Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Merry Christmas everyone!!

AJ and little Z were very pleased with the Christmas presents they received from Mummy and Daddy and the special surprises from Santa. Little Z has been out already to try out the new bike and AJ has been surgically attached to the Kindle Fire since it was opened!


Friday, December 21, 2012

You have so got to view this!!


Look out for elf no 5 on the back row!!!!

Who needs Nigella or Jamie??!!!!

Whilst in hospital Mrs H watched a baking programme and really liked a cupcake recipe. Last weekend, I finally got to try it out to rave reviews from the family and Mrs H's work colleagues.


 
Mrs H also decided to try making something using filo pastry which she had never done before. Behold the feta, spinach and sun-dried tomato filo pie which was delicious.
 

 

A singer in the making

Little Z took part in a musical theatre Christmas production where she had a solo spot with her own microphone! She was so cute and Mummy cried!


Visit to Santa's grotto..

Which was on a double decker bus this year!!!! It was actually very effective and he was a very jolly Santa too!

Meet Boris

Somehow AJ managed to get Mrs H to agree to the adoption of a Russian dwarf hamster who was then named Boris. I blame my lapse of willpower on the cumulative effects of all the general anaesthetics I have had recently!!! He is actually very cute and being a dwarf hamster, only stays tiny (he is about the size of a golf ball).

Are We Nearly There Yet?

Was the title of little Z's school Christmas concert. One town crier outfit later!!! It was very enjoyable and little Z had the opening line of the production!!


X-rated logs

Grandma took great delight in showing us the anatomically correct logs she found when setting the fire. If you can't see what they resemble, I am not explaining it!!!

Movember

Mr H took part in the Movember challenge to grow a moustache - mmm maybe not!!

Happy Hallowe'en

The costumes were a bit on the scary side this year!!!


Badminton success for AJ

Ont same day as little Z's party, AJ was taking part in an U`13 badminton tournament. He did brilliantly and won the boys doubles trophy and came runner up in both the boys singles and the mixed doubles.It was a long hard day for him and the singles final was particularly thrilling. He made us all very proud.


Just two weeks later, he was competing in the U15 tournament and made the semi finals for the boys doubles which was a great result.

Happy Birthday little princess!


We can't believe that little Z is 7 already!! Mummy was discharged from another stay in hospital on her birthday which was fantastic timing. Grandpa had arrived the night before which was a surprise for the birthday girl and we had a lovely family tea with Grandma who was already here looking after Mummy. The next day was the birthday party for school friends (hence 2 birthday cakes - please note the home made gingerbread men styled cake!!) - it was a Halloween mini Olympics themed party and there was 'pin the spider on the web; 'throw the skulls into the cauldron', a 'skeleton shy' and 'toss the balls at the ghosts'. Everyone had a great time!




Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Sept - Oct 2012

Was somewhat trying for all of us as Mrs H underwent numerous vists to hospital and ultimately quite major surgery. The road to recovery begins here.

Mrs H makes exceedingly good cakes.... Sept 2012

Trying out some new cake cases and the results were quite impressive.





Back to school - Sept 2012

Despite the horrible news last week, life carries on and the children are back at school already. AJ into year 8 and little Z into year 2. Don't they look gorgeous?




The start of a long road - 29th August 2012

This is the day/date that Mrs H was diagnosed with breast cancer and the start of a really challenging time for us a family.

Back home in Isle of Man - Aug 2012

All too soon the holiday was over and we were back in the Isle of Man. Mrs H and the children took a visit to Peel for ice cream and to watch the wild sea.


LFC - Aug 2012

Mrs H took AJ to watch the Liverpool - Man City game at Anfield before we returned back to the Isle of Man. Fantastic atmosphere and decent result (2-2 draw).


More days out - Aug 2012

Amongst others we did a trip to Donnington Park to see all the Formula 1 racing cars. We also went to the Robin Hood festival in Sherwood Forest.




