Summer round up

Very long and disjointed post with lots of photo's and this is only a little snap shot of my Summer. We'd be here for yonks otherwise.

I drank a heck of a lot of tea from my new fave mug. A gift from my Belle Mere.

The beginning of the summer holidays feels like a lifetime ago and yet the boys haven't even finished their second week back at school (they have now but I am taking FORVER to get this post done!). Funny how it seems like a life time ago but even so it went by in a flash. I was rather worried about the six weeks holiday. I couldn't imagine entertaining them effectively for 6 whole weeks. But I loved it. It was a delightful summer. I thought I'd do a mosaic style round up otherwise this post would be so long (it's pretty long regardless) you'd all nod off before the end.

The summer kicked off with my Step Fathers birthday. He liked my tea party so much that my Mum decided to give him a surprise tea party.  The look on his face was priceless. There were only a few guests which was lovely as we all got to properly talk. It was the first time I had met my Step Brother and his girlfriend. Poor things got the full Cuckoo Boy whammy! 

Mum put on a scrumpdumptious spread. We had a lovely time playing with her china.

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We had a few guests booked in to visit us. Mr C's cousin Weese was going to visit but Little came down with tonsillitis so it got cancelled. Fortunately nothing prevented the Kmmms clan from descending. The boys and I made a humongous batch of rocky road in celebration of the fact that Kmmms and her girls were visiting. See her post about it here.

I ate most of these and put on 5lbs so my dresses didn't fit any more. Silly arse.

Kmmms and I indulged in a little late afternoon wine in the sunshine. It's not often I get to do this with friends, not that I do it alone either of course, because I live far away from anywhere and so have to be able to get in a car and drive to do the school run etc...

One morning we hid in the utility room to have a sneaky piece of rocky road and a latte.

Kmmms started a beautiful scarf with some wool from South America.

I adore this photo.

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We had a day with Bee towards the end of the holidays. It was so lovely to be able to arrive and leave when it suited rather than be dictated by the school run.

Bee's kids ran to her rescue however  Little legged it and Big thought he'd help by shaking the rope.
I assisted by taking photographs of her neat little bottom stuck in the gap.
She will go bananas when she sees this but it's too funny to omit.

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Mini's passport arrived and we went to Spain en famille and had a lovely time. I took hardly any photographs though. We go back to the same place each year as our friends own a place out there and so do their parents. We rented a villa between their two villa's and it was an idyllic holiday. Mr C's parents came out with us as did our friends parents. The kids all loved having the grandparents out there. But not as much as me and Mr C did, not least because they babysat the 7 children whilst we went out, for the first time ever, for a meal with out the kids.

The simply beautiful view from the verranda

On our way out for a meal

Shortly after the 2nd jug of sangria was demolished

I'm so glad we got to go to Spain as our planned visit to the Seaside House didn't happen as Little became ill yet again. He had to have antibiotics and we needed to stay near our doctors in case he didn't improve. It took a few days for the meds to kick in but he is totally fine now... till the next time! I went to  the doctors 5 times in 6 weeks what with one child or the other. It all came at once, we are a healthy bunch really.

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Back home the garden had suddenly burst into bloom, my dahlias were a joy to come home to.

Not only that, finally I have managed to grow sweet peas (sorry Sarah!) which were glorious till they got covered in green fly. I must point out the photo on the far left below. The vase of flowers was in my bathroom window. Before blogging I would never ever have had flowers in the bathroom. But now I think it is the BEST place to put them. I shall not elaborate, you can have a little think about it. I did have a giggle to myself when I was taking the photo as the angle gives the impression of a gorgeously clean and tidy home. So not true! I swept all the 'ladies monthly' paraphenalia to one side which reminded me that the last time I referred to that sort of thing there was the chance I was going to need a small operation. Happily everything is totally sorted now. Big sigh of relief, it was worrying me a bit. 

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Bunny Mummy and I had a little poppy seed swap so hopefully next year we will have a little piece of each others world in our gardens hundreds of miles apart.

How cool are these hand made seed envelopes mad from maps?!

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The balloon fiesta took place in Bristol and we were treated to a private Red Arrow display right over our house. Our home was in the perfect spot as they did all the reforming formation over head. The boys got a bit scared at first and hid in the wendy house. I'm not sure if it was the noise of the jets or the sight of their Mother leaping about pointing at the sky like a demented peculiar thing. Gosh it was amazing. I surprised myself at how much I loved it. 

Look at the colour of that sky!

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Just before the summer I went to London on the train and met up with Mr C's Mum, Sister and Cousin. We ate some beautifully presented food at  The Pollen Street Social

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I had a second visit to the capital when Mr C and I took advantage of a day without the boys and went to London to have a lunch at Corrigans with Little's Godfather and his wife. It was a surreal day. Rather like I had stepped out of my life and into someone else's. It was so far removed from a normal day for me.

