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!'.

Saturday 13/06/09 - nappies & bubbles!

I ordered two new nappy covers for Zoe, and they came this week. They took a while because one of them was custom made. One is white broderie anglaise and the other is this pink one with daisies and ladybirds on the back. It took me ages to decide which embroidery to have, but I'm very pleased with what I eventually decided on. It was very difficult to get her to stay still long enough to get a photo of her wearing it though!

Then Ben said 'Take a picture of me blowing bubbles mummy' so I did :-D

Walking with Dinosaurs!

As you may know, Ben is absolutely mad about dinosaurs at the moment, (we have an ELC dinosaur song tape on a permanent loop in the car!) and has been going on about seeing 'Walking with Dinosaurs'.

Last night, in a moment of parental indulgence, Ian booked tickets for him and Ben to go at the end of July. Here's the website for it - I think he's going to love it! http://www.dinosaurlive.com/ We haven't told him yet though. I'll let Ian do that when he thinks the time is right ;-)

Sunday 31st May - Kite Festival at Harewood House

Sunday was another beautiful day, and they were having a Kite Festival at Harewood House which we thought would be good, so we packed up our picnic and off we went. I really like Harewood, and although it is quite expensive, it has the advantage of being nearby! We went last year when they combined the kites with a steam rally, but I thought it was much better this year for only being kites.
As you can see, everyone was getting into the swing of things! There were some absolutely huge kites of pandas and teddy bears - these are a few of our favourites....

Flying fish! Ben liked all the fishy ones - especially the ones that looked like sharks.

I don't know if you can tell from this picture, but this one was huge! It amazed me how they got them off the ground in the first place. It was quite a breezy day though.

A flying lizard - Ian liked this one.

Ben and a kite getting ready to go. He wore himself out running round everywhere. He even had me going down the twisty slides with him on the 7 to 14 year old's adventure playground!

This is what Zoe was doing for most of the day - pointing at kites, pointing at birds, pointing at other people eating ice cream! She has also started doing this thing this week where she points at something, and then grabs your head to make you look at it as well! For someone who can't speak, she makes herself very well understood :-DWe went and had a look round the bird garden - Ben loved the penguins and they even went for a swim for us. We had a great day, and yes I did eventually let Zoe share my ice cream, again.

Saturday 30th May - In The Garden Again!

As it was such a lovely day again, and we had something planned for Sunday, we stayed at home again on Saturday. Ian's Mum and Dad came over in the afternoon, and we got the ball pool out again.

Showing Grandma how the ball pool works!

Looking like a completely bonkers baby! I don't know why it was doing it today, but for some reason the ball pool was making Zoe's hair stand on end. (and when you've finished marvelling at how wide Zoe can open her mouth, just take a look at Ben in the background!)

Playing together - they do get on very well, apart from when Ben's eating something and Zoe isn't ;-)

Friday 29th May - Keeping Ben busy!

Q: How do you keep Ben quiet for over an hour with the minimum of expense?

A: Give him a pair of scissors and let him cut the lawn!

We decided to have a day at home since it was lovely and sunny and we'd spent a lot of time in the car going to Scarborough. Ben was playing out in the back garden loading up his digger, but he was pulling up the grass. So rather than have a huge argument on his hands, Ian had the bright idea of giving Ben his scissors and letting him use them to cut the grass instead of pulling it up. I can't remember the last time he was so absorbed in something!

We also dug the ball pool out of the loft for the first time this year, and it was a big hit with everyone - I think everyone was in it at some point during the day. We had balls all over the back garden!

Thursday 28th May - Scarborough North Bay

One of the things we'd promised Ben we would do whilst we were off was go to the seaside. He loves the seaside (but then what child doesn't?) so we got off nice and early and braved the madness that is the A64 and set off for Scarborough.

The first thing we did when we arrived was go for a ride on the minature train, which goes up the coast a little way to the Sealife Centre and back again.

Me and my uncooperative children! Smile at the same time for goodness sake ;-) (note family behind us trying to do the same thing with about the same amount of success!)

Ben mucking about as we went through a tunnel.

The miniature train, and not miniature driver.

We then crossed the road and had our lunch in Peasholme Park, and watched people pedalling dragon boats round the lake. Unfortunately they only do their model boat displays at the weekends. In the park there was a huge flight of stairs, which I assume are for people to sit on and watch the model boats. Ben insisted on taking me all the way up to the top so that Ian could take a picture of us.

After lunch, we headed off to the beach. Although we took Zoe to the seaside last year, she was too young to know anything about it. So whilst Ian took Ben off for a paddle, I sat with Zoe whilst she experimented with the sand!
She spent a few minutes sitting on the rug picking the sand up and rubbing her feet in it. Once she got used to it, she absolutely loved it!

And once she realised she could crawl on it, she was off! I had to keep fetching her back!

Playing together, sort of.

Then it was ice cream time! Ben with his tub of ice cream with Smarties in...
... and Zoe helping me with my vanilla ice cream!

We had a brilliant day, even though we did get stuck on the A64 on the way home when they had to shut it for over 5 hours because of an accident.