Babies and more ice cream.

Yesterday we went to visit my friend who had her baby last week.
Meet Zachery,

Clark loves babies so he had a cuddle,

Eden doesn't "do" babies but even she had a cuddle,

Yesterdays ice cream was strawberry.

Today's is meant to be banana but it's yet to made as the boys time has been taken up on this,

One of Edens friends came up over the Holiday weekend and he had a go too,

The picture was taken on my tablet and the quality isn't as good as my phone.
The boys are off to Karate this evening, I've just watched Spring watch on playback so hopefully tonight I'll be able to watch it in real time in peace and quiet.

Changing my blog!

I think it's naturally evolving into a food blog!
Clark's offerings

Victoria sandwich covered in white chocolate with summer fruits on top.
Top view,

Callum made blueberry ice cream

Today he's made some strawberry ice cream too.
I went to see my friends new baby today and had a lovely cuddle, pictures tomorrow hopefully.
Thank you all for Meddys birthday wishes, she had a very chilled day.
I'm getting an early night as we've had such a busy weekend, so night, night x

How Could I forget?

                                     Medina is twelve today

                                    Happy Birthday Meddy x

No baking Day!

Just kidding!! As if?
Clark's been baking, he made this huge rectangle of cornflakes covered with chocolate with a little bit of treacle mixed in.
He had to wait for it to set before he cut it so I took a picture quick.

He's also made a chocolate sponge but I'm not allowed to take a picture and show it off yet as he's got to put the topping on.
This morning I woke up with my technical head on and not a lot to do so I explored the settings and layout on my blog, clicked on a few things and look where it got me.
There are still a couple of things I'd like to do but it's really hard to "click and drag" on a tablet! The whole thing moves alongside what you're trying to move. Very frustrating!
This afternoon Malc dropped Eden into town to meet some friends for a couple of hours and when he got back we all settled down and watched a DVD whilst trialing Callums raspberry ice cream topped with a few raspberries and some whipped cream.
Everybody gave it the thumbs up.

He has already got some blueberries and strawberries  to have a go at making different ice creams.
Hopefully this evening will be a quiet one in front of even more TV.
 Sometimes it's good to just be!

Ice cream

Last night Callum made raspberry ice cream.
It was his first attempt.

 He bought himself an ice cream maker from Lidls with his saved up money.

I've had a little spoonful to taste it before it went in the freezer and it was gorgeous!
He also made some meringues and swirled chocolate into them which I've not had a chance to take a picture of yet.

He's planning on making some banana ice cream today.

How will I ever maintain my svelte like figure with all these goodies being made in the kitchen every day?

Baking, sleeping and another furry!

Soloman has a cabin bed which has a desk underneath, ladder up to his bed and space for a small wardrobe under the bed, this saves space as the youngest three all share the biggest room. Last night he decided that he wanted to sleep under the desk part of the bed, so he pegged some blankets over the top of the framework to make himself a tent. He told me he wanted to sleep there so I said he could thinking that he would be back in his proper bed within an hour as he was only on pillows and blankets on the floor.

He slept there all night and woke about 8 o'clock this morning!
Unfortunately now Cody is saying he wants to sleep there with him tonight!
Callum had another bake up last night and made these brownies, which I assure you were lush and just melted in your mouth.

He also made these chocolate chip and cranberry cookies

Today we went to our local pet shop as we had to get a new cat flap ( even though we don't have a cat!) Chumleigh put his head through it and broke it, he backed out of it with it hanging round his neck like something off of You've been Framed!
In the entrance to the shop they have two huge plastic dinosaurs, they are priced at £1400, I would so love to have one!
Soloman and Cody wanted their picture taken with them.

We then went to a charity shop which is next to the pet shop where I managed to get some card making things and a couple of DVD's.
Clark bought himself another furry, a hamster this time, he has mice already so thought he'd have a change, although I haven't got a picture of the actual hamster this is what Chumleigh and Tyxall thought of it.

Malc is out with the Beavers at the moment on a hike round Wareham Forest, luckily the rain has passed and the sun has decided to come out.
Eden and Clark are off to Youth Club and Scouts respectively in a little while.
Eden had a textiles exam today and is looking forward to Half Term to chill and revise some more. She still has eleven exams left.
We've got nothing planned for the Bank Holiday weekend, we'll just poodle along and see where the days take us.
Whatever you're doing I hope you have a good one.

Good News

One of my closest friends had a baby this morning

It was a blue one!
Named Zachery, Ely, Leo. Born at 6-16 am weighing 6lb 15ozs.
She now has four boys like me, (I always say, thank goodness I had my girl first!)
I can't wait to go and see them all and have a newborn cuddle.
I'd better leave it a couple of days, that'll give me time to get my knitting needles out!

Finished!

Here's Codys jumper as promised,

All four boys went out with Malc for an hour this morning so I had some rare time to myself so I was able to sew it up.
Eden only had an hour exam this morning so we picked her up late morning and went food shopping much to her delight!
I have started on Solomans jumper, same wool, same pattern, I'm going to have to put a label in with names on so they don't get them mixed up!
Lots of rain forecast overnight which means no watering with the watering can tonight which is always good.
Tomorrows agenda includes a dog walk in the forest hopefully!

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.