Not the best pics but I forgot my camera

We hired a driver for the day which sounds very indulgent but when we looked at train prices and times and then factored in a travel card for us each and any taxi's, it worked out to be the cheaper option. It was ace! Mr C did some work and watched a movie and I crocheted a hat using a new super duper stitch I have learnt which I call the Twisted Granny as I don't know it's real name. Twisted Granny sounds like a lethal cocktail which is totally the opposite to crochet and that amuses me.

I would absolutely advocate hiring a driver if you need to travel somewhere far a field by train for the day. It was just as quick and cost about the same. I think I will have to go to London with three friends for my birthday next year. Have a little shop, a light lunch, see a show in the afternoon and then a meal before being driven home. No worrying that there will be a seat available on the train, no concerns about sitting together. I watched a film on the iPad on our way home from London but my 'bus' has flip down screens so we could all watch some girly film together. Perfect.

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My glam day out in London was soon a distant memory as normality resumed. The fridge broke. Again. This time the tray that collects all the moisture sprung a leak so instead of it evaporating it piddled out into the kitchen. It didn't affect the function of the fridge but if I wasn't home when the water leaked out it just soaked into our kitchen cabinets which made them swell up and split. The kitchen is only 6 years old but looks totally knackered and not in a nice Chalon style. Oh well, we're not out to impress anyone so it doesn't matter. I'm quite sure the boys and their toys will further distress the kitchen so there's no point getting upset about it.

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Mini has lost every last bit of small helpless babyness. He shrieks for attention, grabs things, shuffles around somehow, sits up unaided for a while before flopping. He 'plays' with toys and is eating food. Properly eating food. It blows my mind that he is fast approaching toddlerdom. I have so loved his baby days but I shall not be sad they are over for each new phase is thrilling.

CRAZY hair!!!

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Big Cuckoo and I had a day with my Mum who bought the boys some cuddly toys. Big insisted on a bag for each soft toy. He was delighted by both the bag and the contents. I was delighted that he enjoyed shopping! There is hope!

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All in all we had a great time this Summer. There were a lot of lovely times and plenty of laughter to balance out all the tantrums and screaming fights. Seems funny to think that last summer I was battling morning sickness and freaking out about having 3 children. Next year will be different again. Mini will be 18 months. Probably walking and talking and trying to keep up with his brothers.  We will be needing another battery powered tractor soon. The tractors have been the most played with toys. They have had so many hours of fun tearing about the garden. I hope my sons come to understand just how fortunate they are to have such a big garden to race around. I don't want them to grow up taking everything for granted and being spoilt little rat bags. Mind you, as soon as they are old enough Mr C will have them mowing the lawn for pocket money so I doubt they'll enjoy all the space available then!

Lots of tractor action and one injured police farmer (?)

There they are, my little gang.

xxx
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ps. Am horribly behind with everyones blogs and commenting and replying. This seems to be always the case and I often end a post with an apology. How repetative of me, I shall not mention it again for some time, but just know that I feel constantly apologetic about it all. I have no idea how to fit in my own posts and all the other stuff I like to do in blog world.  So please don't feel you must leave a comment here, I know a lot of you are pushed for time too. This post is probably only interesting to a few people on this planet and I'm not sure when I'll be able to get back to you. Oh I wish I didn't need to sleep at night. All those lovely hours in which to get stuff done!

pps. Gogo Sausage the black Yick has gone broody! I've tried as much as I can to bring her out of it, as much as I can do practically that is.  I can't 'rehome' her as there is no one and no where to re home her temporarily to. So I must wait another couple of weeks and hope she eventually stops trying to hatch any little stone she finds in the run. Poor girl. I know how it is to feel broody, I feel sorry for her!

ppps. I have fathomed out the issue with uploading photographs. Blogger was quite right when it said I had exceeded my quota. There was me swearing at Blogger for being so stupid and it was my own fault all along! Attached to our blogs is a picassa web album. You can find yours if you are in your dashboard and click on 'My Account' at the top. Then click on Picassa Web Album. And there you will find all the photographs you have ever uploaded to use on your blog. Every single one. Even the one you uploaded and then deleted from a post. Even photo's that are sat in draft posts. Hundreds of photographs. The amount isn't the issue it's the file size. When I clicked on a photo it opened up and had the information relating to the photo to the side. Some of my file sizes were over 3000KB. So I have deleted a whole load that weren't actually live on my blog. Problem solved. I feel like a right thicko! I'm only sharing this in case any of you ever have the same issues and are as technically challenged as I am, I wouldn't want you to feel as much of a goose as I do at this point.

pppps. Sandi, you devil! You've been at it again!!! (Only one person in the world will know what I'm on about here)