Friday, 2 October 2009

Our visit to Edinburgh





I've been told off by my Mum for not doing any updates for ages, and since it's Ben's birthday next week and I'll need to put pictures of that on, I thought I'd better get cracking!

First up - here are a few photos from when we went up to Edinburgh to visit Mum & Dad at the August Bank Holiday (although it wasn't a Bank Holiday in Scotland)
We had a walk round to the park near Mum & Dad's house to blow some of the cobwebs away from five hours in the car the day before. Zoe loves swings and slides.

Zoe with Grandad and the horses. In the afternoon, whilst Zoe was having her nap, my Mum and I took Ben off to see 'Room on the Broom' at the Edinburgh Festival, which he thoroughly enjoyed, but no cameras were allowed!

The next day we went to Dalkeith Country Park. I had heard it had a good adventure playground, and we weren't disappointed. I have never seen a slide as long as this one. Ben must have gone down it at least five times.

These blasted photos do not want to move tonight - will come back to this later before I throw the laptop out of the back door! ;-)

Monday, 24 August 2009

Zoe Walking

I'm going to have another go at putting a movie on. In the space of a week and a half, Zoe has gone from taking one or two tentative steps on her own, to trying to run everywhere! She's wearing Ben's sunhat in this - I have no idea why, especially since she's inside!

Sunday 23 August - Harlow Carr Gardens

Yesterday, Ian asked me where I'd like to go. I've fancied a visit to Harlow Carr gardens, near Harrogate, for ages, so that's where we went. http://www.rhs.org.uk/WhatsOn/Gardens/harlowcarr/index.asp Luckily, it was really lovely.

There were butterflies everywhere. I really liked these flowers, and Ben liked stroking the middles - he said because they looked really spiky, but they weren't. Even though it is a garden, aimed at people who are serious about their plants, there was also lots for children to do. There was an adventure playground, which they both really enjoyed.
There was also a 'log maze' which Ben enjoyed running round. Here's Ben and Ian standing in the tower that was in the middle of the maze, so you could watch everyone else getting lost!

Zoe has spent the weekend perfecting her walking. Here she is running away from me, again.

We found these stone lions, and Zoe loved them. I don't know if you can tell from the photo, but she was stroking its mane, and peering into its face and babbling away to it.

Ben, looking at the water insects in the river. Only a few months ago, he would have probably driven me and Ian nuts doing nothing but dragging a stick round all day, but he seems to have grown out of that stage, thank goodness!

They have childrens' activities running all through the summer holidays. Ben made a kite and he's trying to get it to fly here. It did fly pretty well, I just didn't managage to get a photo of it!

Part of the garden had living willow statues. This one is a pirate ship.

Captain Ben, who kept telling us to walk the plank! Cheeky monkey :-)

This one was a huge fish.


Zoe inside the giant fish. The silver balls were its eyes.

There was a Betty's tearooms there, so instead of ice creams like we usually do, we had buns to round off the day. Ben picked the mouse bun (marzipan and sponge, no real mouse it it!) I have no idea why the photo has turned round - you'll just have to twizzle your head I'm afraid.

7th August - Temple Newsam

One Friday, my childminder's husband rang to say that she had a migraine, so I had to take a day off work to look after Ben and Zoe. I decided to make the most of a lovely day with both of them before Ben starts school, and we went off to Temple Newsam.
Zoe was fascinated with all the animals, and as you can see she particularly liked the rabbits. Ben said he liked the ducks best. There were loads of piglets about - I don't think I've ever seen so many!They added a little area with some different sized ride-on tractors since we were last there. Needless to say, this was a big hit with both of them.Ben, taking it very seriously, loading up his scoop with straw and dumping it somewhere else.Big tractor, little tractor.

August - random photos

Here are a few of my favourite snaps of Ben and Zoe taken over the last couple of weeks...

Whatever Ben's playing with, you can guarantee that Zoe will want to have a go with it. Here she is modelling his hard hat.And of course, because I was taking Zoe's photo, I had to take Ben's too.Playing together in the sandpit one afternoon after we got home from Liz's. I think with them being together all the time at Liz's because it's the school holidays, they really are enjoying playing together. Ben was late home one day recently, because he'd gone off to a theme park for the day, and Zoe was wandering round the garden and the house shouting 'Be' (what she says for Ben)Here we have Zoe, all packed up and ready to go somewhere!Zoe in her pop up tent and play tunnel. She really loves playing hide and seek and generally chasing round.Giddy kippers :-DBen helping Zoe walk round the kitchen. I really do worry about what they're going to get up to together once Zoe's a bit older!

