I am wondering what subjects he will sit next - its a real toss up between doing three more GCSEs or a couple of AS/A levels. Ashley also got the results of the six GCSE papers he did back in March, 3 of them he got 100% on, one was 98% and the other two were in the high 80s. Not bad for a 14 year old kid who doesn't go to school.

We have been busy planning out foreign trips, we have two weeks travel coming up and another couple of weeks in the pipeline including a possible trip to the USA on the cards.

Summer has had problems with her feet, well she always did. As a baby Summer had what was called Positional Talipes, in other words her feet were real bendy and curved inwards. This was caused because of her laying breech in my belly for the whole time she was in there, once she was born she has a real tendency to lay with her feet tucked under her. She had a little bit of physio and wore boots to try keep her ankles straight. The last few months I started to notice her feet turning in again. I called the hospital clinic where she was registered before and they wouldn't see her, they said it was acceptable that her feet turned in again despite her history. They suggested that Ryan Giggs the footballer has feet that turn in and because he does its okay for Summer to have that too. What the F***, Ryan Giggs has millions of pounds and a full medical team at his beck and call, and further research shows that he actually gets treated for his foot problem.
I wasn't going to accept this, after all we neither have a million pounds nor the skills of a footballer. We ended up going private and she has been diagnosed with pronation, in most cases pronation turns the feet outwards but in her case they went inward. This un-natural curve in her feet had her hips misaligned so she had to have them manipulated and is now having to do special excercises. A long time ago talipes was treated with ugly boots and frames - Summer is very lucky now to be able to have orthotics made to wear inside her shoes. They are sort of like insoles but actually have a heal and are moulded in a certain way so her feet are shaped properly. She has had them for a few days now and I can already see how straight her ankles are compared to before. (I will post photos)

Tropical Beaches

2011-05-09T14:34:00.000-07:00

The weather here last week was glorious! We spent a few days on the beach just soaking up the sunshine. Who would know we would have a paradise beach here just a couple minutes from my house. Love it!

Babies are here!

2011-05-09T14:26:00.000-07:00

The kits are here! they were born on May 14th much to the delight of the children. The children understand that all these rabbits are going to a new home in a few weeks but I am sure there will still be a few tears. There were eight babies in total, our very own octuplets! Sadly one kit died, we think the mum accidentally squashed him.

This one is called Lucky as he almost died twice. He fell out the nest and had got so cold we actually thought he was gone, just by chance we saw a little twitch as we were disposing of his body. I brought him in and warmed him on a hot water bottle, he survived! This happened again, same thing he was cold and appeared dead and once again we revived him.

Groomsport by Night

2011-04-06T15:52:00.000-07:00

Simply backing up what I said in the blog post beneath this one.... these photos wont wont any prizes in photography terms but they let you see what I saw whilst out walking a couple nights ago.

Walk from Groomsport to Orlock

2011-04-06T15:28:00.000-07:00

I love where I live. Its not until you are forced to make decisions which are life changing that you really appreciate what you have. My husband has been offered a job in England and it is, in theory, a step up for him. Originally we were to be off by the 1st of march but that didn't transpire. At the end of this month there will will be a further job offer, a different package and hopefully a better one at that. Then we have to go through the whole agonising decision making process again. It really is a toss up between the 'lifestyle' we have versus some extra money and the lifestyle that we don't know about yet. So the jury is still out, we are still living in limbo but it is no longer a closely guarded secret. Its days like this, meaning the other day when I took these photos, that you really realise what you have on your own doorstep.

~~ The children call this the giant chess piece, and it does look like a rook.

None of these are ours, our boat is teeny in comparison.

This one was after we had trekked along many little sandy coves - 'enough is enough mom'.

Shells; my five year old was fascinated by them. I guess last year she didn't really appreciate them the same as she does now.

We found this old boat on the sand at Orlock, the children had a lot of fun playing in it.

I love this shot.

Sad News

2011-04-06T15:02:00.000-07:00

R.I.P. DILLAN

Well, I hate to report this sad news but the children have been so upset I felt I have to share. Our neighbours two dogs broke into one of our rabbit hutches and killed one of our pet rabbits. Now you have to understand that these are no ordinary rabbits, they are real pets. The rabbits come in the house and are just spoiled rotten. Since this happened the children have been very tearful, its traumatic for them to have their pet destroyed like this.

I was surprised at the depth of the children's feelings as we have experience natural causes deaths before and the children had always been accepting. I am only glad I was home and caught the dogs when I did. the dogs were starting on another hutch, it doesn't bear thinking about what would have happened if I was away from the house. The second hutch had our pregnant lion head bunny in, a Dutch rabbit and two young girls, the devastation would have been awful.

On a lighter note the lion head bunny is due her litter on the 14th April so we are looking forward to that. We have decided, (if its okay with the person who is taking the babies) we are going to keep one of the new rabbits if there is a male.

Did I tell you?

2011-03-20T15:27:00.001-07:00

One of my rabbits are pregnant again. This time it wasn't accidental, we bred her deliberately. The rabbit is a lion head and I had a special request for some lion head baby bunnies.

I will refer you back to the fun and games we had last summertime. http://homeeducatingfamily.blogspot.com/2010/08/babies.html

Where have I been?

2011-03-20T15:21:00.000-07:00

Where have I been? I know, I know, it has been forever since I last updated the blog. I have ran out of excuses, there are none! I was just dead lazy and I got even lazier when I thought of all the other times I apologised at being lazy and reading other blogs where people do the same thing.

I wont apologise, I am here ... I am posting again, for now. Just accept that if I refrain from posting I am either being lazy or I am super busy, or having a crisis in my life, or out socialising far too many hours, or having a baby (probably not but maybe the rabbits are having babies again), or feeding the dog ..wait I don't have a dog. Oh, I don't know, maybe it is raining!

2011-03-20T15:16:00.000-07:00

These are lovely moist cupcakes. Best eaten when they are a few hours old or even the next day (if they last that long). This recipe only took minutes to prepare so perfect for some who is too busy to hang around the kitchen for long.

Ingredients

1/2 apple peeled and cored. Chop it up into small pieces.
some lemon juice (though I didn't have any this time and it didn't change the recipe)
1 tablespoon of ground cinnamon
3 eggs
1 cup of butter or margarine (nice and soft)
1 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 cups of self raising flour (sifted)

Frosting

1 1/2 cup icing sugar
1 cup butter (room temp)
1 tablespoon of cinnamon sugar (I made this with granulated sugar & cinnamon)

Method

Preheat the oven at 160C / 320F, I think today my oven was a bit too hot so you may need to turn it down if it is fan assisted.

Lay 12 cupcake cases into a cupcake baking tray.

In a small bowl mix the chopped up apple with the lemon juice and the cinnamon.

In a mixing bowl beat the eggs, butter and sugar until light. Then add the milk and flour, beat for another two minutes or so until the mix looks creamy. Add the apple and stir it in.

Divide the mix between 12 cupcakes, this makes a generous amount so you get full cup cakes.

Bake for approx 18 minutes.

For the topping ...

I prepare my topping while the cupcakes are in the oven. Mix half of the icing sugar and the butter, then add remaining icing sugar. This half and half way makes it easier to get out any little lumps. Beat until light and fluffy.

Spoon the topping on the cooled cupcakes and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

My Baby's Birthday

2010-08-29T10:54:00.000-07:00

Did I say my baby? Well she is my baby, Summer now age five and a few days. I cannot believe she is fine, its almost as if I went to sleep one night while she was still a new born and I woke up and shes all grown. It is scary how time flies by before you get to catch your breath. Anyway, enough of that mushy stuff just enjoy the photos pf the day. I took loads but I just randomly chose a couple, actually they were the first ones in the folder!

Summer is mad about Hello Kitty, so we just had to get her this delicious cake. By the way its from Marks & Spencer if anyone wants to get one.

Yes, you will have read the trampoline story ... we got a new one. Its smaller and its now round the front of the house so its less likely to get flipped by the wind.

Babies ....

2010-08-17T07:55:00.001-07:00

Well you will never guess what happened in our house. We had two rabbits, and we were told they were boy rabbits. I guess that's where this whole thing was flawed, anyhow ....

We got another rabbit and he too was a male! Or so we thought, in our defence rabbits are difficult to sex. So we put the three rabbits in together and they lived happily ever after, at least they did for a few weeks.

On the 19th of July we discovered 5 baby rabbits in the top level of the hutch! We were shocked to say the least, it seemed that Zebedee had given birth. We very quickly researched how to sex the rabbits and split off the offending male. The next day the other female Dougal (gotta love the name) gave birth to three more rabbits so we ended up with eight babies in total.

This is one of the babies at one day old.

Here are the babies at three weeks old, it is amazing how quickly those little things have grown.

Fun and games!

They do 4th of July here too!

2010-07-06T13:49:00.000-07:00

Our village hosts a huge 4th of July event every year. We met up with another family and enjoyed a good evening's entertainment followed by a brilliant fireworks display.

There's not much else to say, I took a few photos and wont bore you with them all.

Deja Vu

2010-07-04T15:14:00.000-07:00

Do you ever get the feeling of deja vu? Well I did today ....

Long story short, I had popped out to Homebase to get some paint and wallpaper while leaving Roy at home. Roy was busy stripping in the bedroom while the children were occupied playing in their bedrooms. We got some great bargains at Homebase, but you know those bargains paled into insignificance when we received a phone call on the way home that something bad had happened at home.

We arrived back to this sight to find the trampoline which was at the bottom of the back garden was wedged against the back of the house.

This is the view from inside, you can see how far the trampoline travelled in the wind. It was up against the wall at the bottom of the garden and it knocked over the slide in the process of coming up the garden.

This is the back of our house, it has been an add on and we use it as a TV room. Note the picnic table has lost a leaf and the climbing frame is now up at the back of the house too.

The main frame of the trampoline is more bent than it was before.

The safety net is totally destroyed.