Oakham town - Aug 2012

We went to discover the local town of Oakham which is a really pretty little town. We were lucky enough to visit when the farmer's market was on and enjoyed some local produce. The boutique shopping was great and Mrs H made some lovely purchases!! Unfortunately the Great British weather was kicking in by then and we had to take shelter under the Butter Cross. By the time we had got back to the windmill the heavens had opened.





Messing about on the water .. Aug 2012

Another day out was to Rutland Water.
Rutland Water is Anglian Water's drinking water reservoir in the county of Rutland, England, just east of the county town Oakham. It is one of the largest man made lakes in Europe and is the largest by surface area in England.
 
We decided to take a boat trip on the lake on the Rutland Belle and the 1 mile (ha ha) walk to the landing jetty was the longest mile I have ever walked in my life!!!! It was a hike though country pathways and the most enormous amount of sheep poo ever!!!
 
It was a nice outing though and the ice cream on the lakeside made it even better!!
 


 

Brotherly love ...... Aug 2012

AJ and little Z do actually manage to be nice to each other some times!!! The sun had come out on one of the few occasions whilst at the windmill so we took the chance to take some nice photos.

To infinity and beyond ....... Aug 2012

We took another day trip to the National Space Centre which was really impressive. As you can see from the pictures Mrs H and little Z are all ready for take off!!!!!


Sunday, October 28, 2012

A day out at the zoo - Aug 2012

One of our first day trips from the windmill was to Twycross Zoo. After some significant delays on the A road due to a car on fire, we eventually got there!! We had a great day and saw loads of animals.




A mouse lived in a windmill .....

OK well not a mouse exactly but the four of us on holiday for a week! Everyone should try living in a windmill - the stairs are not for the feint hearted!!!

 
 
Our windmill was in Morcott near Rutland and was set in lovely surroundings. One of our favourite activities was counting the number of wild rabbits on the lawns when we returned home each evening.
 

http://www.cottageguide.co.uk/thewindmill/

School's out! Aug 2012

It's the start of the school holidays - yeah!!



We visited Camera Obscura for the first time this year.

Camera Obscuras became popular in the Victorian time.  A single lens and mirror in a revolving turret above a darkened room projects a picture of the surrounding area. The first camera on this site was opened in 1887, though burned down within the same year. The present Great Union Camera Obscura located on Douglas Head was opened in the 1890s and is one of only a few open in the British Isles. The camera started out with 12 lenses for viewing the surrounding area, but was reduced to 11 lenses in order to better filter visitors through.

Curtain up! July 2012

Little Z has been rehearsing hard for the 2012 Christine Wild production and made us very proud with her musical theatre number "we're going to the country" and the ballet "Alice in Wonderland". She was so happy on stage - performer in the making!!

Am back!!!

Clearly I haven't been updating the blog for some time now and obviously for those who follow my blog you understand the reason for this. I am hoping to put some key entries from the last 4 months on to update you all.

Thursday, June 28, 2012

School Sports Day - Olympic style

Little Z had an all day sports day on Tuesday and with an Olympic games theme. All the children were in countries and little Z was representing Argentina !!!!!!!!
A great day was had by all and better still there were no parent participation events!!!

The opening night is getting closer

Zharah has been rehearsing really hard for the Christine Wild show Curtain Up which opens oin Monday night (2nd July).  Her WW2 evacuee costume is complete and has been given the thumbs up by the wardrobe mistress (giant thank you to Grandma who made the dress without a pattern and it is perfect!!).

Motor museum visit

During TT week we took a trip round the island and squeezed in a visit to a motor museum we had never been to before (that's terrible when you think how small the Isle of Man is and how long we have lived here for!!).  It was really interesting and there were some really unusual old vehicles there. This one had been in service in Malta up until a few months earlier. We loved the bright colours.

The fair came to town


During TT every year, the fair arrives on Douglas Promenade and this year Mr & Mrs H took little Z to the fair (AJ was at a sleepover). Not much for little ones to go on but she found enough to cost us a fortune and then topped it off with a giant bag of candyfloss!!!