Birthday celebrations

Well this year's birthday celebration was a first...although a trip to the seaside wasn't that unique...a trip to Peppa Pig World certainly was!

Even when Baby R was just a bump we promised E a trip if he was a good big brother and he really has been. Always wanting to kiss her, always telling me if she is crying and always putting her dummy back in. So another deal had been made.

We drove down to the coast on my birthday in one go, not bad going for a 3 hour drive with an 8 week old and a 3 year old. We went for lunch in the lovely Lymington at a really nice boutique hotel, Stanwell House Hotel, which offered a great lunch and children's menu. A great find considering we were about to go in to a Costa for a sandwich! After a feed for all of us we headed down to find the sea and had an ice cream at the harbour.

We then set off to continue the journey to Bournemouth to check into our room for the night, a Premier Inn Family Room. A sleep on the way revived us all (apart from our driver, Mr B!) and after a little play in our hotel room, possibly the biggest I have ever seen, we headed down to Bournemouth for dinner.

If I have ever been to Bournemouth then I can't remember it but we were pleasantly impressed. A very long beach, a pier to wander down, boats to spot and money to 'gamble'. Time was ticking on and tummy's rumbling so we went to find somewhere to eat. I had seen Aruba mentioned in a leaflet and am so glad we decided to try it, despite the many stairs to get in. It was as much a bar as it was a restaurant but the atmosphere and music with it being my birthday was perfect. Some great menu choices, especially for vegetarian Mr B and I even had a cheeky glass of wine.

 

 

 

The perfect birthday, even if E didn't go to sleep til about 11pm!

The next day meant Peppa Pig World and despite us trying to leave early we were too busy eating breakfast. Even though we didn't arrive until 11am it wasn't too busy, and was much better than I was expecting. Paulton's Park where it is based was very well looked after, lovely gardens but the Peppa Pig area was clearly the place to be. We probably queued for a maximum of 40 minutes for any one ride and went on Daddy Pig's cars, Peppa's house, the Dinosaur Adventure, Helicopter Flight, Grandpa Pig's little train (baby R even joined us on that one), Grandpa Pig's boat trip and the play area. The food was reasonable and there were plenty of places to sit and park the buggy. We would definitely go back but might try and wait a couple of years first!

We left around 4pm and with a sleepy E in the car headed back. After freshening up at the hotel we decided that Poole harbour was worth a visit. There was a Mini meet on the harbour so there was lots of reminiscing from me about my first car, and no interest whatsoever from E. We walked around  for a bit and chose Pizza Express for dinner, a bit of a cop-out but you know it will always be good.

Soon it was Saturday and our last day. Despite being at the seaside for a couple of days we still hadn't ventured on to the sand and with a day of sun forecast we headed to Boscombe Beach. It was only a 10 minute walk according to Google and after a look on satellite view it looked like we could walk their via a park. Well I am glad I found that shortcut, it was beautiful. Called the Boscombe Chine Gardens it was a Victorian park with an adventure golf course and great kids playground. Well we were more than impressed when we reached the seafront, it was stunning. First, a quick stop at a shop to buy a towel and couple of bottles of water, we had not come prepared for the Mediterranean temperatures! A walk along the front and we picked our spot on the beach and dragged the pushchair kicking and screaming on to the sand, I am not loving having to take the pushchair everywhere again! Within 30 seconds E and Mr B were paddling and then I headed in for R's first paddle. It was obviously met with cries but that's another milestone passed. After a couple of hours on the beach, two wet boys and two hot girls we headed for lunch. We spotted Urban Reef, a great modern looking, family friendly restaurant. The food was very nice and I went all out and ordered half a lobster. Well it was my birthday weekend after all.

We headed home with the usual conversations of 'shall we move to the seaside' knowing we never will. But we were refreshed and bizarrely slightly sun kissed!

Until the next time, seaside x

I'm linking up with Country Kids again, championing the outdoors!

First birthday celebrations

A very belated post but things have been a little busy around here, but we certainly celebrated E's first birthday making a full weekend of it.

On Friday, his actual birthday, we opened some presents, went to the zoo and had some cake, just the three of us.

On Saturday we had a small family party, opened some more presents, eat some more cake and played with new toys.