When we went out to the trampoline is was rocking precariously. We decided to unhook the mat rather than risk lifting or rolling the trampoline in the wind again. It took us at least an hour to unhitch every spring and remove the mesh so we could 'un-wedge' the trampoline.

This is all very dramatic, but don't be thinking that we were foolish and unwarned ...

http://homeeducatingfamily.blogspot.com/2008/03/13th-march-2008_12.html

this is not the first time this has happened. Since the last trampoline incident we had the trampoline secured down, obviously not secure enough!

New Friend

2010-07-04T04:31:00.001-07:00

We have a new friend! He is a cheeky little robin that has been spending time with our family. He keeps coming into the kitchen for a look around much to our amusement.

Armed Forces Day

2010-07-04T04:11:00.000-07:00

As part of the Maritime Festival the Armed Forces held a day's events too. Read about it here http://www.armedforcesday.org.uk/Details.aspx?Id=6557513

We went along to see what all this was about.

The Cadets and Boys Brigade supplied the music!

View from Bangor Marina

HMS Bangor mine hunter ship. Roy and the children got to look round it and fire the machine guns.

I had to chuckle at the look on Summer's face when she was being shown the weapons.

We nicknamed this photo 'Mafia Girl'.

Train Ride and Photos

2010-07-04T03:38:00.000-07:00

I had to pop this first photo in even though it doesn't really fit with the rest. We took the train to Larne from Bangor one day recently. Not necessarily a trip to Larne but more the experience of the train and changing at the big station in the city and such like. The last time I took Summer on the train she was in the sling and hardly old enough to remember. The look on her face was precious when we pulled out of Bangor station that morning, the rest of the day was magical for her too.

We all love my friend Lorraine, she lives in a town called Cucumber! Well not really that's what the children call her town, its actually Comber in Co Down. Anyways we took some photos in her garden as it is so pretty there, I realised afterwards I didn't get any with Lorraine in but the photos were fun.

buzz buzz

2010-07-04T03:32:00.000-07:00

We found a wasps nest in the kiddies playhouse. We took it down and put it in a jar somewhere sheltered and the few wasps that were left hatched out and flew away. Its amazing that such a structure was made by these tiny little creatures.

Rubbish Photo Day in Donaghadee!

2010-07-03T11:52:00.000-07:00

The title says it all! TeeHee.

Before & After

2010-07-03T11:29:00.000-07:00

okay okay ...

I am rubbish at blogging.

I have zillions of photos and its going to take me a few days to post everything I want to. I seem to spend my days apologising to people in real life and in the blog world about my tardiness. I have been so busy; decorating, coping with a 'little' issue regarding one of my children's health just now, exams and my own health. I have to have a couple lumps removed and got surgery in two weeks time. Looking like nothing sinister but will know for sure once they are removed and tested.

With regard to the decorating, it has been a nightmare couple months. We took out the fireplace in our dining room and blocked that up. What we didn't realise is that the chimneys were blocked from above and blocking up the fireplace was a huge mistake. So we got a damp patch that then once ventilation bricks and holes were added into the chimney it took two months to dry out.

The fireplace before

The fireplace after - behind the the sofa. The main wall is decorated with a red colour, I need to get complete photos done. I haven't got my floor finished, and I also want a large canvas photograph of the kids on the wall but its live-able now and definitely more than passable now.

Boats, Robes, Teeth.

2010-05-24T13:40:00.000-07:00

Well the last couple of weeks have flown by - once again.

Well last blog update I had shared that Roy had got himself a little boat. He was so keen on getting out on it he managed to get the boat insured and a tow bar fitted on the car in less than a day. The only thing that held him back was the fact we had only two life jackets ....so we got some decent ones from eBay. And now its just a matter of towing the boat down to the harbour and launching it.

The view from the harbour.

Here's Ashley all ready to sail!

Here's the boat ....

wait ..... wait.... its not

this is the boat!

Okay I have to add in this photo, I forgot to share it in a previous blog. This is Ellis on his Boys Brigade award night receiving his badges.

This photo, which I took on my phone camera at Ashley's insistence. Ashley was tickled by the "wide range of trolleys" on offer at Tesco. Well that is what the sign says but I am not sure that there are many to chose from.

Oh the tooth fairy visited Ellis last week ...

...and this again this week. Poor boy can hardly talk, he has a big lisp thing going on, its quite funny.

The robes we got for Hollie ... they are installed and are looking good. We got them from Starplan, in fact my other half was so happy with them he 'let' me go order some more for our bedroom. So I went and ordered two x 2 metre robes for our room which will really help a lot with storage space. They will be delivered and installed in July so we need to get our skates on and get the room decorated ... we never do things by halves in our house.

Just now we have a little room which is actually like a box room, but it is used for clothes rather than a bedroom or anything else ..the room is kitted out with large 'built in' robes and we have all our clothes and bedding in it. Well getting the robes for our bedroom means it will free up some of the the robes in the little room we have, and in turn I can utilise that room for something else. Long story here, but we have an extension in the pipe line with a utility room, so I am going to use this little room for a utility room and that creates an extra room when the extension is done. PHEW are you still with me, because it sounds so complicate, it isn't really.

Hollie's robes.

W5 in Photos

2010-05-24T13:24:00.000-07:00

Going to W5 the science museum is certainly not new for us, and as usual there's always plenty of photographs. The children love it there but this time there was something special they wanted to see.

Anyway the 'ordinary' photos first.

Ellis practising his boating skills.

Summer making music with lights.

What would you like to eat?

Siblings!

Ellis playing the harp, this is no ordinary harp as it has no strings, yet it still makes music.

Animal dominos .... hhhmmm who is next to play?

'I like driving in my car.'

'I am sailing.'

Anyway ...this is the whole reason why we went this time. the children just love Wallace & Gromit. W5 is the venue of a Wallace & Gromit exhibition just now and is had actual sets and models from the film Wallace & Gromit And The Curse Of The Were-rabbit.

Nuff Said

2010-05-09T09:10:00.000-07:00

I suppose this ought to be a chat post, as I usually just post photographs on my blog.

The last two weeks have the usual blend of 'skooling' and every day life. Ellis had his Boys Brigade parents night, he bagged himself a badge and made us proud as usual. Ellis has tried so very hard at his BB, he is the smallest there.

Last week Ashley went off kayaking in the Mourne Mountains with his Boys Brigade friends, they had a great weekend. I believe that they made water rockets with plastic bottles and a wooden launcher as well as hitting the amusements in Newcastle. He came home tired and happy.

Summer was at the zoo on yesterday with her Rainbows troop, she enjoyed seeing all the animals again. I had considered taking all of the children for the day and then perhaps taking summer to the gate when the rainbows were meeting but when I learned there would be 1400 there I decided to give it a miss. I let Roy take Summer up, and of course the other children wanted to go with him too. I spent four happy hours on my own, doing laundry, washing floors, and other jobs. As for Roy and the kids they went and got fish and chips (without me).

Also yesterday Ashley played chess at the UK Chess Challenge Mega Finals held in Belfast. He won first place for his age group so that makes him the the title of best player of his age group in Northern Ireland. He has to travel to England now to compete against the regional winners their ... then who knows what is next for him. Please wish him luck if you see him, he really needs the support. We have already booked his flight tickets, him and Roy will go and make a weekend of it. We got return flights for the two of them to Liverpool for £83 from RyanAir ... not bad EH? So while the 'men' are off playing chess I get to spend a quiet weekend at home with my three babies.

This week has been a week of revision and that's how it will continue for the next month. Ashley's final module for his Maths GCSE is split over two days in June. the first part on the 7th, and then on the 11th, I have no doubts in his ability to pass the exam with grades as good as he got for his other modules.

Oh and we decorated Hollie's bedroom last week, what a marathon lightening fast job that was! We got it painted in the weekend and a carpet laid, all done in time for her new robes to fitted. I was feeling very pleased with how much we had achieved then came down to a bump remembering how long it is taking us to decorate the dining room.

And the final bit of news, and anyone who knows us is going to laugh their socks off. while my friends and neighbours are into caravaning and camping ..... drum role ..... Roy bought a boat. NUFF SAID!

Strange Dream

2010-04-29T13:12:00.000-07:00

I dreamt that Michael C Hall lived near me, he's the serial killer Dexter Morgan from the show Dexter. He came to our house one day for a cup of tea. The place was a mess and Roy was decorating a living room at the front of the house. I was in the back living room with Michael C Hall asking the tea. The tea was actually little capsules, I'm thinking like a herbal type tea. Michael did not want milk in his. I had a cup and a mug but struggled to find another mug for Roy. I was scrabbling in boxes of packed up stuff no joy. I stood and watched the tea capsules dissolve, Michael drank from the cup and he balanced it on top of my mug.

After a while I showed Michael around the house, he was amazed at the work Roy was doing with the decorating, actually he wasn't doing so good. Anyway I left him there while I in went to find Ashley so he could meet him too.

Michael and Ashley were soon deep in conversation, he told Ashley they were working on another series but this time about food. The title of the program was something like 'chicken to go'. After he left Ashley quietly recounted to me what the series was and its title.

Then my dream then took me outside Michael's manager's office. He was in there and raging about what Ashley had told me, how he knew I don't know, I guessed we were bugged. He snarled at Michael that he shouldn't have shared the name of the new show, and now it has to be changed.

Moths & Mammals

2010-04-25T15:05:00.000-07:00

The Ulster Wildlife Trust held an event at the Balloo Wetlands on Saturday, the topics covered were moths & mammals. I usually try to go to these local talks with the children as they are small enough you can enjoy them and always very informative. The children had a great day, learned lots, and each came away with a bag of goodies.

A Star A Star

2010-04-22T02:52:00.000-07:00

This is going to be a big brag post!

We home educate as you probably all know! Well my eldest son sat the first two modules of three, for his maths GCSE. The way it worked out he ended up doing two modules in one day back at the start of March this year. Anyhow the results are in, and he did very well. For Module 1 out of a possible score of 108, Ashley achieved 101 and that is an A*, on Module 3 out of 162 he got 160 and that too is an A*. All that's left to do is Module 5 at the beginning of June and with a bit of luck he will do well in that one too.

