Moving On

Many thanks for the supportive comments left on yesterday's post, much appreciated. I do get stressed about these things, I don't know why, I wish I didn't sometimes.
Clark started Karate a couple of weeks ago

He loved it, we went to watch him last week and Soloman was so impressed he wanted to have a go so he started this evening.
They will be back soon and I'm sure they'll be full of it.
I've just started knitting the neck of Cody's jumper and then I'll sew it up. With a bit of luck there will be a picture by the weekend.
That's about all for today.

Behind the scenes

We have a bit if a bullying situation going on in the road. Four Mums will now not let their children out, including me as their children have been bitten, pushed off walls (Cody) and just generally had abuse hurled at them.
I've not  blogged as I absolutely hate bullying and didn't want to turn my blog into one long rant. There's so much more than this that has gone on but I'd being posting something rather boring to a lot of people if I wrote it all !
I will post more but I need to be calm and over this last week that is something I've not been.
This child is eight! Yes, eight! Nothing can be done, she's underage, I can't have a go (although I have and so did the Dad of the bitten child!) The law has gone mad, the girls parents couldn't give a damn! I wouldn't mind but she doesn't even live in this road she just comes here to bully all the little ones.
I don't want my boys to hit back I want them to walk away, although sometimes I do wish they would come home and tell me that they'd punched her. I would point out the error of their ways but be secretly pleased! Is that bad?
There's more gone on but I just get so angry even thinking about it. I have rung the neighborhood police to find out what I can do and stay within the law at the same time which is basically nothing! If I shout, swear or threaten her she can call the police and I could be in trouble.
I want to get her by the scruff of the neck and make her clean my loo with a toothbrush!
Onto lighter things, two cakes that Clark made last week, a Victoria sandwich and a gorgeous lemon cake,

Life goes on and cakes are still baked!

Eurovision

It's a bit of a tradition in our house to settle down with nibbles and watch Eurovision.
Last night was no exception.
Although we were happy with the winning performance and song we did feel that there were others that were better.
I liked the Netherlands Country style song, Eden liked The Moustache song and one about a cliche!
The boys liked one where the men were all dressed up in different colored suits because they reminded them of The Wiggles!
They're children entertainers if you don't know them.
Here's a picture.

I know that Eurovision can get very political but we watch it as a fun family thing to do, eat nibbles, laugh hysterically at some of the acts and thoroughly enjoy having family time together.
There's not a lot of programmed you can do that too nowadays!
Did you watch?

Cooking and knitting

The back garden has been rotavated, the back lawn was mown,  seeds have been sown, seedlings planted out, dogs have been walked, schoolwork taught and various errands have been run. This dear reader is why I've not had a chance to blog the past few days.
It was Edens last day at school today, she has study leave on Monday and then her first exam on Tuesday, she then has either one or two exams every day until the middle of June. Although Half Term is at the end of this month so she'll have a week off to do even more revision.
It's funny to think a few more weeks on from here all those years ago I started work at her age. I can't imagine her going out full time to work. Nowadays they have to stay in education until they're eighteen.
Clark decided to make some biscuits on Tuesday evening, it looks like he's going to take after Callum with a flair for cooking
This is a picture from the book

These are Clark's, I only managed to get a picture of three of them as they were snapped up rather quickly.

I finally finished Callums chunky cable jumper, so here he is modelling it

I've started on Cody's fisherman's rib jumper with the wool that I bought the other week.

Whilst I was out this morning Callum decided to have a bit of a bake up and made these ginger biscuits

He also made this gorgeous fruit cake and a small oval sponge with chocolate chips in for Mum and Ed.
I've had some of the friut cake which was as ever up to his usual standard and was very nice indeed

Whilst Malc and the boys were traveling around working on Tuesday they came across these in a front garden for sale.
£10 the lot, bargain, so they snapped them up.