On Sunday we did some more playing and eat some more cake with friends.

It was perfect in every way and E had a great time. Yes, I still can't believe he is one but I am just about getting used to the fact that he is no longer a baby and is definitely a toddler. My toddler.

x

Some bargains, a sunrise and a bit of cash...

I haven't posted in what seems like an age. I just don't seem to have been finding the time for the online world recently. E is drinking less milk, therefore severely cutting down on the few minutes here and there to catch up on Twitter and my other free evening/Mr B is home from work time has been taken up by starting to look for and apply for jobs.

Nevermind, I am sure times will change again soon but I have so many posts floating around in my head - a belated write up from our holiday, something about jobs and looking for those elusive part-time jobs, and sharing some pretty things with you.

And on that note I thought I would share with you some of the bargains I picked up at Sunday's car boot sale. At 6pm on Saturday night I decided that I wanted to stand and sell at a car boot sale the next morning. Umm, me and my great ideas. There I was in the loft in the dark, rummaging through boxes to find potential car boot items. As always there was a wealth of stuff. Books, DVDs, unwanted presents, you know the kind of thing. Mr B loaded the car for me and the next morning I was up at 5.30am to get on my merry way.

Perhaps unsurprisingly it was dark when I set off, so with headlights on and a flask of tea I drove down the deserted lanes to the car boot field. All set up by 6.30am and having managed to avoid all the early morning peering into your car boot types I stood and enjoyed the sunrise. I found it all actually, quite relaxing!

The hardest bit was not being able to go round all the tables at that precious grab a bargain stage of the day because I was stuck on mine. The time however flew by and it wasn't long before it was 10.30am and my Mum and Dad appeared, followed shortly by Mr B and E to give me a break.

Finally, I could make my escape. And boy was it worth it. Here is my haul...

Some lovely Hornsea Tapestry storage jars for 50p each. I've wanted some new tea and coffee canisters for ages and haven't been able to find the right ones, and couldn't justify the cost of these Orla Kiely ones, well not for three anyway!

Now unfortunately I can't take credit for this one as it was Mr B spotted it but we picked up this print for £2 and it looks perfect in our lounge, currently on top of the fireplace in a shiny new frame. We think it is from the 1950's and was certainly in its original battered frame and seems to be number 14 of 450 made. The deer are from a car boot earlier in the year which I got for £1 for the two.

 

This one was also for Mr B, the cocktail shaker not the Roberts radio. Again I think it is 1950's and is pressed glass but looks a treat on Mr B's alcohol shelf. I'm pretty sure it will be for display purposes only but being as it was thrown in with the storage jars you can't complain!

Finally, we couldn't forget E. We got all these clothes for a £1 for when he's a bit older. Some great cords, dungarees, jumper and cool check shirt.

So not bad for a mornings work, I took just over £100 on our stall, it cost £10 to stand and hire a table and we spent about £5. But most importantly I had a great time and have loved having some cash in my pocket that 'I' have earnt.

Now I just need to work out how to break the news to Mr B that I am thinking about going again this week!

[ . . Wonderful Week . . ] Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside...

Since little E arrived we haven't ventured very far, in fact we hadn't been out of the Midlands together as a family but this week that all changed.

Mr B's best friend has fairly recently moved down to Kent so we invited ourselves to stay were invited down for a long weekend. I have been craving the sea for a while now. It is the only real place I feel free and love breathing in the fresh air, looking out on to the vast sparkling water and hearing the relaxing waves.

It certainly didn't disappoint, which is surprising really as I had been so excited all week leading up to it, even the 6 hour journey down there couldn't dampen my spirits.

Mr B and I were very excited about it being E's first time seeing the sea and we were keen to go for a paddle. The weather was certainly on our side so off to Whitstable beach we went, gritted our teeth as we walked over the stones and in to the freezing cold clear sea. E obviously didn't know what was going on but was fascinated with the water, constantly moving and sparkling in the sun.

The following day we headed off to the south coast. We walked along Camber Sands with E in the baby carrier kicking away in his sun hat.