There is always a 'problem' arranging for home educated kids to sit their GCSE exams, well its not really a problem but you have to contact a school and ask them if they will take a child as an external candidate. Not all schools will accommodate external candidates, not that its any trouble, but simply because they don't. So you may need to contact a few schools to get one that will let you sit an exam. Anyhow the school where Ashley sat his exams have now come back to us and said he can do all of his exams there, which is a huge result for us. Prior to him getting his two A*s I was under the impression they wouldn't be able to accommodate him for everything so as you can imagine I am really pleased at how this has worked out for him. Ashley is hoping to sit his next three GCSE exams starting with the first modules for those in November this year.

Okay another brag ...

Ashley goes to a Company Section of the Boys Brigade in a near by town. He missed a lot of last years Boys Brigade due to illness so this was his first full year with that Company. Ashley has been in the boys brigade for nine years working up through the various levels. Monday was the parents evening and the last night of this years BB. Ashley received a few badges for various completed projects through out the year and also the award for BEST BOY! Once again, twice in less than a week I have to admit I was really really proud of him.

Ice Cream Recipes for the Ice Cream Maker

2010-04-22T01:57:00.000-07:00

We love ice cream, well who doesn't. There's something different about home made ice cream, its creamier, smoother, once tried you always have second helpings. Ice cream is best enjoyed once it has been out of the freezer for ten minutes, many people drag it out of the cold abyss and dig in. If you are one of those people you can never appreciate the smoothness of the frozen delight.

Here's a couple of recipes we enjoy.

Bourneville Chocolate Ice Cream

150g of caster sugar
250ml of milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoon of cocoa
3 egg yolks beaten
50g of Cadbury's Bourneville Chocolate (any chocolate would do, variety is the spice of life)
500ml of double cream
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence or flavouring
I use an ice cream maker but I guess you can make it without by whipping your mix prior to freezing then whipping it every half hour through out the freezing process.

Combine the sugar, milk, salt and cocoa powder in a pan over a medium heat. Bring to a simmer, be very careful you don't boil this mix.

Place the eggs into a bowl or large jug, slowly, carefully trickle a little of the hot simmering liquid into the eggs and mix. (this bit is crucial otherwise you get scrambled eggs) Return the mix to the pan, if for some reason you get a couple bits of 'cooked' egg then fish it out, it wont affect the end result.

Simmer the mix until it thickens. Stir in the chocolate till it is melted and allow your mix to cool

Once cool, stir in the cream and vanilla and put into your ice cream maker for about 40 minutes. Now once this comes out of my ice cream maker its still quite soft and runny, I don't know if this is a flaw of my maker or this is how they all are so you need to put your 'ice cream' into the freezer for a few hours.

When you are ready to serve don't forget to bring your ice cream out of the freezer and allow it to sit for about ten minutes before you dish up.

Toffee Ice Cream

This recipe is so easy and versatile. I use different chocolate bars for different variations. One day this will be Toffee Crisp Ice Cream, and another day it will be Crunchie Ice cream, you get the idea. The brown sugar in this recipes, once cooked, will give a very convincing toffee flavour (lick the spoon).

you need
1 Table spoon of butter
200g of dark brown sugar
2 eggs beaten
175ml milk
175ml double cream
125ml double cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
Ice Cream maker or follow method in above recipe.

Heat the brown sugar, milk, 175ml of cream in a pan. Bring to a simmer. Once again put your eggs in a separate bowl and trickle in some of the warm mix, run it down the side of the bowl so it cools a little. Again watch out for cooked eggs! Return the eggs and mix to the pan and simmer this mix until it thickens.

Remove from heat and allow to cool. Once cool, stir in remaining cream and vanilla. Break up one or two bars of your choice and add to this cooled mix.

Run this mix in the ice cream maker for about 40 minutes then pour into a freezer dish. Freeze for several hours before needed.

For serving take this ice cream out of the freezer ten minutes before you are going to eat it.

Meet Your Maker

2010-04-22T01:46:00.000-07:00

There are 'makers' for everything!

Well there are and they are all living inside my kitchen except one. Thanks to my friend I am going to end up with yet another maker, a yoghurt maker. I wasn't going to but I will probably succumb...

I cant see my kitchen worktops, and my cupboards are full.

The makers are taking over slowly, one by one.

I have a bread maker, which doubles (or trebles or maybe quadruples) up as a jam maker, pizza base maker and jam maker.
Then there is the ice cream maker which I am using a lot at the moment. I have a smoothie maker which was leaking but now with a bit on imagination is fixed. I broke it because I put it in the dishwasher without taking the blades out so the seal ring and it seals no more. I got some plumbers tape, you know that white stuff that goes a bit stringy, and its all better now back to making smoothies.
I got a rice maker, it doubles up to make something else I forgot what ... maybe its porridge.
Oh I don't have a chip maker or chip pan, cant stand those wretched things, nasty, stinky, have you ever put one in a dishwasher?
I did have a pie maker, it make gorgeous neat deep pies in 8 minutes, sealed them and they were the most delicious pies I had ever eaten. Trouble about the pie make was that it was a b****r to clean so I got rid of it. the burger maker quickly followed suit. Ooh what I would do with a pie maker or burger maker with removable plates.

Anyhow, please tell me about your makers, I am always on the look out for new ideas.

Oh and while you are at it, shall I get that yoghurt maker?

Funny Faces

2010-04-20T13:42:00.000-07:00

Thing about Summer is that she likes to pull a funny face now and again! Lately she has been doing it each time I have my camera out, I have some amusing photos.

Look carefully at this photo, I didnt notice while I was taking it that summer was laying under the stone pulling faces.

Easter Parade

2010-04-20T13:28:00.001-07:00

The Easter Parade in photos, held in Bangor, Co Down on Easter Monday.

Easter Egg Hunt

2010-04-20T13:04:00.000-07:00

The Easter Bunny! Actually his name is Dougal and he is the black lionhead rabbit which belongs to the children.

Well, its ages past Easter but I have loads of different things to blog about .....

First things first lets get the Easter Egg hunt out of the way. Every year we have an Easter egg hunt in out garden and our neighbours garden for the six children we have. Well this year Ashley hid the eggs so I cant really count him as an 'egg seeker'. Great fun was had by all and of course lots of chocolate was consumed that day.

In the afternoon we went into the village as they were having a little Easter fun afternoon aimed at children. the kids got to hold little chicks and pet some other creatures.

Rain, Rain and More Rain

2010-03-29T03:50:00.000-07:00

This is Monday again, start of the Easter holidays for our schooled counterparts.

Every day last week I had planned on taking the children to the local farm and everyday it rained. The day it didn't rain our eldest child was marching in Belfast with his Boys Brigade for their annual batallion parade.

So today, once again we thought we would brave the farm, and once again the rain has arrived. Not that it's a major issue getting wet and possibly muddy, but six children (two of them not mine) getting wet and muddy isn't fun to deal with.

There's not an awful lot to report, Ashley had a tummy bug on Friday morning and Ellis felt he needed to spend the day in bed so it was a very 'non' day.

As for me I am fed up with nagging all of the children to keep their bedrooms tidy and pick up their clothes. I am toying with the idea of giving myself a break from nagging and ignoring the bedrooms and let them get really messy to see if anyone notices and starts to pick up. Has anyone tried this? Does it work, or is it just more hard work in the long run?

Sent from my iPhone

St Patrick's Day Climb!

2010-03-18T07:59:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was St Patrick's Day. After a slow start to the day we decided to go for a walk up to Scrabo Tower. Scrabo Tower is built on Scrabo Hill and you can read more about it on this website http://scrabotower.com/scrabo-tower.html.

There is no one in!

Its quite a treck up to the tower and around the quarries, this is what happened afterwards.
Worn out.

Resting.

Music Man!

2010-03-18T05:49:00.000-07:00

We had a jazz day at our regular home ed meet up last week. I have plenty photos of the day, unfortunately I had my camera set wrong so most of them came out rubbish. Regardless of the photos the children had the bast day to date at the meet up and are now all suitably inspired to learn something that makes lots of noise.

Ashley is begging at least ten times a day now to learn the guitar, so that's what the next purchase will be.

Exams, Freefall, Bump & A Birdhouse. How can they all be in the same blog post?

2010-03-08T03:17:00.000-08:00

Well a week has gone by and every single day I had planned on writing a few lines to update everyone. So here it is all those few lines condensed into one post.

Monday the 1st of March was pretty much a study day for Ashley. The nerves were increasing and I could see that he was starting to worry about the exams the following day. There came a point where I had to tell him to put his books away, enough was enough. I have no doubts at all in Ashley's ability but seeing him get anxious like this makes me wonder how children cope with doing ten exams all at once. Well I guess they do, as I did it myself when I was a teenager, but looking at it from a parents perspective is a different issue.

Tuesday, exam day! I took Ashley to the school where he was sitting his exams for doors opening and was greeted by the exam officer who showed him where he would be sitting both his exams that day. The morning exam started at 9:30 and Ashley seemed pretty relaxed about it all. Ashley was home for lunch then back in again for the next exam at 1:30, after that I had an informative chat with the exam officer to discuss what is next. It was an interesting day to say the least, its been almost three years since Ashley had been at a school and I guess it would have been strange for him.

Wednesday was a 'down' day! I had to laugh because what I call a down day is when you do nothing of major importance; rest, watch TV, just hanging out around the house. I posted on Face book that this is what we were doing and everyone sent HUGS. I didn't have the heart to say that I didn't need the hugs, just thanked everyone instead.

