Christmas Day 2015

Christmas Day started at 3:30am in our buzzy household. At 3:45am I heard a rustling noise, I went into Louie's bedroom to find him wide awake surrounded by the gifts from his stocking!! Bless him, he was just too excited. We gathered up the gifts and tucked him back up into bed and he promised to go back to sleep! At about 6, I woke again and went in to him and the gifts were out again! Lego built, meccano built, books read - the little bee was incredibly excited and he couldn't contain himself! Santa even brought him a horse stable for the horses he had in his advent calendar, isn't Santa clever!

At about 7:30, we went down to do the presents. My first gift was the Hornsea pottery, genuine 1970's tea cup, which was absolutely perfect! We all had a selection of gifts but the main event was a very special present from Santa, but not from the North Pole, from somewhere in the South Pacific...

There was only one gift that Louie had asked Santa for this year, Tracy Island. And as Dan and I had both wanted it as a child and we were painfully denied (!), we both agreed that it was only fair to get one for Louie (so that we could relive our childhoods and play with it too...). We hunted down the original Matchbox Tracy Island from 1993 and the Weetabix figures to match too. Everyone was so excited!

After lunch, Nana and Grandad arrived. Louie changed into his adorable Christmas outfit and we all had some more gorgeous gifts including the Lego racing truck Louie has wanted for months (and subsequently forgotten about) and some deckchairs for the summer! Just what I had wanted! We were all very grateful :)

Then it was time for Christmas dinner.

We started with Paté, then for the main event we had roast ham with piggies and so much veg. Pudding was a little funny! As I don't like Christmas Pud, I made a Chocolate Tart for Louie and I but bought a little pud for everyone else, however I didn't look at the instructions! 2 hours to steam, oops! So we did have to make an emergency plea to our next door neighbour, they popped it in their microwave and saved the day!

By the time we had finished dinner, it was bedtime for a little bee. He was asleep in minutes (oh man, he was tired!) and then after Nana and Grandad took off home, Dan sat and played on his playstation for a little while, which is a treat for him, and I had a lovely look through my lovely gifts.

What a perfect Christmas.

A Belton Birthday

 

A day spent with Nana for her birthday. Walking the beautiful gardens at Belton and having an absolutely delicious lunch. Lots of rolling down hills and smelling all of the beautiful flowers.

{This Week}

This Week
New Years Day walk around Staunton Harold Reservoir
Family outing for dinner
Pulling funny faces for the camera, at request of the Bee
Baking Ham and Mushroom muffins
Chicken baked with tomatoes and olives
A Sunday scoot

The Family Shindig 2012

This weekend we welcomed the entire family to our home once again for the annual Christmas party. Visitors arrived on Friday evening, on Saturday most people did their own thing (I had a photoshoot and Papa took Mr Bee to Nottingham for the Burnley game) then in the evening there was plenty of food, christmas music and an awful  lot of chatter!

 'Look at all the food!'

 Cousin Michael

My crazy brother, Martin 

 King of the Buffet

 

 Extended family too! 

 A party must. Playing under the table!

 Pass the Parcel

Sunday morning was go, go, go. A mammoth Sunday Roast for a huge 21 people. The children were surprisingly quiet, crafting and colouring and writing and sticking before the dinner commenced.

As Mr Bee fell asleep (and so did I!), we didn't manage to wave anyone off, but thank you everyone who came, I hope you had a great time!

Fifty Nine

Happy Birthday Mom!

Yesterday Mother Hen turned 59, only one more year until the big one and the holiday to the east coast of the USA!

We celebrated with a dinner at our favourite lovely restaurant, Ashfields. 

Mr Bee was an angel all evening. He ate all of his dinner and then decided he was tired. He lay across two chairs and snuggled for a while but didn't sleep for very long, he heard 'ice cream' and perked right up!

They bought out the cake, it was supposed to be pink but was a little more brown in the middle but everyone seemed to like it anyway. And luckily the marshmallow topping stayed intact too, that took me an age to whisk! (And I am not exaggerating, it wasn't finished and I had been at it for over an hour!

Louie stayed awake until 10 o clock and then went to sleep rather quickly as you can probably imagine!

Hope you had a lovely day Mom :)

Mothering Sunday 2012

 Today I celebrated my third Mothers Day. We exchanged gifts, I received a new Cath Kidston cosmetics case and a lovely card, and we gave Nana her homemade card and gifts. Then we started to get ready for our special trip.

 As I was preparing the picnic, Mr Bee was so eager to get going that he put his 'suit' on and was raring to get out in the rain! We headed into Derbyshire to visit Sudbury Hall.

Anyone home?

'Louis the Lion' hoody by Olive and Moss

 The weather could not make up its mind but we took shelter in the Childhood Museum. We all enjoyed the museum, especially Nana.

Fascinated by the ceiling

Apparently I had this very toy!

 We were just in time for school. We waited in line to be allowed in to class, sat in our chairs and waited for the teacher. Mr Bee sat so well but did get restless. He went round collecting rubbers... luckily he gave them all back!

 The teacher even let Louie ring the class bell!

Couldn't miss a Muppet!

 We could not tear Mr Bee away from this school bus. He did not want to leave, not even for his lunch. Luckily we managed to distract him with a train.

Picnic

 Mr Bee was allowed to walk around the house on his own this time, however he was very eager to touch anything and everything. Papa Bee told him to keep his hands by his sides but he marched around like this instead. It was incredibly cute.

Mama always admires the book cases

 We decided to take the short trip back to the car in the horse and carriage for a treat. Saxon was such a beautiful and obliging horse. Mr Bee was fascinated.

The Bees in the carriage, rather windswept!

Our new friend, Saxon

 Whilst we were in the area, we decided to pay a visit to the 50s American Diner. I have been desperate to visit for months now as it looked so authentic and wonderful. There were some interesting cars outside!

What a beaut!

 We had the thickest most icecreamy milk shakes we have ever had! Strawberry for Papa and Mint Chocolate for Louie and I.

 

The 'Joe Dimaggio'

Waiting for pud, playing with the table confetti

 Us Mummies were presented with a single red rose at the end of our meal. Mr Bee was so excited to give the 'gower' to me, so very sweet.

 We all had such a wonderful day, finished off by a lovely relaxing bath. Perfect