Going by in a blur

Life moves pretty fast.. 

(ten points if you get the movie quote!)

What have we been up to? The usual but we've had birthdays, a Cub camp, a Scout camp, a school residential, not to mention unemployment, days out, a new camera, a new iPhone and days dreaming of a holiday!

The eldest attained her Silver award from Cubs and was invited to attend an awards day, where as well as receiving a commemorative woggle and certificate, there were also activities to enjoy, she loves a good zip wire but this one was so high I wasn't sure if her fear of heights would kick in, several Beavers cried at the top and couldn't do it, I'm not sure I could!

But I should have known she'd be fine!

She's now become a Scout and suddenly from being an elder Cub Sixer she's now one of the youngest newbies. It's a real big change as the age range is 10 1/2 to 14, so some of them look much older! She's already been on her first Scout camp though and lived to tell the tale, she enjoyed having a go at archery and doing fire lighting and knife skills. 

We had the annual St. George's Day parade in March where I very proudly watched both my girls take part. It's great to see how many people are involved and enjoy the movement.

The eldest also turned Eleven last month! It's a cliche but I'm not sure how that happened, she's also turned into a fully fledged phone addict, as she'd happily stay plugged into Minecraft YouTube videos all day if we let her, it's even taken over her book reading habit, which I'm very sad about. I keep hoping the novelty will wear off soon, how many videos can StampyCat have made?!

With her Minecraft addiction, it meant that of course deciding on a birthday cake theme would be easy!

I think I preferred it when they were small and had no expectations on my decorating skills!

It was also my Birthday and the eldest did me a fab painting of my favourite thing - a cuppa!

I managed to use my Birthday money to finally join the rest of the world in having a smartphone, hurrah! So I've been mostly using the camera and getting to grips with Instagram.

After going a long time without a compact camera, I now have two! My iPhone and I also purchased an Olympus Pen EP-1 on Ebay, it's a Micro 4/3rds camera, so it's a bit like a hybrid between an SLR and a compact and I love it! 

We had a lovely family Bank Holiday visit to Cogges for the Festival of the Fleece

and we all had a go at paper plate weaving, which even the littlest enjoyed.

So busy I've not even done anything crafty, I'm thinking I might treat myself to a day off work to remedy that ;)

Cogges Easter Fun

Well where did that easter school holiday go?! Working part-time always means a juggle of childcare and holiday days taken, so school holidays are never restful but I'm very lucky to have a lot of help from my parents, especially for the older two. With the weather getting nicer it's easier to find things to do to make the days go quicker, and this holiday all of us have spent many days down the road at Cogges Manor Farm.

We were very lucky with the weather as we had some cracking days, it was even ice-cream weather!

The eldest two enjoyed the new parts of the play park, which included a rope swing, which try as she might my eldest 10 year old just couldn't do, every day we went she tried but to no avail, we had to admit she was too big for it as her legs kept dragging in the mud :( It's no fun being almost as tall as your mother when you're only ten - it's also impossible to find clothes, but that's another story!

On Wednesday we enjoyed cake decorating in the kitchen.

On Thursday we enjoyed adding to the rag rug that's in progress.

And we all enjoyed dressing up!

When we got home, I was inspired to get my own rag rug back out, so I've started adding to it again.

We also found some new geocaches near us and even managed to pick up a trackable, which we enjoyed seeing online where it's been (Germany & the US), we hope to drop this off soon and get it on it's way.  We've also been trying to scout out good places to make our own first cache.

Who needs an expensive holiday when all this was right on our doorstop!

A Christmassy Weekend

I was in denial about Christmas coming up, but after this weekend there is no doubt, everywhere you looked there were signs!

First off on Saturday it was our annual pilgrimage to the Christmas Vintage and Handmade Fair in Chipping Sodbury and I'm afraid to say I was disappointed. I spent a total of £3 on vintage baubles and that was all that tempted me. 

It wasn't very Christmassy, there was nothing to my liking and yet again no upstairs, which meant the tea area was again in a poor position and we were unable to sit, so we left. 

Knowing that they made £900 on entrance fee alone, seems a bit poor, you could have had more tea area upstairs and more stalls. The uniqueness and quality of items has been waning recently so I won't be rushing to the next one, I think I preferred the one at the Corn Exchange, Devizes this year.

Happily our long drive was not wasted as there was the rival vintage fair around the corner, which had more vintage items to my liking and then over the road at the church we happened across the Crib Festival.  I had no idea what this was but thanks to my Mum who ventured inside it was marvellous, lots of local people/groups had made their own versions of a nativity scene, they ranged from the artistic to pre-school groups and they were all wonderful, such a lovely idea. There were several knitted versions, and the large version below is a full life-size knitted display which is touring around to raise money for a hospice charity, you have to see it up close it's amazing, so much work and so much yarn!

There were even real donkeys in the church!

A visit to Chipping Sodbury isn't complete without a visit to Hobbs House Bakery, there's a great gift shop on the corner and now it also boasts a Waitrose (which made parking easier !) and it also had a cafe which we'll definitely use next time and the play park was loved by my girls, after being herded around shopping!

Saturday didn't stop there for me as no sooner had I got home then it was time for me to head out for a night out with a meal and music to see Deacon Blue at the New Theatre, Oxford.

It was definitely worth it, there's something about live music that makes you feel alive and energised.

Sunday brought more Christmas spirit, in the morning was our school fair full of chocolates, tombola and a visit to Father Christmas.

After lunch we walked over to Cogges Farm Museum for their Christmas Fair and enjoyed browsing the stalls, seeing the knitted nativity in the kitchen and the girls were itching to get to the play equipment. It was so busy and it was lovely to see so many people there all enjoying the atmosphere.

Walking home there was the most fabulous sunset to close out the weekend.

Cogges

While most of the country was siting down to watch some tennis on Sunday afternoon, we decided to use our free 1 day ticket to Cogges.

I hadn't been this year and the kids and Granny had very excitedly won their competition last week to make the best scarecrow! The prize for which was a day ticket.

The investment in making it more fun for kids is very evident, out the front is a fabulous new wooden tractor and slide area which the 1 year old loved!

Out the back behind the house, in the old moat area is now the most fantastic wooden castle/fort, with zip wire, slides, another climbing frame, a wobbly bridge and a swing.

The construction is beautiful, very sturdy and lots of possibilities for fun, the eldest liked the zip wire, I liked the climbing and the 7 year old liked the balancing beams (old tree trunks!)

The weather was absolutely scorching but the shade in the orchard was welcome for our lunch-time picnic. Owing to the tennis and the heat, it was blissfully quiet!

As always the walled garden is stunning and we enjoyed the biscuits, courgette cake and griddle cakes in the kitchen!

On the front lawn is a croquet set, which all the girls (and Daddy!) enjoyed. In the stables is also a new, small soft play area which the youngest enjoyed.

We'll definitely be back, a season ticket for the summer holidays is going to be good value and well used!