Thursday morning I met up with a couple of home educating friends and their children at Indiana Land in Dundonald. Between us we had ten children and the whole place to ourselves which was good. Unfortunately for Ashley he is too big to play there but he did get a couple of sneaky goes on the free fall slide. As for the girls, there was three seven year olds lined up along the top of the free fall with the colly wobbles was an amusing site. The mums all stood at the bottom shouting encouragement and each one stepping to the edge then jumping back. I am not sure if I would have done the free fall slide, but they all did it in the end.
At lunch time I had arranged to go have lunch with my friend Lorraine, which we did and had a great afternoon. I didn't want to leave to come home and I think the two of us could have chatted very easily for another couple of hours.

Friday was our day at the science museum, W5. We needed to get out the house again, we have spend a lot of time studying and doing 'school' that this last while so it was well deserved. The day was good except the fact Ellis ran into some perspex in the afternoon and ended up going to the children's hospital. He was okay in the end, but left with a nasty bump on his head.

Oh and I almost forgot ... Ashley made a bird box, what do you think?

2010-03-01T13:30:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we went to the Holi Festival in St George's Market, Belfast. It was hard to take good photos of the performers as there were so many people but I did manage to get a few of the kiddies.

This is the news footage from the festival http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/8543389.stm

Frogs and Toothpaste

2010-02-08T07:51:00.000-08:00

We downsized our fish tank last week, well should I say we were forced to because we are doing work in our house. I needed the large tank out of the dining room so I bought a little 24 inch tank and set it up in the kitchen. Kind of liking the 24 inch tank we decided not to set the large tank back up again.

With the old tank we made a little frog pond in the garden, got a pond plant and some chemicals to make the water good. We did brick steps up to the top and down in the tank too - a haven for frogs (I hope). We do need frogspawn now, but that will be another venture no doubt, the pet shop said they do some but I am sure I can borrow some for educational purposes.

The frog haven led on to a whole discussion about pond life, and I dug out all the pond life keys we had got when we visited the Balloo Wetlands last year. That resulted in an impromptu visit to the wetlands again. It was very cold, and sadly vandals had burned down the bird hide, but it is still a nice place to visit. We had a look around and studied the water for a little while but due to the cold a couple hours found us home again. The children spent the rest of the afternoon looking at amphibians and pond life in their books.

Anyway - here's the photos!

Ellis and Summer warming up after we got back. It was only when I downloaded my camera I noticed what the children had laid out on the arm of the chair. Have a look - cars and a tube of toothpaste!

Science, Shopping, Fish, Changes

2010-02-06T13:54:00.000-08:00

It's been a while, the last couple of months I have been so bad at updating my blog. You would think I had hibernated for the winter or something. I have plenty of questions and messages to reply to as well, so I guess I had better get busy.

The week was a busy one, we hadn't intended it to be that way but that's how it ended it up. Ashley is studying hard for his first GCSE exam in three weeks time so we thought that we would stay at home... well best laid plans and all that.

Summer left playgroup this week, it was time for her to move on. She had been asking do 'school' every day when the other children were doing their learning, we decided not to hold her back. Getting to playgroup was starting to get to be a bit of an ordeal so it was for the best all round. I am happy to have Summer home every day now, I always missed her when she was gone. Though I have to admit I felt a bit teary about having to say goodbye to the mums I had got to know the last couple of years.

Wednesday found us out grocery shopping and getting supplies in for our trip on Thursday.

Thursday we went to W5, the science museum in Belfast, to meet some home educator friends. It was a long day, we arrived at the museum for doors open at 10 o'clock and we didn't leave till 5pm.

Friday we found ourselves in St George's Market in Belfast, then lunch, then more shopping. This time not shopping for food but for fish, we got a fighter fish and a sucky bottom cleaner fish for our tank as well as a pond plant for the little frog pond we are making.

I am not going to say much more now, but try make a point of updating more often now I have broken the silence.

Here's the photos from our museum trip ...

Ellis flying a plane!

All the children loved the boat simulator.

My little princess.

They have a pretend supermarket at the museum, all of the little kids love to role play. This is Summer stacking the shelves.

My 13year old man!

Playing is very 'tiring'.

Okay seatbelts on, lets go.

Passing The Time

2010-01-20T13:28:00.000-08:00

I am sitting here passing the time whilst I am waiting for yahoo messenger to install. Yes passing the time, on my nice new laptop which I absolutely love already. There is nothing else on it except the antivirus program which I put on before I even looked at it.

Anyway I guess what I should be saying is that I have no damn excuse anymore, none, so I better start blogging again.

Speak or should I say write to you all soon!

Mars Bar Cakes

2009-12-08T06:04:00.000-08:00

I made these the other day with Ellis and Summer, they haven't eaten them yet though, the cakes went straight in the freezer for another day.

Recipe
6 Mars bars
6 ounces margarine (or butter)
2 tablespoons of golden syrup
6 cups of rice krispies
10 ounces of chocolate to melt and pour over krispie mix.

Gently melt all the mars bars, syrup, and margarine in a heavy pan. Once melted pour on the rice krispies and mix. Press the krispie mix into a baking tin. I used a couple foil throw away dishes (not the small size but the next one up).

Simply melt the chocolate and pour over the top. Leave to set (if you can resist) and enjoy!

Cranberry Sauce Recipe

2009-12-04T05:56:00.000-08:00

With Christmas looming I have done most of the preparations, including making some proper cranberry sauce. Keeping up with traditions I am going to share some of my recipes as the month goes by. We wont eat Christmas dinner on the day itself but will enjoy it on boxing day.

I cant really take the credit for this recipe as it is actually one Nigella Lawson shared in her Christmas book and also in her Christmas show which seems to be on every year without fail.

Recipe

340g fresh cranberries

200g caster sugar

45ml of proper cherry brandy (this is the best bit LOL)

75ml of water

Method

Put all of the above ingredients in your favourite pan and give them a good stir.

Heat the pan over a medium heat for about ten minutes, when the berries are popping then they are done. Stir the mix now and again to make sure they all pop and none get stuck to the bottom. Give the berries another good stir and leave to cool. That's about all there is too it - so easy, quick, and why would you bother ever eating supermarket cranberry sauce ever again?

I transferred all my sauce into tubs (I made double) and put them in the freezer. Take the sauce out to defrost at room temperature the day before you need to use it. When its defrosted give it a good hard stir to mix all the berries in and then just eat!

Getting ready

2009-12-04T05:42:00.000-08:00

Well it’s the 4th of December! Don’t roll your eyes thinking I am stating the obvious will you!

I haven’t updated my blog site for so long people are beginning to think I have fallen off the face of the Earth. So here I am with a summery update for everyone, especially those who asked.

Anyway, there was a series of mini catastrophes happening such as the car breaking down while I was travelling at speed (we were ok), and the roof leaking in, and the car breaking down again, and needing repairs done at our other house and, and, and …oh there is a list.

My eldest child has been working incredibly hard lately, he has finished all his GCSE maths work and is finally ready to do his exam. That exam itself pretty much organised though forms still have to go in but the school who have accepted him are dealing with that. Ashley’s first GCSE paper is in February so he has two months to revise and get everything up to scratch, if you take away time at Christmas it really isn’t that long. We have started the practice papers with him, he got an A this week, it was a low A but its still and A and shows that there is room for improvement. He is confident that come February he will be getting an A*, and of course I am really proud of him. The following academic year he will do his sciences exams and contemplate doing the advanced maths exam but we will see how it’s all going in a couple of months as there is no real rush for all this. Anyone who knows Ashley will understand why he is doing these exams, he is a bright boy who has always excelled at everything he has done.

I am trying to get organised for Christmas (who isn’t?), and I am going to officially give myself a week off from cooking apart from the main event. We don’t have Christmas dinner on Christmas day usually, it’s just too much as I like to spend time with the kids and not slave over the proverbial hot stove. So I have spent several days cooking, baking, freezing, then cooking some more, vacuum sealing and freezing some more. I now have two weeks worth of prepared food in the freezers, everything from sausage rolls ready to go in the oven to lasagna that just needs finishing off and I am not going to let anyone near it till Christmas week. It feels good, and I have to say I do feel slightly smug about that fact too. Then I decided to get all of the presents done, which they are almost. The cards have yet to be written; I have written a few envelopes and will slip the cards in later. Now back to that week off ……… if only the laundry fairy could come in and do that for me then I would be all sorted.

The Children Made Irish Soda Bread

2009-11-18T06:39:00.000-08:00

For all my American friends out there who asked about Irish Soda Bread, we finall got round to making some.

Irish Soda Bread

1lb 2oz of Soda Bread Flour
1 teaspoon of salt
12 floz of buttermilk

Mix the ingredients together in a bowl, when sufficiently mixed turn out onto a floured surface.
knead and work the dough into a circle shape and cut into quarters. This mix is enough to make a huge 'circle' and this will give you 4 generous quarters of soda bread. I made double the quantity and the soda bread lasted the kids a couple of days as a snack.

Cook on a hot heavy based pan or griddle with a little bit of butter.

Serve hot with butter and jam.

Ellis's Birthday

2009-11-18T04:05:00.000-08:00

Photos from Ellis's Birthday party in October. We don't usually go for parties away from the house purely from a cost point a view. But we shared the costs with another and had a joint party in one of the near by soft play areas. It was fun and the children all enjoyed themselves, it felt strange coming home to a tidy house too.

In the morning opening gifts.

The party table!

Ashley was really getting into the swing of things (NOT).

The food was nuggets and chips!

Hollie's Birthday!

2009-11-17T15:59:00.000-08:00

Its been a month since I updated my blog! I have lots of photos and probably too many stories to tell ..... I will post what I can over the next few days until I get caught up.

Hollie on her birthday way back in September!

More photos from our holiday

2009-10-11T12:44:00.000-07:00

I did this vertical drop - it was scary! Oh and this was at Port Aventura Theme Park, in Salou, Spain.

This is the Dragon Khan - oh and I rode it twice, Ashley five times!

We visited this beach but did not take the children on to it to play - too many people to be safe. We had a little more private beach at the hotel where we were staying.