It was perfect. In fact, the time together we spent on Camber Sands beach was lovely, hearing all the children play, enjoying a good cup of English tea discussing how we could do it more often. Move to the seaside? Not really an option these days. Have a seaside holiday every year? Is that really enough. Rent a holiday home for 3 months a year? Now we're talking :)

So, after coming back down from cloud nine we made the long journey back home smiling that we had had our first family seaside break. We really can't wait for the next one now.

I'd love to hear your recommendations for baby family places to visit. x

The Gallery: Trees - Thinking of Japan

I haven't really had chance to blog in the past couple of weeks due to our new little arrival, but at the minute I am trying to keep up with The Gallery and Silent Sunday just to keep me sane :)

This week's prompt is trees. I had hoped to get out in the garden with the SLR as there are lots of buds that seem to have suddenly appeared but this was a little unrealistic. So instead I raided the archives again.

I went straight to our photos of Japan, as I am sure it is in all of our minds since recent events. Crazy to think that we were there a just under a year ago! We saw many beautiful trees in Japan but this photo really captures it for me. Wishing Japan some brighter days.

Why not have a look at the other entries here.

The Gallery: Togetherness - in the sunshine

So for this week's gallery the prompt was 'togetherness' inspired by Valentine's Day.

Mr B and I have never really 'done' Valentine's Day, except for maybe our first Valentine's Day which was only a few weeks after we had met. Mr was still in 'impressing' mode and had booked a table at a local restaurant but when we arrived the restaurant had no record of it. I remember it clearly now, even though it was 9 years ago, his face dropped and he looked so worried. Anyway, it was all sorted and we had a lovely night.

Since then we always celebrated our anniversary in January which seemed too close to do Valentine's Day as well. Then this year, with all the baby craziness we both forgot our January anniversary so have decided to stick to OUR special day. Our wedding anniversary in June.

So for me togetherness is about our wedding but I couldn't choose a wedding photo as I hadn't taken the photo so teamed with going through some old memory cards I discovered photos from our honeymoon. We went to Singapore, Bali and Hong Kong and the two I have selected are from our relaxing time in Bali. I was going to choose just one but I thought they made a good pair.

So there we have it although we had been together for 6 years before our wedding, it really did formalise everything for me - true togetherness.

However, as the next few weeks progress and with the arrival of little Baby B I am sure I will have a new definition of togetherness.

Why not take a look at all the other entries for this week's gallery here.

The Gallery: Mother nature on a good day

I really enjoyed taking part in The Gallery last week for the first time and feeling part of a community. So I was very excited when I saw this week's topic posted, Mother Nature, and the encouragement to get out and really 'use' a camera.

I did a photography course a few years ago which introduced me to manual SLR cameras and their features. I loved it. I borrowed Mr's Dad's Pentax K1000 which got me back to basics. Shortly afterwards we decided to invest in a digital SLR, the Canon EOS 300D which is continuing to serve us well. Once we got it, to be honest, I got a bit lazy and started to use the 'auto' function more than I should. In order to spark my interest again last year I bought a Macro lense for it. It was nothing special, very cheap but is good enough for me. I hope to be using it, and the manual camera features a bit more this year as part of my 30 before 30 project.

So, to capture a photo for the theme Mother Nature - unfortunately, the weather has not been kind in the last week and has been very grey and rainy not making it great for photos. I used this as an opportunity to look back over old photos, it didn't take long as I have only recently been looking at the hundreds of photos we took in Japan last April.

So, with cherry blossom a plenty in Japan I went a little macro crazy :).



I hope it brightens your maybe otherwise grey day, it certainly did for me. I'm now off to enjoy everyone's contributions here. Thanks for stopping by!

London

I was in London for a couple of days this week for work. I am always intrigued by the underground: the light, people, patterns etc. I also spend most of the time looking at my feet to make sure I don't fall over!

Floor, originally uploaded by theprojectlab.

Escalator, originally uploaded by theprojectlab.

Going up escalator, originally uploaded by theprojectlab.

Outside lifts, originally uploaded by theprojectlab.

It wasn't until I looked at the photos this morning that I realised how grey everything is. It was a rainy day.

x

Planning the big trip

Japan, originally uploaded by theprojectlab.

Well the 30th (not mine!) birthday distraction is booked. Now to plan what we will actually do and see.

x