I've bought some fushias to put in them and I've got lots
of pretty flower seeds I can also sow in them.
Just need the nice weather to do that! This weekend is not looking good, heavy rain and strong winds forecast.
The boys want to get some more fish for their fishtanks tomorrow and I have to get some jogging bottoms for Clark as he's starting Karate next week and needs to wear something loose, he usually only wears jeans.
Another thing I hope to do over the weekend is read round some blogs as I've not had time to do that either!
Whatever you are doing I hope your weekend is productive and you keep dry!

Bank Holiday Sunshine

We went to Mums for lunch today, she only lives down the road so the children decided to ride down, even Eden.
I asked them if I could take a picture of them all as it's ages since I took one of them altogether and although Eden takes loads of "selfies" for Snapchat she wasn't keen!
I managed to persuade her and although both these pictures are very similar I'm going to put them both up so I can look back at this post and see them.

 We had a lovely lunch of jacket potatoes, cold meats and coleslaw, followed by Vienetta and/or trifle that Clark and I made last night.
When we got home Callum, Clark and I mowed the front lawn.

One of my neighbours (not a particularly nice one) hads spoken to me before about the boys mowing the lawn, I think her point is their age. I have looked this up and on various sites on the net it says that twelve is an acceptable age to mow, although there's no law on age. Clark is eleven and Callum is thirteen and a half.

Whenever the boys mow or strim Malc or myself are always behind them holding onto the leads so they don't go over them, I'm actually doing it in this picture whilst taking a photo, I'm clever like that!
They are always in sturdy shoes, Callum are actually steel toecaps.

Sometimes I think it's not all about a number, it's about teaching dangers, responsibility and trust.
I have one friend in particular who has a son Callums age and she frequently tells me she would not let her son mow their lawn but I think as long as the dangers are explained and they are supervised it's a life skill to be learnt.
The boys do lots of things that most people wouldn't say was educational but I think skills like this are just as important.
The boys are put now playing with their friends and although we had quite a filling dinner I'm sure it won't be long before they come in asking what they are having for tea so I'd better go and find something!

Chilled kind of day

This morning we went for a lovely walk over the heathland after going to Pets At Home to buy a new collar for Chumleigh and a dog harness for him and Tyxall hopefully to stop them pulling.
Last night Callum made some fairy cakes so we took some of them plus water bottles and set off.

 The views are amazing and the heathland just seems to go on forever.

Three hours later we returned home.
Callum and Clark have cleaned out their rabbits, Eden didn't come with us and had been revising all day for her exams which start in nine days!
I've made a trifle for pudding for tomorrow as we're going to Mums for lunch and I've also made a couple of little apple crumbles for Mum and a big one for us.
I haven't got a picture of the trifle as it's not "put together" yet but here are the crumbles.

I cooked the apple in a saucepan before adding the crumble but I've not cooked the whole thing as sometimes when you cook it to warm it up it tends to over brown the crumble, so I'll just wrap these and freeze them and take Mums up to her tomorrow.
I'm now going to sit and knit for a while, I've finished the back and two sleeves of the chunky cable jumper that was going to knit up quickly but in reality isn't going that fast!

Feast your eyes on this!

I've been so busy the last couple of days, just housework, visiting a friend who had a birthday, helping Mum, stuff like that.
Today whilst I was ironing Callum made this

It's a Frosted almond and raspberry ring

I think it's the best cake he's ever made and that I've ever tasted, it was incredible.
Clark made these, snowball cakes, it's a dough that you make into balls, cook, put jam on whilst they are still warm and then roll in coconut. I've not had one yet so I'll let you know how they taste next time.

We're meant to have quite a sunny weekend so I'm hoping to get some gardening done. We have nothing planned for tomorrow so I'm hoping to get up when we wake and just plod along doing what we want. Sunday we're at lunch at Mums and Monday is another day with no plans.
I say this but by the time it comes around I'm sure we'll have something to do.
Hope you have a good weekend whatever you're doing and I hope even more to reading about it on your blogs.