SOME of my photos from our holiday

2009-10-11T11:44:00.000-07:00

I will edit this post and put captions with the photos as I can, but I am also aware of the fact I haven't blogged for a while.

Sad Day

2009-09-26T04:22:00.000-07:00

Today I am clearing my twenty-odd tomato plants, eight cucumber plants
with cucumbers attached, and a dozen or so pepper plants. I have had
to throw every single plant out, barring a water logged chili pepper
plant.

I spent all summer nurturing these plants, twice a day watering,
feeding, spraying and loving. Space, effort, money and most
importantly my time.

In August my tomatoes were healthy green and swollen. I went off on my
holidays at the start of September, handing over the care of my two
greenhouses to my much trusted neighbour. On my return from my
holiday I discovered not one single plant had survived. Well one left
and it is a chili plant which is water logged and half dead.

I don't know what went wrong, some were water logged, some were bone
dry, none of the plants appeared healthy. One greenhouse was closed up
and clearly never ventilated, the other destroyed in the wind with
little done to rescue it's contents.

I want to cry over this, my friend who came in to help me clear up did
cry as she saw every week the progress we had made. I can't say
anything my neighbour, as I am sure she feels guilty enough. It's
hard, when they were gone in the summer I looked after their crops of
tomatoes and peppers for three weeks, it never occurred to me that
things could go so badly wrong.

Roman Ampitheatre - Tarragona

2009-09-18T05:01:00.000-07:00

Saunas and Storms

2009-09-14T14:57:00.000-07:00

I treated myself today to a sauna. Well to be perfectly honest I had
some difficulty shaking off all the ankle biters the last couple days,
especially Summer. So yesterday I bought this little pink plastic
mobile phone that contained sweeties, and I used it. But not to make
calls, no I am not that crazy, but to bribe my four year old into
going to the creche for a while. She did, and the others duly
followed. Kids got rid off now it was my turn to look after ME,
something that does nor happen so often. Our hotel has a lot of
facilities including a gymnasium, Turkish baths, sauna etc. So I did
the Turkish bath first, I lasted about 20 seconds! Didn't like it one
bit. Unperturbed I tried the sauna, ooh it was warm, smelled lovely
and it did me the world of good. I have circulation problems and
despite the warmer climate I never get my feet thawed out, well the
sauna was magic. The first time in a long long time my feet were warm.
After the sauna I did a lovely jacuzzi followed by 20 lengths on the
heated indoor pool. And just when you thought that this was the end to
my story I had another jacuzzi. Lol I am spoiled. Finished up just in
time for kids
to be collected!

Now back to yesterday ....

It was warm and we decided to head to the beach. We watched forks of
lightening move up the coast from the waters edge. Eventually it was
hitting our town so we headed up to our apartment for a much needed
siesta. That night we watched the most amazing electrical storm over
the water from the same beach we had been on earlier in the day.

Sent from my iPhone

Riding the Furious Baco is fun!

2009-09-09T11:14:00.000-07:00

I have to say that the hotel we are staying at is amazing. We watched
a Temptations Tribute band last night and the kids danced their little
legs off at the mini disco. The hotel animation team have worked
excessively hard to keep the children entertained. Yesterday they held
a paper aeroplane competition, darts and rubber ring racing (lol).
Ashley won the rubber ring races but failed miserably with his origami
like paper plane.

We made it to the theme park today. Port Aventura is an impressive
place, there are five countries each with different styles of rides.
We only managed two of the countries so we are planning on going back
for more fun Friday. They do all the Disney thing at night with the
fireworks too so it's going to be fun. We did not make it to the
Dragon Khan today but we did go on Stampedia which was a bone shaker
double roller coaster where two sets of cars race. We also got on the
Furious Baco, and oh my goodness I have ridden some rides in my time
but that was a scary one. It's a strange one you are suspended out to
the side of the track with your legs hanging, then you think it's
going to be like any other ride with a slow start you realise how
wrong you are in that assumption. Like a bullet out of a gun the
forces are instantaneous and whizzing round upside down just a couple
feet from the lake is an exhilarating experience.

Sent from my iPhone

Blogging from Salou

2009-09-08T04:49:00.000-07:00

It was a long day yesterday, probably one of the most tiring I had
experienced in a long time. Anyone who knows me will know I have been
wrestling with a flu for the last fortnight. Due to restrictions
imposed on our country anyone with swine flu symptoms will be refused
flight travel. Swine flu is contagious until day 7 of the illness so
I figured I would be ok.
Come hell or high water I was getting on that plane. Doped up with
three sorts of meds I managed not to start coughing till we were
flying over France, so there was no turning back.

The early start was okay, 5:30 found us on the road. We reached our
hotel 1:45 Barcelona time. The afternoon was spent lazing in our
apartment. We all came alive at seven at night!

There was a medieval restaurant just out side the hotel, that was as
far as our weary legs would carry us that night. Food was good and
two of the children were put in the stocks, literally. We checked out
the entertainment, the beach by night and the supermarket - I think we
will be happy here.

This morning was lovely we booked half board today and the breakfast was
Buffet style with much as you could eat of every single food you can
imagine. So the nine pounds I lost while I'll is going to go straight
back on again. I will let you know what dinner is like later LOL.

Tomorrow we are going to Portaventura the theme park, the kids are
bouncing with excitement and we still gave two weeks to go of this.

One final comment will be an apology from me to everyone reading this,
apart from making you jealous I have to say all spelling mistakes will
have to stay till I get home and run the spelling and grammar
checker. Blogging from an iPhone is easy and suits me fine, but the
keys are small and the spell check does not do English I think.

Sent from my iPhone

OINK OINK

2009-08-31T14:31:00.000-07:00

This blog post is going to be short and sweet.

You see, earlier in the summer I was convinced I had the swine flu, really I was sure of it LOL! I was so sick and barely could move for 3 or 4 days - gee I thought I was ill!

Well it seems Swine flu is back, this time for real! I have been sick for 6 days now, I am hoping tomorrow I am going to be on my feet. It started last weds, after Hollie and Ashley had been ill the previous week. Sore throat, fevers, hot, cold, unable to move without pain, nausea, iffy tummy, hacking chesty cough, wheezing, cant sleep, cant eat (not eaten for 4 days), useless in other words! I have been laid on the sofa for the whole time, watching my family get on with life, watching the laundry pile up and feeling more grossed each time I approach the science project in the bathroom sink .... oh Roy did clean it yesterday at long last. That was before he built up the new rabbit hutch (its huge BTW) in the dining room need I add so I could sit and read the instructions out to him (I got the photos on my phone to prove it, I will add them in later).

We have all had this illness bar Roy now so he is the ticking time bomb waiting to go off, so far symptom free apart from a sore throat the other day.

Peace at last!

2009-08-30T11:29:00.001-07:00

That's the kids sorted for the bank holiday tomorrow!

SUNDAY SUMMARIES

2009-08-23T06:32:00.000-07:00

Okay, I HAD planned on doing a "snap Shot" Sunday like my friend Deb www.notsheep.net but it turned out to be more of a photographic summery of my week .....

Here goes

Monday night the children asked for a sleep over. When we went to check on them this is what we found.

I spent most of Tuesday (between swimming lessons, and running the kids to summer scheme, and childminding) trying to tidy the house.
I have to say my husband Roy has the most annoying habit in the world, his newspapers. He buys the Sunday Times every week but never gets it all read. I don't know if you know the Sunday Times but there are 60 supplements with it, and now he has started buying yet another newspaper. If he doesn't get one read he keeps it, and each week this rolls on till he has stacks. I am not allowed to touch the papers, if I were to throw them out he would come looking for a certain article or something. What annoys me most is the fact he stores them next to the bed, oh and the newspaper print stains our white painted floor. Thing is most of the stuff in the Sunday paper we have already read or heard about during the week on the NEWS funnily enough.

No photos from Wednesday, much to my regret! We had early morning swimming lessons then on to our home education day. It was a tiring day, but very successful so well worth it.

Thursday, after swimming, summer schemes, and child minding, Hollie and I set about making some jewellery. This is the bracelet we made which we have since given to a friend.

Okay, so the desks are not really from Friday but I will share the photo anyway. We got them in Tesco's, reduced from £49 down to £12.25 which is a steal. They are MDF and just slot together in two minutes, the kids love them and they are ideal for their crafts and colouring. I am sure they will enjoy doing their skool at them too.

Saturday was my birthday, 21 again! We had Moet & Chandon champagne mixed with orange juice for breakfast otherwise known as bucks fizz! I didn't do anything else for the day, just sat around and rested after another hectic week.

NOT ME MONDAY

2009-08-17T01:33:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

--------------

It was not me who decided to test out how hot the vanity lights were above the bathroom sink. We don't usually leave the main bathroom light on overnight for the children, it didn't blow so I didn't need to check if it was ok to leave the vanity lights on.

This is not my very sore burnt finger .... and I definitely did not use the F-WORD!

It is not me who plugged in my toothbrush charger because my toothbrush was out of charge. I didn't forget to put the toothbrush in the charger and discover that when I needed to clean my teeth.

It was not me who stayed up really late the other night when my husband was away on business. I wasn't making the most out of every minute I actually had the TV remote to myself.

It was not my five year old child who decided to try do a toy maze above his head to see if he could do it without looking. It was not the same child who spent two afternoons in the hospital with various staff trying to retrieve the balbearing that came out of the maze and fell into his ear. No way would my Ellis ever do anything like that.

It was not me who was almost strangled by her washing line. It was not a serious incident, nope, being chocked was really ok. It was not the new £70 washing line recently purchase from Argos. I am not going to complain that it did not collapse without warning.

It is not me who is asking for a new laptop for her birthday this week. I don't want one with a 17 inch screen, and I certainly don't want one with a huge hard drive for all my graphics and photos. It is not me who is living in hope, though I do suspect I will be disappointed and might have to go ask Santa instead.

