It’s been a sobering day today – we had one of our advisers around to write our wills.  I know that we’re doing the responsible thing but it is so emotive obviously.  The scary thing is that if we don’t do it, and if something happened to both Peter and I that the girls wouldn’t automatically be cared for by family, they become wards of the state, it’s worth doing it for that comfort alone.

Anyway, brighter things, the weather has been wonderful hasn’t it?!  Lauren has developed freckles across the bridge of her nose and cheeks just like me and it really suits her.  A friend pointed out that Lauren’s eyes are exactly the same colour as her hair and they are!  They really are blossoming into pretty little things, although Martha’s curls aren’t just as tight as they were but I doubt she’ll have straight hair though!

My vegetables and fruits are growing wonderfully in the combination of rain and heat we’ve had recently.  I’m really pleased that my potatoes are growing strongly as my friend who has the same soil has been struggling with hers so I wonder if the wind/sun makes a difference here.  We have two strawberries starting to turn red and one cherry tomato, I say cherry but actually it’s more double the size of a cherry tomato!  We’ll be fighting over who gets the first taste of our home-grown food.

I’m a bit disappointed with the seed mats I bought.  The photo shows wonderful blooms however mine haven’t all come through and are probably about 20% of what I expected, obviously I’ve no flowers yet so it might change.

We’re accompanying Peter to Northumberland tonight as he’s got an early start (0600) job in Alnwick tomorrow, we’re really looking forward to it.

Enough blogging for now, I’m off out with the girls to enjoy the sunshine and hopefully get some colour!

We had a lovely day today at the girls friend Livi’s birthday party.  We all went to Hesketh Farm Park where my friend (Livi’s mum) had supplied a feast for everyone.  The girls love going there and spent time feeding lambs, handling guinea pigs, holding newborn chicks, admiring tiny piglets, taking a ride on a tractor trailer, playing in a massive sandpit, getting lost several times in a haybale maze, riding pedal tractors, playing in the playgrounds, drooling over the horses and donkeys, and looking at newborn calves (one was born on my birthday!!).

The day got us talking about the girls forthcoming birthday parties and what they would like to do.  Lauren is very certain over hers, Princesses (“and Princes if I have to have boys there”), Martha thought for a very long time, and about an hour later decided that she’d like a BBQ party – eek!  We’ve moved on slightly from there and after asking about her favourite things to do, we’re now planning a beach/bbq party – fingers crossed that we get good weather, although we have had a bbq on Guy Fawkes in a gazebo so it should work even if the children have to be indoors.

Sarah directed me to a good party supply store www.partypieces.co.uk I can get a foil 8ft palm tree for £4.25 and lots of other palm tree, beach paraphernalia!

Don’t forget Organised Mum Diaries are out soon!  I’ve just starting using their Party Planner and have to say it’s really handy already.

I’ve finally remembered to take the camera out and have also let Lauren loose with it so the May album is here!!

We’ve spent the last week accompanying Peter to Scotland.  We expected to be away for 3 nights however were away for 4 when he got an out-of-hours call to Newcastle on the Thursday.  It seemed craziness to drive past for 1.5 hours, drop us off, then drive back up again!

Our first night was spent in the Glasgow South Premier Inn.  The location was great for Peter’s work (2 mins away) however it wasn’t somewhere where I would have felt comfortable walking with the girls.  In our short stay there I saw a man staggering down the street dripping with blood, 3 very, very drunk people and too many boy-racers to mention! The hotel was really good and the staff were really helpful at the meals with the girls.  On our way north, we stopped for walk along the beach at St Cyrus which is a nature reserve – it was stunning and we all enjoyed our time there.  They have a lovely unmanned visitors centre with remote control cams so you can look around.  One thing that did both surprise and amuse me was a professional information board advising you about a type of bird you might spot – the line read “if you listen carefully you can here the birds call" or something to that effect!  They actually used the word “here” instead of “hear” – amazing how these things slip through the net!

Our second night was spent just south of Aberdeen and was the first place we’d been to where there was a Wacky Warehouse type thing in the restaurant – it was fantastic!  The girls didn’t get grumpy waiting for their dinner and Peter and I managed to have a starter whilst they played – it just felt that we didn’t need to rush.  The next morning we got up early and drove to a small place just south of Banff to a private customer on a farm.  The girls enjoyed seeing some brand new lambs and admiring the working dogs.  Afterwards, we spent some time admiring the view at Pennan on the advice of the farmer – it was very much appreciated as we wouldn’t have known to go there otherwise.

Our third night was spent in Dundee at a different one to usual.  This one was next to Camperdown Park and I thought that we might have had time to go for a walk or ice-skating but that wasn’t to be.  They also had an indoor playcentre which the girls again loved.  I always feel very homesick when we go for a few days – the scenery is stunning as it is at “home” however I really do believe it’s the sea that tugs at my emotions every time.  We spent some time at Silver Sands beach at Aberdour on our way southward and enjoyed a picnic on the beautiful sandy beach as well as a paddle – the weather was stunning.

Yesterday we took the girls to see the Milkshake Live show in Harrogate – they had a fantastic time although I was disappointed that our seats had to be changed due to them bringing a different sized stage which meant our original 5 rows from the from seats had move to top of the middle section seats – oh well it was only Peter & I that noticed!  It was really nice afterwards to walk around town as a family.  It’s not often I like shopping, however it was nice just looking around and being together.  After tea we popped down to our friends house.  They have two very small pigs, 2 mad sheep, 3 goats, umpteen hens (thank you for the eggs!), 3 ferrets, 2 rabbits, at least 3 cats, a dog and a beautiful hare.  The girls were thrilled to be able to help feed them all although Martha got a bit nervous when one sheep became very interested in her!  They’re getting some miniature ponies in the next couple of days so we’ll be back down again!  We left far, far later than expected but were all so relaxed we lost track of time!

Today we’ve spent most of the day outdoors and enjoyed a bbq for dinner.  I have spent some time weeding my raised beds which are coming along brilliantly and laying some straw around my ever growing strawberries.  I extended our outside table tonight so that it fits 8 around which finally allows me to get my parasol up and my bargain £ shop LED parasol light ring- I just have to wait for darkness now to see it in it’s full glory!