Christmas Trip to Norfolk

We made our Christmas trip to Norfolk this week and saw almost all of my family and some really good friends.

Here we are with my Granny, she is 88 years old.  I also got to see my Uncle and Auntie and their children and grandchildren which was great.  

That made a full house for that side of the family!

This is the eagerly awaited family get together on Mum's side of the family, not quite everyone but only 4 cousins and therefore 4 of the next generation missing.  We talked of this at Granny's funeral and I am so glad we were able to do it thanks to Uncle John and Susie opening their home to us all.

Relationships and friendships renewed and built across the generations.

Quite a poignant trip all in all as it was our last one before Mum and Dad move but hopefully some of these faces will turn up in Wales in the coming years.

Not Posting!

Sorry to my followers but the computer is not enjoying blogger at the moment and keeps freezing so I am on a ban!

Excited

Since my parents decided to move nearer to us we have all been spending hours trawling the

 internet for suitable properties.

  

We have also been praying that the right thing would turn up at the right time.

Well this appears to be the results of all that searching and all those prayers.

The feeling when I walked in through the door confirmed to me that it is right!

We just need it to go through smoothly now.

Can't wait Mum and Dad to have you just up the road again!

All Trained Out

What a week!

First I spent two days in Caerphilly for an intensive phonics training course.

Eight of us went and we came back buzzing.  We couldn't wait to get started,

we felt inspired and just wanted to pass that enthusiasm on to the children.

It was just what we needed.

We start on monday.

Yesterday I had a meeting with a parent and an occupational health professional to discuss a for pupil.  She took time to explain to us what we could do to help and how I could implement the program using the skills I have during the day to help the pupil to progress.  

Then today I spent three and a half hours solid looking at my computer screen whilst being trained on the system we use to keep track of pupils attendance and details etc.

Fascinating and useful but tiring! 

I have learned this week that I love learning! 

Autumn at the Temple

The autumn colours at the Temple were beautiful this week.  Martha and I had a bit of a photo shoot in the grounds.  We got some lovely shots which I will scrapbook as soon as the prints get here.

Then we moved on to the Feeley's house for a visit on the way home.  It was great to spend time with our friends Oliver and Natalie and their beautiful children Bella and Jude.

Remember this little fellow?

Well here he is nearly 6 months old.

Flood Waters

As promised here are the photos from Monday's rain fall.

We have never seen it like this before in our garden.

The shed seems to be drying out ok but we won't know until we start the mower I guess.

There is not normally a river in this field just down the road from us!

Happy Thoughts

We have got the forecast rain and there has been lots and lots.  First day of the holidays and I think we may be stuck in doors.  Calvin and Gareth have gone out as it seems to have stopped for a bit so expect some photos later.  I think the road may be impassable by car.

Anyway........We need happy thoughts today!

Here are some snaps of the kids on Anglesey in the summer.

Lightening in Paradise!

This is really just an experiment to see if we could upload a video to the blog.

However this lightening storm in Sicily was something else, so I hope you get a flavour of it from this short section of what lasted all night.

Reminders

We were in a pet shop today buying hamster food and bedding and couldn't resist a look at the animals

I saw a cute fluffy grey rabbit  and called Martha over to see it.

She looked at it and said "It's little grey rabbit"

Isn't it funny how things can just remind you of someone.  When my granny was first taken ill and moved into my parents I sent her a picture taken from one of the Little Grey Rabbit series of books by Alison Uttley.  She used to read those stories to me when I was a child and they always remind me of her. I have been thinking about her lately anyway and Martha's comment just made me smile and think of Granny again. 

Then when I was putting something away in my room I bent down to arrange my bedside cabinet and there at the back were the two Little Grey Rabbit books that I had sent to Granny while she was living at my parents house.  There are many funny stories about these books, but I know that Granny loved them and I miss her today. 

Martha in London, day 2 part 1

Here I am at the back door of Buckingham Palace.  The Queen was not there, how rude! 

Peek a boo, I am on the steps looking out on the garden.

Here's the Palace through the trees.

Busy Week

 Martha and I have had a really busy week at school.  It has been Health week and we have had lots of activities to take part in.

There was a competition for a vegetable Character

Here is our vegetable creation.  Six of the vegetables come from our garden.

The headmaster judged the 7 entries and look what happened!

We held a sponsored "Big Bounce" event in aid of the Cystic Fibrosis Trust.  One of Martha's classmates has this condition so the children are aware of it and learned a bit about it.  They had a reward if they raised over £30 as an incentive. They raised over £1000 for the research charity.  It worked!!

On Wednesday the friends of the school held an early Halloween disco.  Granny's face paint set came in handy again!   

Sicily

Here are a few shots from my recent trip to Sicily.  It proved to be a really interesting visit which gave me lots of time to think and lots to think about.   I was very glad to be home and I think they all missed me here as I had lots of hugs when I got back.

My colleagues outside the school in Trabia.

The fantastic puppet museum in Palermo.

The view from my bedroom window!

Out in the streets of Trabia.

London---Day1 Part2 by Martha

A SPECIAL TREAT AT THE RAINFOREST CAFE

Daddy surprised me with dinner at the Rainforest cafe.  We told them this trip was my birthday treat.

This is me waiting for my food, wearing my birthday sticker.

There were lots of animals around the restaurant, here I am with the gorilla.

This mask was in my activity pack.

A starry night in the cafe.

My zebra dinner plate.

My birthday candle ice cream

Daddy and me at our table.

London--Day 1 Part 1 By Martha

The Science Museum and Natural History Museum

After an early start and a long bus journey Daddy and I arrived at our hotel but our rooms weren't ready. So we went to the nearest underground and rode it to the Science Museum and Natural History Museum.

It was fun and interesting.  We joined in interactive touch screens and demonstrations.

Here I am in space this summer.

Here I am outside the Science Museum

This is me at the Natural History Museum next to a snowy seal.

The Big Blue Whale is giant!

Scrapbooking and stuff

It must be about a year since I started this blog.

One of my first post was about scrapbooking I think.  Well today I decided to finish off a few pages I had started.  I couldn't resist posting these photos of the kids in Florida last year.

I found some great photos in the attic too so I managed a few other pages and have plenty more to work on.

Martha and Calvin are in London for the weekend and when they eventually called me at 9.45 tonight they were full of stories about the adventures.  Can't wait to fill you all in on the blog next week.

Just had to show you this

This was a couple of weeks ago.  We looked after Lily and Bella for the day.

I decided cupcakes would keep us amused for an hour.

After a few mishaps at the beginning we managed to shop for the sprinkles and cases,

bake and decorate our cakes.  

Martha was a great help in helping the girls take turns to decorate.

We had a great day!

Clowning Around

Grandad took Martha to the circus, she had never been before, she loved it! 

She went to buy a spinning plate and came back looking like this!

Caernarfon Castle

Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair

On the left we have..........something to do with Prince Charles!!

Watch where you are pointing that thing!!

Thursday

Most of us visited "Electric Mountain" which is a fascinating tour of a pumped storage power station built inside a mountain on the site of an old slate quarry.

Grandad doesn't do underground (or heights, or bridges, or lifts etc etc)

so he went fishing (he even wears his life jacket for that!) 

We then finished off the slate museum which we started on Tuesday morning while Ross supervised Grandad.

He only caught one thing all day and that was a Bicycle!!! 

I love to see the Preston Temple

A beautiful day to be in the grounds of the Temple.