It was definitely not me who borrowed the next door neighbours bun tins. I wasn't being lazy trying to do our buns in half the number of batches for my daughter's birthday tea. It wasn't me who had the neighbours kitchen door key whilst looking after their kids, it was not me who took the bun tin, honest! It was not their children who would reap the rewards of fast baked buns.
I did not ask my 12 year old son to return the tin on my behalf, he did not knock on the door seeing the car sitting in their drive. I do not think they were in the shower or somewhere like that, and my son definitely did not put the tin back in its rightful place in the kitchen and leave the house again without their knowledge. I did not tell my son off for that, nope, I would never do that after all going into peoples houses without their knowing is not wrong.

THE TALL SHIPS (in the distance)

2009-08-17T01:24:00.000-07:00

The boys went into our village to watch the tall ships go past yesterday. Our village held a special event with stalls, a band and other things going on. People came from far and wide, the place was packed!

Due to wind conditions the tall ships did indeed pass by but they were not on their planned route, this meant they were too far away to get a good view.

VISIT TO THE ECOS CENTRE IN PHOTOS

2009-08-17T00:56:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday we went to the Ecos Centre in Ballymena. It is set in lovely grounds, has a duck pond but best of all its free. It is worth a visit though I am not entirely sure I would make a special trip there unless the weather was fantastic.

Attack of the ladybirds!

PLUM JAM RECIPE

2009-08-16T13:29:00.000-07:00

We are making plum jam today.

Well you know its about time I saw the fruits of my fruit! My plum tree has hundreds, and hundreds, and hundreds of plums on it. Some of the plums are ripe, some not, some past their best.

RECIPE
you need 2kg plums (fruit weight) or 4lbs (mix of ripe and almost ripe is good for pectin)
1 litre of cold water or 32 fl oz
125 ml of lemon juice or 1/2 cup
1.5 kg of caster sugar (warmed in oven speeds up process) or 3lb

Assuming you already know how to make jam and sterilise the jars!

You will need about 6 jars for this recipe if they are large ones or eight small. I always sterilise loads to be on the safe side.

Chop the plums up, and of course discard the stones. My fingers have turned yellow by the way so wear gloves if this worries you. The chopping up took ages so make sure you go for a pee first and do all your other stuff as you are going to be busy for a while.

Place the plums and the water in a nice big heavy pan and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 50 minutes or until the fruit is soft. This is not an opportunity to go to the local for a pint or anything, just make yourself a cup of coffee and wait ... you probably need it after chopping up the plums.

Add the lemon juice and sugar now, stir them over a low heat for five minutes.

Bring to the boil now for 20 minutes (check for next stage from 15 mins onwards) , keep stirring or better still ask someone else to stir for you as your hands will still be sore from the chopping up.

Remove the scum from the surface and test your jam, it is ready when it falls from a wooden spoon in sheets. Don't do the taste test at this stage otherwise you will burn your mouth!

Test for the setting by placing the jam on a cold plate in the freezer for 30 seconds, if its ready the jam will wrinkle if you push it with your finger. Lick your finger!

Remove any scum from jam and transfer into jars. Put lids tightly on the jars and invert for two minutes, this creates a nice sterile environment in the led and helps create a good seal. You can store this jam for up to 12 months so long as you keep it in your cupboard.

The jars ideally need to cool over night and initially the jam looks runny, don't worry about this it will be set by the time you have your toast made the following morning.

I am also making breadmaker jam - recipe to follow!

WHAT A BALLS UP

2009-08-08T12:45:00.000-07:00

WAAAAAA 7:10 this morning my alarm clock went off! Oh no sorry, it wasn't my alarm clock it was Ellis and he was extremely upset.

I got up to investigate, Ellis was telling me he had a ball in his ear. A little silver ball from a stupid plastic party bag maze game, how on earth? I asked him if he put the ball there and he swore to me he didn't and it had just rolled in. I couldn't see how that could happen, but duly had a look in his ear in the light. I was unable to see anything, so I reassured him and went back to bed for another hour.

I quizzed him more when I got up, he was adamant that he didn't deliberately put the silver ball in his ear. He demonstrated how he put his head over to one side on his pillow so the ball would roll out. He explained that he was trying to do the maze without looking at it, he wanted to get the ball into the centre, the back came off the game and the ball just rolled into his ear.

At lunch time conversation came back round to this metal ball. I remembered the doctors torch Ashley had got from when he was in hospital in January ..... hmm. Well I shone it in his ear and for a very brief moment I 'thought' I saw something and then it was gone. I tried again to see the ball but no luck.

This bugged me, I searched Ellis's bed and his room for this little ball, worryingly I couldn't find it anywhere. In the end I made the decision to take him to our minor injuries unit (its sort of like an A&E but for less urgent cases). Still skeptical I got the nurse to have a look in Ellis's ear .... well lo and behold there it was! The nurse even let me have a good look in too which was so cool.

A tiny steel balbearing was nestled under Ellis's grommet (vent) and it wasn't going anywhere. They tried lubricant in there, plus used a rather noisy suction machine too. All of these efforts just made Ellis's ear more sore and distressed him further. Further examination revealed that the balbearing had not even budged a millimetre.

So they are arranging for him to see the ENT consultant in the next couple days, I have to ring on Monday morning to find out when. Ellis actually has an appointment at the end of August scheduled to get his grommets checked, but they say he cant wait that long as his ear would get infected. So its looking he might need an anaesthetic to get this ball out, I would suspect his grommet will come out too but who knows! I will update on Monday when we get word on what is to happen.

Oh this is not the first time Ellis has had a foreign body - here's one other time http://homeeducatingfamily.blogspot.com/2008/04/peg-too-close-13th-april-2008.html.
Another time involved sweetcorn in his nostril which he sniffed up, I had to use a booger sucker to retrieve it.

BIRTHDAY GIRL

2009-08-05T02:56:00.000-07:00

Just a few photos of our day. We had our four children, the two children I am looking after plus another. The boy's weren't having their photos taken (rolling eyes) but never mind here's the girls.

My two extras!

SO FAR SO GOOD

2009-08-04T04:38:00.000-07:00

My carrots! They have a bit to grow before they win any prizes, but so far so good.

TRIPLETS?

2009-08-03T02:31:00.000-07:00

I know I have posted these photos before but I really had to post them after Tiffany's comment.
This is Hollie, Ellis & Summer as babies. I dont have one of Ashley on the computer because in the olden days we used film cameras, digitals were not invented!

Summer's Birthday Present

2009-08-02T06:21:00.001-07:00

Summer's Entrance To The World

2009-08-01T14:26:00.000-07:00

Its been four years since I had my youngest baby, who could believe time would fly so fast. Her birthday is on Tuesday and we have planned a little 'hot dog' party. I am child minding this coming week so we have ready made guests thrown in too.

More on the party and the birthday as it happens, but I have to share a little story as I haven't shared it on my blog before. (stop reading here if you are squeamish)

I will spare you all the gory details but Summer was an 'accidental' birth, she arrived 5 weeks early and in a hurry too!

I have complications with all my pregnancies. I get a condition called Obstetric Cholestasis which is treated with a drug called Ursodeoxycholic acid. I also have blood clotting issues including Factor V Leiden, Protein C deficiency and Antiphospholipid syndrome. Due to these complications amongst a few other issues my bloods have to be monitored closely and I give myself daily injections of heparin especially while pregnant.
These conditions gave me cause for concern when I got to around 35 weeks with Summer. I had experienced some spurious contractions and during a routine ob appointment my consultant examined me then announced birth was imminent, she scanned me to check Summer was a healthy size then with my permission she did a stretch and sweep to help things along!
With a history of rapid childbirth, I felt a strong urge to get myself up to the hospital the following afternoon. On arrival nothing much was happening but they booked me in anyway due to all the blood stuff going on. Within 20 minutes of arriving at hospital I accepted an examination where the announced that I was 3cm dilated but my waters were bulging.

(THIS IS THE SHORT STORY LOL)I felt tearful, sore, and wasn't sure what to do, I knew Summer was on her way. Roy decided at this stage to go to the shop and phone the family to let them all know where we were. While he was gone the midwife broke my waters, and although Summer was weeks early you have to understand the implications of being pregnant have for me. Once a baby is fit enough to be born for me and for her it is safer so please don't judge me for agreeing to have an early birth, I have suffered too many losses and near misses to take any chances at all. Within seconds of my waters being broken I started to vomit in a big way, at this stage Roy arrived back from the shop. He was shocked to see me in this condition considering a few minute previous I was perfectly compos mentos. I got Roy to help me to the bathroom, on the way there the midwife joked with me "now don't you be having the baby in the bathroom" I turned back to her and laughed!
Well you guessed it, I got Roy and I squeezed into a tiny little bathroom while I was chucking up and then I decided to announce that baby was on its way. I am sure I could spare you the further details but lets just say he had to call for help. Once it was all over (with three of us in the little bathroom - standing room only) my midwife had to go change after I was through LOL! Summer made her way into the world in less than two minutes, no one was more shocked than me. It was funny because he rang my mum again saying "baby and mother doing well", my mum had only spoken to him a few minutes previous and could not figure out what was going on.

Summer had apgars of 9 & 9 to start but she did have a few breathing issues afterwards for a little while. Apparently if the fluid does not get squeezed out of a baby's lungs properly this can happen, in the case of a sudden birth like this then it is no surprise. Summer also took a couple of days before she could nurse properly, I fed her with my milk in a little syringe just a few mls at a time until her sucking reflex was nice and strong. These issues are common with babies born early like Summer, although there were issues, we did much better once Summer was born. As much as it would be nice to have a full term baby the risks to my health and babies health are too great. Summer weighed in at 6lbs 11 1/2 ounces and came home after 3 days which isn't bad going.

MY GANG

2009-07-28T13:34:00.000-07:00

I am looking after two girls just now. They are my neighbour's children and I usually have them over the summer while there are no schools and their usual child minder stays in her apartment in Spain. Having four children already an extra two isn't such a big deal for us.