Super Sunflowers!

You may remember way back when we planted our sunflower seeds? Well, they have grown a bit and have now flowered. If you'd like to grow your own giant sunflower next year, let me know and you can have some of our seeds. Or if you know anyone who has any pets who like sunflower seeds, we'll have loads to go to a good home!

Me, looking gormless, and Ben posing next to the sunflowers. I haven't actually measured them, but the biggest must be at least 2 metres. If you're interested, the 'Titan' variety grew at least 50 cm taller than the 'Giant Single'.One giant sunflower, this time with an obliging bee for scale.

This one is the tallest one. I had to sit on top of the green bin to take this photo!This last photo was taken ten days after the first one, and you can see that the biggest sunflower has grown about another foot in that space of time. I think it has stopped now, but I did worry for a bit how on earth I was going to support it!

Wednesday, 12 August 2009

Go Zoe!

I will be back tomorrow with photos of what we've been up to lately, but just wanted to put this on today, for my own personal record as much as anything. Zoe took two steps on her own this morning :-D Liz and I both saw it, so I didn't imagine it.

Sunday, 26 July 2009

Saturday 25th July - Dinosaurs!

I've had to call in my junior assistant editors for this post, as I wasn't actually there! So, with Ian and Ben's help, here is the tale of the Walking with Dinosaurs show.

Ben with his spinning dinosaur light.

They got to Sheffield by train, by not getting off at every stop (it was a very slow train!) and then they got a very fast tram. Ben thought they were going shopping, but then he saw the dinosaur show posters!

This is a Plateosaurus.

This is a Stegosaurus. He had a big nobbly tail that he used to hit other dinosaurs.This one is a Utahraptor (we think). All the dinosaurs were life-sized, but to give you an idea of the scale, if you look carefully to the right of the picture, standing against the 'rock' hiding from the dinosaur, is the 'Paleontologist' who narrated the show. This one is the Brachiosaurus. It was the biggest dinosaur in the show - 10 m tall and 22 m from head to tail! Fortunately it was a plant eater.The Brachiosaurus and the Veloceraptor. This is a view of the whole stage area, which was huge.This one is an Ornithocherius. It came down from the roof on strings and flew around.Finally, Tyrannosaurus Rex. Apparently it came into the arena, put its head over into the audience and roared so loudly, Ben jumped out of his seat! Ben had a fantastic time, and has been telling everyone who'll listen about it.

Monday, 15 June 2009

Sunday 14/06/09 - Yorkshire Sculpture Park

We went over to Bretton Hall on Sunday with a picnic, as it was such a nice day. Ben really enjoys it there as there's loads of room to run around and things to look at. Also there are lots of trees for shade on sunny days (and shelter when it rains!).Ben, for scale, with the Molecule Man sculpture.



He was banging this one with a stick (oops!) and shouting 'hello-o!


Doing insect antennae with French Fries. Don't ask me why.



Running away from Daddy or interacting with the art, depending on your point of view.



I didn't think he could do much harm to the 'sculpture' made from a load of breeze blocks! I was a more frightened than he was at how high he climbed though!



I don't get many sleeping photos now she mainly naps in her cot, so I took the opportunity to get one!



Then I had a lie down whilst Ian ran around with Ben, wearing him out, and took this one. It's my wallpaper on my PC at work now, so I can look at it when I'd rather be outside on a sunny day, lying underneath a tree.



Refreshed (from her nap, not the bottle of Pepsi under her arm!) I also tried trimming her fringe a bit this weekend, as her hair was in her eyes and clips just slide out or get pulled out! That doesn't mean I'm giving up on the clips, because they look very cute, I just didn't want her to get a squint!Chasing Daddy with a big stick, shouting 'it's tickle time!'


It was a lovely day, and they both fell asleep in the car on the way home, so as Ben would say 'Mission Accomplished!'.