Today after the morning session for four of the children at the leisure centre, we went to Kiltonga Duck Pond. We stopped at our local shop en route and got a bag of stale bread to feed the birds. All the children had a great time as we walked on the path round the ponds. Oh and we found a Geocache on our travels too.

This is my gang!

I had a chuckle while we were out today an elderly couple came up to me and asked "excuse me, I just have to ask you but are all those children yours?" I was too slow I should have said yes but I told her "only four of them". She went on to say she saw them all and thought I had a lovely family, she admired Ashley especially.

These cygnets are only 11 weeks old!

DISEASE! (NOT)

2009-07-28T13:12:00.000-07:00

The girls have ringworm, one of them is confirmed and one looks suspect. Hollie has had this 'funny' rash on her neck for a while. I didn't think much of it at first because there was an incident where Roy had accidentally scraped her with his fingernails and for a while I thought it was a bruise. Now the rash has grown and taken on the more recognisable appearance. We had the diagnosis confirmed and Hollie was given clotrimazole, its an anti fungal medication. Summer's rash looks suspicious but not confirmed yet, they said she was a bit young for treatment so we are holding off until we know for sure about her rash.

PICTURE OF RINGWORM

Ringworm isn't a worm as the name suggests but a fungal infection. Its contagious and originates from infected animals but can be passed human to human. In the girls case this came from another human they were in close contact with. It is important to have good hygiene when you have ringworm, things like use your own towel, bedding etc. The girls often sleep in the same bed so it's no surprise if they are both infected.

Treatment is easy with anti fungal creams, ringworm as a rule doesn't leave scars. Children need / should have a definite diagnosis as treatments may differ.

NOT ME MONDAY

2009-07-27T01:25:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

-------------------

THIS IS NOT MY WEEK

This is definitely not my dining table. This is not paint and it was not put on the table by my children. The paint is not still there despite several days of scrubbing.

Wasn't my child who went to find his chef's costume, couldn't find it then turned up to help make dinner wearing just his underpants, a chef's hat and a mile wide smile. I did not wish I had taken a photograph. ---
It's not me who is loving my iPhone, and it's not me who can't work it without my reading glasses on. I am definitely not getting old.---It was not my two youngest children who got locked in the bathroom this week. The lock did not fail while they were in cleaning their teeth. It was not the five year old who had to open the window after gentle persuasion. It was definitely not skinny ass me who had to climb through the bathroom window with my 12 year old in tow. It actually wasn't my other half who couldn't get his legs high enough to get in the same window. It wasn't me who had to take the pins out of the hinges of the very solid bathroom door in order to lift it out of the door frame. I did not damage the paintwork in the process. ---We did not have to buy a new lock for the door, and we don't have to repaint the door.---It wasn't my husband who decided to try out the new lock the following morning whilst I was not in bed sleeping. He was not in his boxer shorts and he absolutely definitely did not forget to put the handle on the other side. He did not get locked in the bathroom himself, no way you cant tell anyone!---It was not our wedding anniversary on Saturday. My husband definitely did not 'forget' to buy me card, he did not use the excuse that he did not get a chance to go to the shop. I definitely did not point out to him that he is in the local shop every single day, and they do not sell cards - no, none whatsoever. I also do not have a craft room filled with card making materials amongst other things, he could have gone into it at any time and got the kids to make something. My husband did not some 24 hours later go to the shop to buy his Sunday paper, (no he would never forget to buy that) and he did not buy an unfunny card with a monkey on it. When I read the card I did not notice that he had failed to sign the card. He did not tell me he couldn't find a pen, we do not have oodles of 'school' materials in our house, and we don't have a fully stocked office and craft room either - nope not us not a single pen or pencil in our house.

RICE PUDDING - LOW FAT RECIPE

2009-07-23T12:15:00.000-07:00

I made rice pudding this week, it was a big hit with everyone.

Ingredients

200g pudding rice

100 g sugar (I used my vanilla caster sugar)

1.5 litre semi skimmed milk

nutmeg

Method

Heat the oven to 150, or 130 for fan assisted

grease the dish

Stir all the ingredients in the bowl together and that's all you have to do.

Pop your dish of rice pudding mix in the oven. I checked mine every 20 mins and gave it a good stir, though you don't have to I think its creamier if you stir it more.

After about an hour and ten minutes you need to keep check on your pudding though it could take up to two hours to be how you like it. Mine took about 1hr 25 mins, its all down to personal taste.

Sprinkle some nutmeg on the top. If you like a crusty top then you could finish it off in the grill or simply not stir for the last 30 mins.

DEVIL RABBIT

2009-07-23T02:58:00.000-07:00

Dougal was out all night it seems. I mean OUT loose in the garden with the driveway gates open onto a road and foxes roaming about.

Roy swears both rabbits were in the hutch last night when he fed them so there is only one other explanation ........

Dougal is a devil rabbit he must have opened his hutch, got out, then bolted his hutch again so that Zebedee couldn't escape. After THE GREAT ESCAPE he merrily had a feast on my nasturtium window boxes which were on the ground.

BLUE PENGUINS & RAIN

2009-07-21T12:39:00.000-07:00

It didn't rain much on Sunday! Well it did but it did not spoil our day at the zoo. Sunday was Roy's birthday and when he woke he announced he wanted to go to the zoo. For those who know Belfast Zoo you will understand what I am going to say - this is the same zoo that I vowed last year to never visit again! It's built on a hill, the little ones have previously struggled to get up the hill and we have only ever seen half of the exhibits in one day. This day being no different we pushed on up the hill first in the hope that the children would find it easier to see the zoo in reverse. Ellis was giving off big time shouting out that he thought we were there to see the animals not go mountain climbing. Once we got to the top, after several pit stops sheltering from the heavy rain showers, the kids were great. We did manage to see all the animals and there were no further issues.

A wooden rhino!

A terantula! (it's a big one)

Ashley

Summer

Hollie

Ellis

Oh and this is a blue penguin! HONEST! We were watching the penguins, Ashley got noticeably excited and exclaimed he just saw some blue penguins. DER!!

NOT MY CHILD MONDAY

2009-07-20T16:02:00.000-07:00

It wasn't my eldest child who accidentally broke the window in our porch this morning.

IT'S NOT ME MONDAY

2009-07-20T15:55:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

It's not me that bought myself a new pair of Sketchers shoes whilst out shopping for my husbands birthday present.

It's not me who has hidden said shoes in the corner of the bedroom, it's not me who will put them on one day and pretend I have had them for months and told him about them ages ago.

It's not me who is too lazy to pair up all the socks, and makes the children have competitions to see who pairs up the most.

It's not me who ate all the ripe cherry tomatoes from my next door neighbours tomato plants.

It's not me who ate the largest piece of birthday cake this evening. It wasn't even that nice a cake, football pitch, bright green food colouring YUCK.

It's not me who was stupid enough to hang her washing out side to dry just moments before the rain came on.

It definitely wasn't me who dropped my 6year old's plaster cast of her hand. The same plaster cast she made last week and painted silver and stuck it to a paper plate.

OUR FAMILY HAS EXPANDED

2009-07-14T12:26:00.000-07:00

Our family has grown once again. Long story too so I will only tell you the short one.

Roy has been wandering in and out of pet shops lately looking for rabbits! Not looking for lost rabbits but wanting to buy some for the children. With a rabbits comes an array of equipment so it was going to cost.

Just so happened that a very nice lady was on freecycle last night giving away her two rabbits, and their hutch. The lady seems very happy that we have taken the rabbits though I cant help feling she wil miss them a little bit.

Anyway one rabbit exchange later .......

Here is Dougal (previously known as Del Boy)

Here is Hollie with Zebedee (previously Darcy)

Summer is not so sure!

GROOMSPORT BY NIGHT

2009-07-08T11:52:00.000-07:00

You would not believe that so many people can squeeze into a tiny little village. Well they can and here is the proof! Groomsport celebrates the 4th of July in real style. The fireworks were awesome and the music was good, it cant get much better than that.

GROOMSPORT BY DAY

2009-07-08T11:48:00.000-07:00

BANANA JAM

2009-07-08T09:12:00.001-07:00

You can use up all your mushy old brown bananas by turning them into jam.

1kg bananas (between 7 & 12) I simply pro rata the recipe
100ml Lemon juice
750g sugar (warmed opt)

Place all the ingredients in a good heavy pan.
Bring to the boil which happens very quickly.
Keep stirring periodically

turn the heat down to medium and cook for 2o minutes

then Summer for a further 15 - 20 mins

you know the jam is ready when it turns a nice red colour.

remove any scum

Spoon immediately into clean warm jars and seal. Turn upside down for two minutes then back up and leave to cool.

Store in a dark place for 6 - 12 months. Refrigerate after opening.

EXCUSE THE LAYOUT

2009-06-19T14:56:00.001-07:00

Please be patient with me - I am trying out a new layout! If my blog does not look right this is the reason why.

Wish Me Luck

2009-06-19T00:38:00.000-07:00

Got rice milk to try this morning ...

Just now I am hovering over a cup of raspberry tea. Although raspberry tea sounds nice I am going to have to get used to not drinking 'real' tea in the morning.

I shall update on the milk situation.

HUNGER PANGS

2009-06-18T03:34:00.000-07:00

I am hungry.

I am cross with myself for two reasons, first is having these tests (not really), second is waiting so long to have these tests.

I have always had allergies and intolerances to since I was born. These allergies were not properly diagnosed till I was grown up. My parents struggled to find food that I would eat so took it upon themselves to hold me down and force feed me. This in turn made me very ill and have given me some serious food phobias.

All my adult life I have enjoyed preparing food but not eating it. I can't eat out as a rule, I am very particular so it would take me to really trust the chef in order to eat. I can however manage a curry made specially by the chef for me at the Phoenix in Bangor!

So here my food journey continues. Discovering what I previously thought were food phobias are actually allergies and realising this is my body's built in safety mechanism is a good start. Thattogether with my already known allergies I can move on and get healthy.

I have been asked in the past "why don't you just eat ...?" when faced with a meal, but at least now I can answer with confidence that I can't eat that food.

Back to now, I am starving! Can't eat cheese, can't eat ham, need to go cook some chicken to keep for my lunch. Breakfast is a tricky one too, can't have milk for cereal, don't like soya milk (it's rotten, have you ever tried it?). Need to find some nice tea you can drink without milk. I did manage a cereal bar this morning, of which we had two in the house (probably out of date!), I didnt enjoy the bar and struggled to swallow it so there is no way I am going to be able to eat one of those every morning.

This also explains where Ellis has got his casein allergy from, I know how he feels now.

Sent from my iPhone

Food Allergies!

2009-06-17T14:00:00.000-07:00

I have to post this as it is so weird.

I always knew I had certain food allergies, I am badly allergic to nuts, fish, onions among other things. Well the last while has been a struggle, yeah sure I am over weight and all that so it is prove I DO actually eat. My problem is I have never been able to eat food unless I have prepared it myself as I would always end up so ill. I have had so many highs and lows lately with regard to food I decided to get some allergy testing done.

Some of the results in part were not a surprise, but some things were a shock to me. With this information I hope I can adapt my lifestyle and diet to improve my health, and with a bit of luck speed up my weight loss in the process.

The results ...

Cow's milk
Cheese
Turkey
Salmon
Sardine
Prawn
Plaice (apparently Tuna is okay but I don't like Tuna)
Onion
Beetroot
Kiwi fruit
Almonds
Hazelnuts
Beer
Red Wine

Oh and some food additives
E102 Tartrazine
E251 Sodium nitrate (which is the preserve found in bacon, ham, sausages, processed meats)

Just wondering what I CAN eat now ... looks like BBQs are out then. On a serious note I am hoping that cutting all the foods out that make me ill can help improve my health. With some of the less allergic foods I will be able to reintroduce them at a later date.

SUNDAY STROLL - JUST PHOTOS

2009-06-15T13:05:00.000-07:00

Sunday walk with six children.

BURNT OFFERINGS & BUNNY CHILDREN

2009-06-15T12:52:00.001-07:00

Last week where we live the weather was very pleasant indeed. This fair weather unusual for our area, last year we had two good weeks of nice weather in May then it rained virtually every single day until October! So when the sun shines we tend to take advantage of it.

We got ourselves a new picnic table - both our old ones had seen better days.

This meant we didn't have to sit on the ground to eat our burnt food!
My husband's cooking, kidding, actually not kidding he cooked it but technically it wasn't his fault (so he says) the sausages got burnt! (And I believe him too!)

My bunny rabbit children!

Photo Time

2009-06-14T12:32:00.000-07:00

Just messing around with the camera today!

My new hair!

2009-06-14T08:20:00.000-07:00

I got red in my hair though you cant really make it out in the photos! Anyways this is what I look like now.

Let Me Eat Please! - June 10th

2009-06-10T05:34:00.001-07:00

I was sittng at our very nice, very new out door table at lunch time today with some salad. The same 10 seater table we bought from IKEA less than 24 hours ago. You would think that a bowl of salad was not very interesting but yet I had 4 children leaning over the table, and my bowl begging. One wanted tomato, one cucumber, one did not care what they got and yet put a salad on their plates and listen to the noises of disdain that follow.

I fobbed them all off with a promise of ice cream this evening if they left me alone to eat. We just got an ice cream maker so far its a big hit.

ULSTER AMERICAN FOLK PARK

2009-06-04T12:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we took a trip to the Ulster American Folk Park over near Omagh. It was a long day for us all but certainly worth it.
"The museum tells the story of emigration from Ulster to America in the 18th & 19th centuries and provides visitors with a "living history" experience on its outdoor site. Costumed demonstrators go about their everyday tasks in the traditional manner in authentically furnished Old and New World buildings." exert from http://www.folkpark.com/

The museum is well laid out, you follow the path through the Irish side where you get to look in period houses and see how the people of Ireland used to live. In each house there was a character who talked to the children and explained what their jobs were and how they lived. The children were amazed with the stories they were told, and got to try various things all hands on. I even signed Ashley up for a seven year apprenticeship with a blacksmith!

When you finish with the Irish side you go to the docks, step on a ship ... this 'ship' takes you to America. You step off the other side of the ship where you can explore America! The photos I took were from both the Irish side and the American side.

The last of the holiday pics!

2009-06-04T05:48:00.000-07:00

The hotel/apartments at night - the side you see is the hotel side, we stayed in the apartments.

The beach at Vilamoura - the place for people with a few pounds in the bank!
Time for bed.

What time is it?

Thankfully this creature is in a cage!

Steady! The Dolphin show at Zoo Marine.

The dolphins waving good bye.

The 'Old Town', Albufeira

Sand Sculpture - here is one I made earlier!

The guy was really handsome - shame about the girl he was kissing.

The open air escalators! The strangest thing you ever did see.

Last of the children - Hollie

2009-06-04T05:38:00.000-07:00

3 Sleeping Babies - we pushed the beds together for them, every night when we checked on them they ere laying in different positions.

Ellis

2009-06-04T05:25:00.000-07:00

Some photos with Ellis in, I promise there are not many more LOL!

Ashley In Portugal

2009-06-04T05:19:00.000-07:00

First of many photos ...... Summer!

2009-05-31T03:04:00.000-07:00

Okay - once again I took far too many photographs while we were on our holiday. I decided to split them into groups - the first group is Summer.

Summer loves beer!

Sand Angels

Say "Cheese!"

It Rained!

2009-05-23T10:00:00.000-07:00

For all of ten Minutes it rained today! Once again the weather is
glorious, much warmer than I ever anticipated.

The taxi driver was saying it's really quiet just now, more like
march . . . I can agree with that, considering that this is
the Algarve, and it's the holiday week I would have expected it to
be much more busy.

We visited a town called Vilamoura today, supposedly the home of the
rich and famous. We did not see anyone famous but there was plenty of
evidence of the rich. The marina was out of this world, rows and rows
of millions of pounds worth of boats. Cars we could never afford, and
plenty of expensive wares to buy. Needless to say we managed a few ice
creams and drinks - that was it. The beach could have been anywhere,
I got loads of photos to download when we get home. If you could
imagine a beautiful carved wooden four poster bed with cushions and
canopies, place that bed and many others like it on a sublime golden
beach then you would be here - here where I was today.

Sent from my iPhone

On the beach

2009-05-23T08:07:00.000-07:00

Zoo Marine

2009-05-21T12:00:00.000-07:00

We visited Zoo Marine, the day started overcast so it was perfect to
ensure we had no sun burn casualties.
Poor Hollie, she was so sick today, unfortunately we had already paid
€30 each so we had no choice but to see how she got on.
We saw various shows, the two I liked most were the dolphin show, and
the sea lions.

There was a 4D cinema there, it was really funny as during the
film there was breeze and water droplets blown over the audience. Poor
Ellis almost jumped put of his skin when a 4D shark came swimming up!

We also had fun on the theme park rides, most of them were geared for
younger kids. We got soaked a couple times on the water rides too.

All in all it was a good day, took loads of photos which I will post
when we get home.

Sent from my iPhone

Portugal Has Got Talent

2009-05-19T14:32:00.000-07:00

Firstly, Summer, she is so much better today. Her medicine worked and
I can honestly say we have our happy little girl back.

We started the day with a 'quick' hour by the pool, just so we could
relax and plan our day. That proved to be as short lived as Roy's
patience. After me walking that sick girl up and down and round the
hotel gardens yesterday Roy could not hack doing the same for 20
minutes this morning. Testing time this was for myself and the
children. That incident sorted we jumped on the train and headed for
the famous, perhaps infamous, Strip. I saw a naked Indian, am only
sorry now I did not take photos - oh alright he was a dummy, very life
like though, and I am not talking about his face. We walked our
little legs off, had lunch, took photos, then hopped back on the train.

The next stop was the old town, which
once again proved an interesting sight. They have a daily Market,
with stalls selling a vast array of goods. Plenty to see and spend
your money on.

Went to the beach after that, there is something about Algarve beaches
that makes them special - you have to be there to understand. The
kids had brilliant time playing in the sand, and me, I topped up my
tan in all the places that needed it.

This evening back at the apartments saw the children rehearsing and
performing in a talent show - much fun was had by all. Ashley was
compere, Summer danced to Barbie Girl, Hollie sang and danced to my
favourite Mica's Lollipop. Ellis he was just plain funny and told a
stack of jokes. Summer could not have Ellis being the only comedian so
she did an encore of her own made up jokes . . . Now she was funny!

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Sunny again

2009-05-18T16:02:00.000-07:00

Another sunny day in the Algarve over. Temperature each day seems to
be climbing, with a forecast of sunshine I am not one to complain.

Sadly for us we have been limited in how far we can go. Summer has
been I'll, her fever has been spiking at 103 the last couple of nights.
By day she has been listless and unable to eat without vomiting.
Summer also had not been to the toilet for seven days now, and I am
sure this is the cause of her illness. Setting ourselves up to the
fact that we may have to get medical treatment we come to realize that
we don't have our E1 11 cards with us. That would mean an automatic
bill, which is not an issue but certainly a nuisance. Anyway I went
to a particular pharmacist, who I was assured was as good as a doctor
by our reps to ask for advice. Great place, ticket system, speak good
English ...
They gave Summer some laxatives and told me that nothing will happen
today buy we will see plenty action tomorrow. On a positive note
Summer seemed to pick up this evening, she actually wanted to go to
the disco. I am sure the morning will be a turning point for her now
and we can get back to fully enjoying our holiday. It's not all
negative, Summer being I'll has ensured that I have been able to relax
for a couple of days.

We are pretty much set up here, there is a shopping centre behind our
hotel with a huge supermarket. I have never seen such a wide range of
products, especially the fruit and veg section. There is an optician
and it's great too, they fixed Ellis's broken glasses free of charge,
can't beat that for service.

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